I haven't posted in a very long time because:
1. I decided that doing an ENTIRE ship was too overwhelming.  I originally wanted to build a pirate town, narrowed it to a ship, and finally decided on the gun deck of the ship.
2. I revamped all my assets and textures.  I also had no idea about shadow maps until I already had all my assets in UDK.
3. My UDK skills had totally gone down the drain and I had to re-familiarize myself with the engine.
4. I was also trying hand-painted textures, which will take some time to get used to.

Even with all these setbacks, I have produced a result which I am proud of -

Busy busy busy..

I've been super busy today! I made a couple of trim pieces that I'm going to use on the top deck of the ship, and the balcony area at the aft of the ship as well. I think the little balcony pieces might be a tad too dark though...

I've also been trying to get a good fog going in my ship scene. I included a concept art piece I found that I'm using as a reference. I'll get there!!!!!

Up to date

Finally we are up to date, and I will keep updating this blog with screenshots of where I am with my pirate ship scene. Today I learned how to import models from 3ds max into unreal, how to make a shader, and spent a few hours tweaking post processing effects and making fog shaders and emitters. Of course, this isn't the final screenshot, I will be sure to give this blog a beauty shot of what I've created. I'm so proud of it.

I made another set of accessories for the ship's deck.. the top gold banister and the curved banisters for the stairs. I also attempted at making one of the tiling textures I'll need for the rest of the deck, but I'm having trouble matching it to the models I've already put down, and I still haven't gotten the red to look exactly how I'd like it!!

coming together

A few days ago, I was up to this point. I redid the texture to the barrels! So now it fit more into the scene. I made a window that would match the cannon flap, I made the ceiling, an emissive map for the lanterns, cannon balls, and a detailed floor texture for the floor boards. I especially had fun with the last, as I could place the floorboards however I wanted and it didn't mess up the texture. I could not believe I could do this. Now that I know this, the possibilities are endless! I could use the rings from the cannon flaps and put them in different places!

the cannon deck

Behind the Pirate King's "rooms", I wanted a door that led onto the cannon decks. I wanted an open space where you could see all the cannons. This was way more fun than trying to build a space for the Pirate King to live in. I wanted to finish this cannon deck, badly. I started going through everything I would need...archways, columns, the floorboards, and I placed in my barrel to see how it would look and it looked terrible! I would definitely fix that...

I started working on the texture that would be on the outside of the ship. I knew I wanted it gritty and moldy and old. I know I'll have to continue working on it to get it where I want it. I also started trying to lay out the interior of the ship. I was having trouble creating the space the Pirate King lived in. I was thinking that he would live luxuriously in a gutted version of a treasure ship, but then I started thinking maybe a Pirate King would like the small spaces a ship holds. I tried out a few different layouts but I didn't like any of them