What is it?
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Watkins, you have the answer. When can I expect you here in Phoenix for the prize?
The parts of the cannon are done, but the decorations are tedious. It is a great lesson in organic modeling. I have done every little section of the cannon as a separate model as the file sizes are so large and unwieldy. When done I will ahve a go at a Kerkythea Render and may even build an illustration around it.
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Thinking about an American breakfast reminds me of the time I went into a dinner for breakfast in San Francisco. The waitress asked me what I would like, and I told her. She then she asked me how I would like me eggs. I looked at her with a quizzical expression on my face, and said, "Cooked?". She looked and me and said, "You're English, aren't you!"
I'm glad the quiz is over. I can go back to sleep again!
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I'm working on my own canon too, part of a much larger project to model the HM Bark Endeavour.
A long way to go.
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You have an elevating wedge to aim the gun mine has an elevating screw. Mine also has lifting dolphins to lift the barrel into the carriage. Otherwise they seem quite similar.
Are you doing this for yourself or do you have a client for this kind of work? Are you working off the real dimensions or like me working from a model. I should have scaled everything up. I am running into follow me not working for some of the fine detail. What renderer do you plan to use.
Will the cannon be polished or have some patina? And the wood? Oak I suppose. Did they oil it, varnish it, wax it?
I used to work for a tech company and was visiting the UK office in Isleworth. Went into the cafeteria and ordered beans and toast and they threw the beans on top of the toast. Walked into a tavern called the Prince of India and hit my head on the ceiling beams. The story has it that the country was being deforested to supply the Royal Navy, but the inn keeper traded free food for for the oak beams used to make the tavern.
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Carriage is coming along, I need to work on the gun.
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Perhaps this old-oak
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Thanks TIG, but I think I will need a bigger sample and probably darker.
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@roger said:
You have an elevating wedge to aim the gun mine has an elevating screw. Mine also has lifting dolphins to lift the barrel into the carriage. Otherwise they seem quite similar.
Are you doing this for yourself or do you have a client for this kind of work? Are you working off the real dimensions or like me working from a model. I should have scaled everything up. I am running into follow me not working for some of the fine detail. What renderer do you plan to use.
Will the cannon be polished or have some patina? And the wood? Oak I suppose. Did they oil it, varnish it, wax it?
I used to work for a tech company and was visiting the UK office in Isleworth. Went into the cafeteria and ordered beans and toast and they threw the beans on top of the toast. Walked into a tavern called the Prince of India and hit my head on the ceiling beams. The story has it that the country was being deforested to supply the Royal Navy, but the inn keeper traded free food for for the oak beams used to make the tavern.
I am working from measured drawings. The HMB Endeavour is an extremely well documented vessel. I also have the advantage of having had extensive access to the replica! This is a personal project, so progress will be sporadic and slow, I expect. I have several photos of the replica canon and one of an original on which the replicas were based that was recovered from the seabed.
As for the carriage finish - the Australian National Maritime Museum experts came up with the matt red finsh as the most likely to be used!
I plan to try a range of rendering solutions.
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The trick here is unwrapping the image from a real world 3D image of the cannon and then rewrapping it in the virtual model.My problem now is that I do not understand the path of events in adding a bump map when I get to the render engine.
I have not added bronze to the non decorated part of the cannon's muzzle as I was in a hurry to see how the image unwrapping and rewrapping would go. And if you think this looks OK, it can be mad to look 10x better. I did not use my studio to take the shot. The cannon barrel was held in one hand and the camera was held in the other without tripod. And a series of 4-5 images was shot under a dim flourescent light. Then the images were merged and flattened in photo show to make a long narrow panorama.
Not bad for sub-optimal conditions. Sizing of the wrap was not perfect and so the repeat is not perfect. But like the other side of the moon, I am not going to show that part.
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I have finished 80 percent of the project but I think the last 20 percent of the project will take 80 percent of the time.Where did our ancestors find the time to spend on so much decoration. The lifting dolphins were my first attempt at any sort of organic modeling. They are not great, but they are OK. The important thing is that I am loosing my fear or modeling organic shapes.
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At this point I feel like I am just along for the ride and don't know when or where this project will end. -
@roger said:
Where did our ancestors find the time to spend on so much decoration.
Well if their gonna invade you gotta look nasty, if your gonna lose you gotta look good. Apparently thats how it worked in the middle ages, the ugly ones kept destroying the better looking one accomplishments.
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Thing are going a bit slow as I am running out of processing power for the Royal escudo (heraldic seal) at the rear of the cannon. I should put the different pieces on separate layers, that I can turn off until I get to the final render. My poor computer is dying when I do anything complex. I tried to bend the escudo using Fredo's bend tool. It ran for 15 seconds and then choked.
I need to think more about optimization and planning.
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quite the little project you've chosen for yourself here, Roger.
as for bump... it maps automatically with the image... so make sure that they are both exactly the same pixel size, and you're all good.
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This is the part of the cannon is at the rear just before the cascabel or rear-most element. I wonder if the effect has been worth the work. I decided to raise it in 3D rather than using a photographic wrapping technique as I did in the two other decorative bands on the weapon. This at up at last half a week and involved a lot of geometric gymnastics and post production.
One more major part to go on the barrel. A floral decoration for the finial at the end.
Should I build the castle, seawall, ocean and ships in the distance?
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The gun is complete. Now I need to assemble it and continue work on the carriage and the wheels.
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@roger said:
Should I build the castle, seawall, ocean and ships in the distance?
Perhaps just a merchantman in the offing under the battery with a english frigate in wait with the battery under its lee. Of course with a high sea. Just kidding Roger. The model is amazing enough the way it is, I can't wait until it is together!
Oh on a side note...you have an elevating screw because batteries didn't have to deal with the swell of the sea. John's Endeavour has chock's (wedges) for it's long guns because it made for fast barrel adjustment under the rise and fall of the sea. This would be common on all ships carrying long guns. The exception would be carronades which was a short stout ship cannon that was extremely powerful but incredibly inaccurate. So these would also use an elevating screw. If you already knew this you can just tell me to shut up
Well you have inspired me...It may just be time for me to play with something on the historic side instead of just work. Beautiful piece Roger. I will be following your progress.
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Jeff, if I laughed at your comment would that make me a Jolly Roger?
Seriously thanks for that little tidbit of history about chocks vs leveling screws. I thought the screw was just a technology upgrade over the chock, but what yo say makes perfect sense.
I have to come up with a better texture for the gun carriage. The engineered wood look lacks historical accuracy.
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@roger said:
Jeff, if I laughed at your comment would that make me a Jolly Roger?
Seriously thanks for that little tidbit of history about chocks vs leveling screws. I thought the screw was just a technology upgrade over the chock, but what yo say makes perfect sense.
I have to come up with a better texture for the gun carriage. The engineered wood look lacks historical accuracy.
Was the carriage indeed bare wood? Most commonly they were painted. Does it still exist? Do you have photos of it now? It would be interesting to see.
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This may be worth a look as well. This is from the woodworking forum. http://www.veneeronline.com/home.aspx Although it may be best to look into lumber reuse companies. They may have photos of nice reclaimed textures. Just an idea.
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