BEST WAY TO MODEL A BOAT HULL?

[mresailor]

I am trying to model a sail boat. Its a Chesapeake Log Canoe (www.logcanoes.com). My wife and I race on Jay Dee and I thought it would be nice to try and model the boat and make some images for all the crew. I was lucky enough to find this image of the boat...Any suggestions? I was looking at lofting, but I don't see how that will work with all the different cross sections... any help is much appreciated.. thanks. (BTW - mcvltd modeled his in Rino - no? - using Sub-d?) No idea...

[Short_Fuse]

I'm currently working on a yacht project, can be seen at www.urbanvoyage.com under portfolio, marine.

The way i did it was simple poly modelling with turbosmooth on top. I had dwg's in my scene so it was easy to push and pull polys to get it to line up accurately. For the square portholes my first plan was to use a mask and 2 different materials (hull and glass), but ended up collapsing the turbosmooth modifier and boolean out the portholes. I kept a copy of the uncollapsed mesh just incase i have to go back and make changes.

Aside from that method i've seen a few models from boat yards built in Rhino using Nurbs. But getting this mesh back into max/vray is a nightmare.

[mresailor]

Thanks Short Fuse.. wow - really nice modeling. A few questions:
1. First - how did you get your water to look like that! Its perfect! Care to share the settings?
2. As for the modeling, I am assuming you simply started with a large "box" mess with tons of points on there.. and just pushed and pulled??? I think that this would take forever - if I am understanding you correctly. But somehow I don't think that I am... As an architect - all of my models are simply boxes and booleans.. so this is all new to me (curves, etc..) Can you explain the "poly modeling?"

Thanks..

[DaForce]

poly modelling is modelling face by face/poly by poly
You can start with a basic shape then cut/slice/extrude/connect your way into more detail.

I have a basic video tutorial for poly modelling a kitchen sink basin that you may want to have a look at, will get you started.. i hope.

[mresailor]

thanks DaForce - I found a tut on the web (youtube) on a very basic low poly "gun" (put in "poly modeling in 3d studio max" and its the first one I think) I've got the idea now, but like I said, all my architectural models are boxes basically with booleans for windows.. so it will take me some time to get the hang of it - like I am learning Max all over. No rush - its a side project - hope to be done by next xmas...

please send link to your tut on the sink.. thanks again...

[DaForce]

OK cool.
I think i saw the website for that tut.
Pretty basic indeed!!

PMed you the link to my tut.

[pengo]

watch into splines and crosssection/surface method if u have all sections of the boat
u could have faster results but probably u should draw again all section curves before to use then because they need to have same number of vertexes

[RErender]

Check out Delftship , they have a free version.

There is a tutorial on importing a lines drawing like you posted above and creating the corresponding hull.

[mresailor]

@ DaForce - thanks for the PM link - as always pulling through with infinate wisdom

@ Pengo - yeah, I started off trying that method but was easily put off by it as I kept losing track of all the verts in each spline..

@ RErender - holy crap... thats friggin awesome...will give it a go this weekend over the holiday (ahh.. who wants to spend ALLLLL thier time with the in-laws.. I'd rather be modeling.. hey - I smell bumper sticker opportunity..)

Thanks guys!!!! Will post images once I get something worthy of you all...

[mcvltd]

mresailor - I model all my yachts (for manufacture) in Rhino, but for the ones on PixelCream I used Modo (subd poly modelling).

I did a quick tut on the Modo forums, you could probably adapt that to your needs.

http://forums.luxology.com/discussio...=yachts&page=2

The way I'd go about this one would be to create a rectangular poly that fits the hull shape (side profile). Slice the rectangle up so that you have edges that line up with the cross-sections. Slice the polys vertically, probably 4/5 times. Then move the verticies outboard to match the cross sections and the shear line and also in plan.

Hope this helps.

[flipside]

Aside from that method i've seen a few models from boat yards built in Rhino using Nurbs. But getting this mesh back into max/vray is a nightmare.

Use powertranslator, and it will look great. Then you can control the mesh inside of max!

[mresailor]

thanks guys.. I am going to try a different ways and post the results...

@ Mcvltd (you wrote : The way I'd go about this one would be to create a rectangular poly that fits the hull shape (side profile). Slice the rectangle up so that you have edges that line up with the cross-sections. Slice the polys vertically, probably 4/5 times. Then move the verticies outboard to match the cross sections and the shear line and also in plan....

I was originally thinking that this would be the way to go, but then looking at your boats on Pixel Cream - I can't figure out how to get the deck to fit into all of this.. I think that you are refering to a simple 2D poly box - then extruding the points along the plan view to get the curvature of the hull shape - right? But then extruding it???? I will give the old poly method a try first, and then I've downloaded the delftship program ReRender posted about and I will try that one too and see what comes out of it all...

[mresailor]

@ Mcvltd (or Rob..) thanks for the hull tut - you should post something like that in here (altough it may undermine pixle cream's income flow if you reveal all your secrets..)

This is what I was originally thinking, but I was thinking that I had to have about 1000 verts in the poly to get it to be really smooth.. but, I've learned about turbosmooth and reading up on other options...

Thanks again and I will post images as soon as I figure this out..