Rope Coiler Renders

elow are renders of the rope coiler for the deck of the F/V Scully fully textured and complete.

This was another one of those builds that lacked any close-up reference of the mechanical parts. These coilers are commonly seen in the TV show Deadliest Catch, as they are situated right where all the action happens on the main deck. Luckily, I discovered a PDF plan of one online, which helped for all the complex geometry; such as the motor and pivoting arm.

I really enjoyed weathering this piece. As it is close to the starboard side near all the spray of the ocean, I created lots of rusty patches, dinks from wear and tear, as well as, muddy grime from the rope brought up from the sea floor.

One of the main parts I focused on optimising, was the tyre. I knew modelling all the geometry for the treads of the tyre would be both time consuming and unnecessarily heavy on performance in the game. Instead, I simply replicated the treads by creating a height map. I did this by finding images online of an old trailer tyre and, using a Substance 3D Painter tyre material, manually adjusted all the settings until I got something very similar to the reference. Additionally, I created some text graphics for the walls of the tyre to give it another layer of realism.

Jason Bartlett ©

As I edited the main materials in Substance 3D Painter to an off-white, I noticed the body of the coiler became quite washed out. Fortunately, with enough weathering passes of rust and layers of grime, the large curved surfaces became less uniform and flat.

Next up for texturing and rendering, the pot launcher!

Thanks for reading :)

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