Thunder on the Horizon Naval Sets

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

It has been a while since I've done much but on and off I still do things.

At any rate, I did these up for a project of mine and thought I would share.

Clockwise from the top left, Mikasa, Majestic, Connecticut, Erzherzog Karl, Re Umberto, Braunschweig, Republique, and
Pelayo representing, respectively, Japan, Great Britain, America, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain.

My hope is that they will be joined by other sets of ships from other eras, but we shall see what sort of time I have.

Download

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

Nice work! Site has been missing a lot of good predreadnought ships :goodjob:

What do you think about converting some civ 5 ships? I have done probably ateast 5 (and 100 some tanks/vehicles) so far and got them to work in civ 4 but can't animate and so stopped converting untill i learn it. Would probably save you sometime if i can grant some models

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

Well, it is a possibility though at this stage in my 'career' I am just more interested in puttering along at my own stuff.

Is there a very active shipbuilding industry in the Civ 5 areas? I know that, aside from myself, Snafusmith and a few others, it was rather neglected here.

What trouble exactly are you having with animating though? Perhaps I can help, though my experience is not very broad beyond the utilization of existing animations.

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

I just don't know how to animate. Don't know blender well at all so just about every attempt I have to learn animating fails :lol:

Stolenrays has picked up where you have left with ships-he's made probably 50 some ships for his several middle eastern mods

Most of them would use existing animation. Most of the civ 5 units are converted civ 4 units, but there are a couple ship gems in there and there are many things that civ 4 could use, mostly of ww2 era. Here is where most of them are at. I asked him if i could convert them and he said he has been looking for some one to do so, since so many people request it, but w/o animations not worth for me to releasei beleive

If you are looking to do your own stuff though, trust me I got plenty of suggestions :lol:

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

Yes, there is always a wanted list as long as Nelson's column is high, but for now I'll be working for myself, and at my own pace, largely because I shall be heading back to school in a couple of months and I can't make any commitments.

As for animating, if you are using Blender it is a fairly straightforward matter of attaching it to the skeleton of whatever units animations you want to use and weighting the appropriate vertices.

Its hard to explain in a short post, but surely there is a tutorial or something out there already?

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

Well The Capo recommended learning how to due rigging and pointed me to a tutorial about how to make leaderheads thaat had a short paragraph on it, but most tutorials assume you have a pretty good knowledge of blender.

the Capo said around several weeks ago he could probably whip up a tutorial in a couple days, but havent heard back from him since. Adventually I will learn but pretty busy with all my mods so hard to put time aside to.

Keep up the good work though hopefully we will be able to see more :goodjob:

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

Are you basically just starting at Blender then, or do you know the rough basics?

I don't know if this would help, but basically what I do is this:

1. When I am done the model I import, with the skeleton, the other unit, let us say, for our sake, the battleship.
2. I delete the battleship mesh, retaining the skeleton, and I attach my mesh to the skeleton by right clicking first on my mesh, in object mode, and then, while holding shift down, on the skeleton. You then click Object/Parent/Make Parent/Armature/Name groups.
3. To weight the vertices, after you have attached the mesh, I go into edit mode, on the mesh. I select the vertices I wish to attach to one of the bones, select the bones in the drop down menu under Vertice Groups in Link and Materials in the editing panel (F9) and hit assign.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=326765&stc=1&d=1342824169

I then do this for all the vertices in the mesh. For one of those predreadnoughts, this basically means the guns on the turrets attach to DUMMY_Battleship_forecannon01 and aftcannon01, the turrets attach to DUMMY_Battleship_foregun01 and aftgun, and the rest of the mesh DUMMY_Battleship_Hull.

You then export and it should be ready, right like that, for use in the game, if you have any of the newer Blender/Nifskope versions.

The problem is, of course, that this only allows you to use those exact animations and, as there is all sorts of different sizes of battleships and what not, the default animations will oftentimes not line up easily.

To rectify that I just move the bones around in the skeleton, in edit mode, and adjust the animation files to match, using Nifskope. I believe The Coyote did a tutorial on that a long time ago, though its fairly straightforward as well.

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

GeneralMatt said:
Are you basically just starting at Blender then, or do you know the rough basics?

I don't know if this would help, but basically what I do is this:

1. When I am done the model I import, with the skeleton, the other unit, let us say, for our sake, the battleship.
2. I delete the battleship mesh, retaining the skeleton, and I attach my mesh to the skeleton by right clicking first on my mesh, in object mode, and then, while holding shift down, on the skeleton. You then click Object/Parent/Make Parent/Armature/Name groups.
3. To weight the vertices, after you have attached the mesh, I go into edit mode, on the mesh. I select the vertices I wish to attach to one of the bones, select the bones in the drop down menu under Vertice Groups in Link and Materials in the editing panel (F9) and hit assign.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=326765&stc=1&d=1342824169

I then do this for all the vertices in the mesh. For one of those predreadnoughts, this basically means the guns on the turrets attach to DUMMY_Battleship_forecannon01 and aftcannon01, the turrets attach to DUMMY_Battleship_foregun01 and aftgun, and the rest of the mesh DUMMY_Battleship_Hull.

You then export and it should be ready, right like that, for use in the game, if you have any of the newer Blender/Nifskope versions.

The problem is, of course, that this only allows you to use those exact animations and, as there is all sorts of different sizes of battleships and what not, the default animations will oftentimes not line up easily.

To rectify that I just move the bones around in the skeleton, in edit mode, and adjust the animation files to match, using Nifskope. I believe The Coyote did a tutorial on that a long time ago, though its fairly straightforward as well.

I use blender to import/export but anything creating wise I use google sketchup (since its a lot more noob friendly :lol:

)

How do you control the meshes (deleting etc.)?? I think i might give it another go because honustly its a lot easier when it is said what button to click since I have no idea which :lol:

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

'X' deletes, or you can access it through the Object tab in the main window.

There is a lot more things you can do but I tried to limit it to what you would need to do to be able to convert units, assuming you want to just stick them on the animations of a default unit.

You can move objects with the arrows that you see when selecting a mesh or vertices, and tab toggles you between object and edit mode for whatever object you have selected.

You can also "free" move by left clicking and drawing a straight line on the main window, though it can get messy. Drawing a semi-circle allows you to rotate.

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

GeneralMatt said:
'X' deletes, or you can access it through the Object tab in the main window.

There is a lot more things you can do but I tried to limit it to what you would need to do to be able to convert units, assuming you want to just stick them on the animations of a default unit.

You can move objects with the arrows that you see when selecting a mesh or vertices, and tab toggles you between object and edit mode for whatever object you have selected.

You can also "free" move by left clicking and drawing a straight line on the main window, though it can get messy. Drawing a semi-circle allows you to rotate.

Thanks man really apreciate the help. Yes Ill definatly be sticking to default units. Im sure youll be hearing from me within a day saying when it went wrong :lol:

GeneralMatt · Jul 20, 2012

Perhaps start with aircraft carriers or something simple, if you wanted, as you wouldn't have to worry about attaching turrets and guns and what not.

At any rate, hopefully it was something of a help.

The_J · Jul 20, 2012

Nice work. Like the american best

.

dacubz145 said:
What do you think about converting [...]

Hey, is it not a bit impolite to pester someone about releasing more stuff after he just uploaded quite some nice things

?

dacubz145 · Jul 20, 2012

try not to but he said he wants to do more just doesnt know bout time, so thout it would be help (;

GeneralMatt · Jul 21, 2012

I do not begrudge anyone the attempt though I cannot guarantee anything as I do not have a terribly great amount of spare time between a non-civ project in which I participate, work, and my own list which includes, in no particular order, for each major historical power, dreadnoughts, semi-dreadnoughts, ironclads, armoured cruisers, protected cruisers, early destroyers, torpedo boats, and eventually, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, super-dreadnoughts, fast battleships, treaty battleships, post treaty battleships, treaty and post treaty cruisers, destroyers from the second war and so on, plus aircraft carriers and submarines of each variety and stage of development....

At any rate, as I have moved on to dreadnoughts, I decided I'd upload some smaller ships I had done and had originally intended to release in their own sets.

Here we have the armoured cruisers Maine of Havana fame and Dupuy de Lome, the protected cruiser Apollo, and Torpilleur No. 1.

Download

Dumanios · Jul 21, 2012

GeneralMatt said:
Perhaps start with aircraft carriers or something simple, if you wanted, as you wouldn't have to worry about attaching turrets and guns and what not.

At any rate, hopefully it was something of a help.

Agreed, we only have World War era carriers for Russia, America, Britain, Germany, Hungary, and Japan.

dacubz145 · Jul 21, 2012

GeneralMatt said:
I do not begrudge anyone the attempt though I cannot guarantee anything as I do not have a terribly great amount of spare time between a non-civ project in which I participate, work, and my own list which includes, in no particular order, for each major historical power, dreadnoughts, semi-dreadnoughts, ironclads, armoured cruisers, protected cruisers, early destroyers, torpedo boats, and eventually, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, super-dreadnoughts, fast battleships, treaty battleships, post treaty battleships, treaty and post treaty cruisers, destroyers from the second war and so on, plus aircraft carriers and submarines of each variety and stage of development....

At any rate, as I have moved on to dreadnoughts, I decided I'd upload some smaller ships I had done and had originally intended to release in their own sets.

Here we have the armoured cruisers Maine of Havana fame and Dupuy de Lome, the protected cruiser Apollo, and Torpilleur No. 1.

Download

Nicework they look great :goodjob:

For your list - torpedo boats, treat battleship and fast battleship definatly needs some art around here

Hian the Frog · Jul 21, 2012

Glad to see you're back with (as usual) nice stuff. :goodjob:

I think we will use them in R:I. Of course, you will be credited.

One question: Did you ever tried to create (or alredy make) the ships of the Crimean War era ? Like the French Napoléon or the English HMS Warrior.

GeneralMatt · Jul 21, 2012

I've done Warrior a couple of times, though I'll probably do her again as I've improved somewhat since the last rendition. It'd be a bit late for Crimea though.

I believe I had included the last version here though for some reason I think someone said it didn't work correctly.

I haven't done the Napoleon itself though I did do a larger steam battleship.

Speaking of ship of the line, I do not think I ever uploaded a number of ship of the line and frigates I had done. Let me whip up a pack of those and the steam ship of the line.

GeneralMatt · Jul 21, 2012

And here you be.

Clockwise from the top: British 104 (ala Victory), British 74, British 64, USS Constitution, Spanish 104, French 74, French 100, Inset a steam-screw powered ship of the line (ala Duke of Wellington.)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads/wooden_walls_v0C.png

As you can see, the rigging isn't entirely perfect, but there they are, for what they are worth.

The_J · Jul 21, 2012

The_J said:
Nice work.

again.

Thunder on the Horizon Naval Sets

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