Steam Yacht MEDEA (+ new nocturnal)

Speedster · February 06, 2018, 03:46:04 PM

Hi all!

Finally finished my SolidWorks model of the 1904 Steam Yacht Medea. My most ambitious personal project in 20 years as a SolidWorker, and likely my last ship model!

I modeled her in 48th Scale to help minimize the poly count. 2,062,592 polys, 15,363 NURBS, 343 MB .bip file, small for my stuff. All except the clay rendered using the Interior Mode, baked for 45 minutes on 30 cores. Interior worked better for the ocean material, either Liquid or oddly, Thinfilm. The ocean is not a surface, but a very thick "block". Area Light Diffuse for the cabin lighting.

Very minimal post except for the signature and a few level adjustments.

I used my "Parlor" model for the tabletop shot. Duplicated the table and moved it over to create a longer six-leg table.

FYI- the last image was the hero shot treated to some love in a new app called Dynamic Auto Painter, or DAP-5, which I got from Smith Micro. A really neat tool to create an image in a wide ranger of painting styles, from Rembrandt to Matisse. Be great for arch presentations.

A fun but challenging project! Back to work now on real stuff!

Comments and suggestions always welcomed!

Bill G

Jslowsky · February 06, 2018, 09:29:46 PM

Yeow... a lot of work. Congratulations, beautiful results and I too have toured that ship in San Diego harbor.
Nice work.

HADI RAHIMIFAR · February 07, 2018, 08:06:41 AM

awesome very good

Will Gibbons · February 07, 2018, 09:04:27 AM

The night shot and the one on the table are my two favorites. Love how they work together with a blue/yellow compliment too. Great stuff Bill! I'm glad to see you finished this up!

Speedster · February 07, 2018, 02:43:16 PM

I've become a big fan of "nocturnal", or nighttime images. Not many subjects lend themselves to this treatment, but Medea just screams for it.

Now with two IES lights and a custom from scratch HDR.

And it prints beautifully!

Bill G

mattjgerard · February 08, 2018, 05:00:11 AM

Man, that's really nice work Bill. Can tell that model is a labor of love.

Now, get that sucker on turbosquid and maybe make some residual income?

Magnus Skogsfjord · February 08, 2018, 06:02:10 AM

I love the detailing on this guy. +1 to Matts comment.

Speedster · February 08, 2018, 02:48:43 PM

Another nocturnal rendering... Amazing what you can do with IES lighting!

QuoteNow, get that sucker on Turbosquid and maybe make some residual income?

Yep! Just finished the required renderings for the Turbosquid page. I'll also be posting my Steam Launch model.
I'm a Diamond Level seller on SquidGuild, which means my work is exclusive for sale on Turbosquid. I must say that my Turbosquid sales are a big hit on my monthly bottom line!

Some thoughts to share- I've been a self-employed prototype modelmaker and designer for 45 years now. My, how time flies when you're having fun! And I've developed an interesting business model which may help some of you guys and gals who share the pain of self-employment.

I'm a firm believer in "Profit Centers". That is, a number of small things that collectively make money from your work, but may not be able to stand alone financially. So I use horizontal marketing and asset usage. The same computer, software and skill set, but in many arenas, which maximizes the capital investment.

So I use SolidWorks and KeyShot for my bread-and-butter medical device design work, but the same tools and skills for my own projects like trains, cars, ships and Industrial Archeology for museum recreations. I create and sell black-line drawings geared to the modeler, sold on my website, but also fine-art renderings which I print in-house and sell through several galleries. I also do book illustrations and magazine articles, including an ongoing 12 part series for a national magazine. And of course Turbosquid.

The point is to be creative as to how you allocate your assets and time, but above all, have fun doing so!

Bill G