The Dawn Treader - a 3D model in progress

FarSightEagle

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I posted this over at Narniaweb.com, but I'd also like to post my progress to the fans here too :)

I have looked all over for the Dawn Treader 3d model, I don't think anyone's done one (with exception to the movies - if the artists are working on it).

Well I love the Narnia stories and I really love the Dawn Treader ship. So I'm going to start building one in Cinema 4D, my program of choice.

I've sketched out a head, based on original art and other sources (a big thank you to Maciek aka Mack for his beautiful drawing of the Dawn Treader)

I did a rough sketch in Illustrator and Photoshop, this is just to establish the shape of the gilded dragon head. Right now the colors are subject to change, and are temporary. I'll sculpt the head in Cinema 4D, and once that's done I'll start working on the rest of the ship. It may take a while (months) to complete this but if you'd like I'll post my progress here.

Here's the rough sketch (mind you this is just to establish a head shape based from original drawings and a hint of Mack's lovely work) - I dropped in a ships lantern (from the net) underneath the chin, I'll be following straight from the book on this model. The head here is not all finished either because I believe there is a pipe coming out that goes to the kitchen/galley.
 

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Stage 1 building the keel

hmmm I wish I could figure out how to get the images right in here with the text, oh well.

Here's the next stage of the Dawn Treader 3d Model.
 

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very nice,I know first hand how hard it is to model in 3d(in fact Iv only ever finished a few simple projects)keep going I cant wait to see it ;)
 
Stage 2 building neck and mouth/jaw

Okay, here are the in-progress shots, actually I've pretty much almost completed the dragon head, so I'll just upload the shots.

This next one shows the building of the neck and the basic jaw/mouth. Polygon by polygon, point by point, following the outline and also making sure that the lower half is rounded like a boat.

At first I'm staying with a basic color of blue for the model so that I can easily work with the polygons, I will texture it in the near future.
 

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Stage 3 detailing the mouth, nostrils, eyes

Okay, it's starting to look crocodil-ish/dragon-ish.

I used Hyper NURBS to create bumps for the nostrils and eye's and sculpted the brow and punched in the hole for the nostrils and made way for an eye, which is just a sphere that's been slightly elongated.

I needed to make cuts and more polygons to work with the surface. I'm just kind of making this up as I go, guessing on what it would look like. Since I figure that the dragon head is made out of wood, I kept to a squarish mouth.
 

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Stage 4 Detailing, Color trial

Okay I'm going to go ahead and post to the point of where I'm at. I'm actually about to build the wings now.

This next one I tried out just a basic gold. The book say's the dragon's head was gilded- which is defined as a dark, almost brown like gold. I haven't added scales yet on this one so it's too smooth at the moment. Just trying out the lighting too which is HDRI (like they use in the movies). I found by experience that good lighting and good texturing bring a model to life, so that's what I'm trying to shoot for.

On another site I was asked to change the color of the eye, which I may or may not, depending on how the overall model turns out. I chose a purple to match the sail, and I imagined it being made of glass. The mouth is and neck is hollow so a look-out can well look out. Also I am going right off of Pauline Bayne's original work for the most part so I have the right number of teeth as the original drawings.
 

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Stage 5 - texturing the dragon

I found some free scales over at turbosquid.com - my favorite place to purchase or download 3D stuff. I don't have the ability to paint directly onto the model. There is a program by Maxon called "Bodypaint" which let's you paint directly on the model. But it costs $500 and I just don't have it...yet. So right now I have to map the texture over the dragon. The scales are tileable so they can be repeated over and over. I used Cubic mapping to get the scales the way I wanted them. I think that the gold is a bit too reflective so I'll tone that down and add some dirt possibly to get it to a more worn look. Right now it looks like it just pulled out of the building dock on opening day. I used an HDRI image of an ocean which I think reflects nicely.

Next I'll model the wings... :D

Enjoy!!!!
 

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Overall sketch

Oh I wasn't too fast, it's taken me about a week to get to this stage. I just finished that last stage yesterday, so I thought I would post the progress of it, it definitely takes me hours to do each stage, literally.

This is the first complex, scratch built model. I've built lot's of things in Cinema, but nothing to this scale. I chose the Dawn Treader because it's always been a favorite of mine, and what better subject to build than your favorite thing. I'm doing this project also to further my understanding of Cinema 4D too.

Glad you like it! :) I can't wait to get it all finished.

Here's the overall sketch (my idea) of what the Dawn Treader looks like. It's almost a cross between a Viking ship and a Galleon. The dragon head and tail and single mast and sail are Viking-ish. The hull with oars and poop deck is galleon like.
 

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Update to Dawn Treader - working on wings

Sorry for the delay, been pretty busy with other things. Still more work needed on the wings, I plan to make wing skin (the area between the bones if you could call them that) curved inward instead of being flat. Also I haven't added any texture yet to the wings, just a basic gold color for now, so the wings aren't done yet.

Also worked on the gold. It's not as polished. There's a large dent under the eye that I need to smooth out, just some raised polygons that need attention too.

Also changed the eye to green.
 

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