Hearts of Oak: Conquest of the Seas is a non-commercial PC game being developed by PiratesAhoy!, and is to become the historical seafaring game to end them all! Fun, realistic gameplay on land and at sea, set during the Age of Sail, will provide extensive free play, exciting scripted storylines and intense multiplayer scenarios.
Creator: Captain Armstrong
This highly successful class of French Frigate became the standard(with some variations) for the entire period that 18pdr armed frigates were built by the French, first reaching prominent numbers during the wars of the French Revolution, and then becoming the official standard under Napoleon. The English also copied the underwater lines for their highly successful Leda class. Though outside of the initial time period for the game, it will be included when the game expands to later periods.
Cudos to the modeler! The ships are really beautiful. And I love the boobies up front, though I'd like the statue to be less smooth, more like chipped/carved wood.
Actual carved wood IS that smooth. Unless the carpenter is either incompetent or going for a rough look.
It's smooth alright, but it's not "turbosmooth" like the lady is. You can still see how the wood was carved under the thick coat of paint. It's what makes it look hand-made to me:
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This kind of detail could easily be added with the normal map when baking the character down to final resolution, though.
The roughness in that figurehead was done on purpose. Take a look at the areas like the horn in your picture. The bumpy-ness may work for a horse, but I personally don't like my women that bumpy...
I've spent years working on tall ships, and almost every hand-carved figurehead I've seen is as smooth as the one in the model. I've seen several of them unpainted, and they're just as smooth even without paint. Carved wood IS that smooth. If you want some easy to find proof, just look for images of handmade violins. Their backs, soundboards, necks, etc. are all hand carved, and they are incredibly smooth. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the model.
Just FYI I didn't actually make this figurehead, another modeler did for one of the storm engine versions of the surprise. I originally intended to just have it as a placeholder, but then I thought "oh hey, if I make an old-school pitchfork and move the arm a bit...yeah, works pretty well and matches the plans" I've never tried character modeling so I guess it was a bit of a shortcut. I'll have to build a figurehead of my own eventually for other ships, so once I learn how I might go back and make a new version. I might play with the smoothness of the normals and compare it to pictures of other figureheads to see if it needs changing
Compared to all the other hand carved figureheads I've seen, the smoothness is perfect right now.
I do have a few things in my mind, though. Right now it looks a little too pasted on to the cutwater.
I think the position of the arms could also be improved to make it look a bit more natural. I can't actually see it from any other angles, so I could be wrong.
I also realized that nobody stares at the figure from really close up, as it will only be part of the greater ship. So if there is that kind of detail makes virtually no difference. As long as it isn't painted with realistic skin, but really authentic (which I have no doubt it will) colors.