Ahoy!

This week I have been working on a portfolio task to create a barrel. I have some limited experience with Blender, but this is the first object I've made that wasn't some hideous abstraction from a cube. 

I give you: 

The Barrel!

Figure 1: The finished barrel.

This barrel was inspired by the sorts of barrels you see in pirate pop culture. Could it be full of rum? Maybe it's full of TNT? Why not just drink it anyway! ARRRRRR!

To create my masterpiece, I initially followed a YouTube tutorial by Studio Kavod (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HggtU6Nzlao). This taught me how to chop up the UV maps and start painting. It was still missing a little personality, though, so I created some bolts and used the knife tool (or maybe a sabre?) to chop some chunks out of the top. I then added a background photo from a trip to Hawaii and took a screenshot. 

But you can't just have barrels. You need a seaworthy vessel to put them on!

The Ship

Figure 2: Photo of MONA ROMA II (Taken by Jess Nunn 24/02/2025)

The next task was to model an object at a tourist attraction. Locals and tourists alike should recognise the MONA Ferry. This catamaran is often spotted at tourist attractions such as the Hobart Waterfront, under The Bridge, and next to MONA. 

I started by adding some reference images to my blender screen so I could get the proportions right. I then made a cube and started shaping it with the knife tool, bevel tool,  and extrude tool. I kept at this for a few hours until I got the shape I wanted.

Figure 3: Shaping my cube with the reference image.

After plenty more cutting and moving the edges around I had the basic shape, but it needed some safety rails! We don't want our barrels to fall overboard, after all. I also cut out the shapes of the windows so that I can texture them later on.

Figure 4: Completing the shape and adding rails.

Next up was to colour it all in. I was about to make a cool camo texture in photoshop, when I realised that the camouflage on the original vessel is actually a bunch silhouettes of ladies! I didn't want to cause any legal problems by stealing the pattern from a photo, so I went to Pixabay and found a good image that I could use. I whipped up a camo texture with it and applied it to the outer hull of the ship.

Figure 5: Using materials to give it life. 

A few more materials to add for windows and the rest of the ship (plus a nice background for a photo), and bam. Mission complete!

Figure 6: The final product in daylight.

Figure 7: The final product at night.

I also quickly whipped up a scene of the  ship and barrels in Unity. Sometimes you can see dolphins in the Derwent River, so I added some of them too. To make the scene, I imported my barrel and my ship 3d models into Unity. I then added their textures and put them into a scene. I experimented with making water myself but it was always a little blurry, so I imported one from the Unity Asset Store. I then found some dolphins on polly.pizza and made an animation of them swimming and jumping. And here is the final scene: 

Figure 8: The scene I made in Unity

So what did I learn, and what would I like to explore further? I learned that I can use my limited knowledge of Blender to create unique shapes, that aren't just ugly, malformed cubes. I also learned that 3D modelling takes longer than expected - just like most game design disciplines! In the future, I'd like to experiment with tougher shapes, like humanoids, and maybe work out how to apply a logo on the side of the ship (I couldn't work out how to attach the MR-II decal over the camouflage material).

That's it for this week! Thanks for reading, and happy plundering! 

References used:

How to Create a Wooden Barrel by Studio Kavod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HggtU6Nzlao

Yoga Sunrise Silhouette Dawn Woman by Syaibatul Hamdi (edited heavily by me): https://pixabay.com/illustrations/yoga-sunrise-silhouette-dawn-woman-5508336/

How to Add Multiple UV Maps To A Object In Blender by BSWM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHtwLv-pGkQ 

Dolphin by Poly by Google [CC-BY] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/6hMLIu8wZP8 

Water Stylised Shader by AureDevGames https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/water-stylized-shader-orto-perspective-camera-297566

Generative AI was also used for tutor assistance in how to add the camouflage image to the material,  as well as scripting the the ship moving up and down. (ChatGPT 4o)