Laurons 2 - Roman Merchant Ship

Anse de Laurons 2 is the wreck of a small Roman period sailing vessel dating to the end of the 3rd century CE, which probably sank during a storm while sheltering in the shallow harbor at Laurons, just west of Marseille in modern France. At only about 15m in length and with an estimated displacement of around 30 tons, it probably only traded between small harbors along the local coastline. Luckily for us, when it sank, the port-side was quickly covered in sediment ensuring excellent preservation up to the deck and even the railing. Rigging elements, a spare rudder, and possible fragments from wooden panels that may have covered the hold, along with rarely-preserved structures for supporting the side rudders (the side "wings" you see in a lot of Roman period art). No trace of the cargo was found, aside from a few amphorae fragments - the cargo was likely recovered fully right after the ship sank.

A life size reconstruction of the ship was constructed in Germany by the Hochschule Trier, and this model is based primarily on the hull lines created by R. Bockius for that project. My reconstruction deviates from the Trier reconstruction on an aesthetic level, and on a few smaller technical details. The stem and stern posts are styled more like period mosaics from Ostia, and on a technical level I reconstructed the rudders and the hold cover panels differently. The painted Isis Fortuna on the prow is based off a Roman period burial painting from Egypt - having a god on the prow for luck was common on ancient ships. The other painted details are also hypothetical and drawn from frescos and mosaics.

This model is targeted for realtime use. All the materials use 2048x2048 (or smaller) textures generated in Substance Designer. The model clocks in at 174k triangles and 91k vertices. Sails are driven by shapekeys and modifiers. The billowing effect of the sail and the pennant is done via a moving clouds texture which displaces the meshes. The shapekeys and other moving elements, like the rudders and yards, are all controlled by a basic rig.

For the main renders I decided to push myself a little more and created an ocean and added some spray effects using geometry nodes and painted masks for the wake trail. The land in the background is the actual coastline outside the Anse de Laurons harbor which I took from google maps. The sky is the excellent Physical Starlight and Atmosphere plugin for Blender. Character models were generated using the HumanGen Blender plugin, and clothes were made in Marvelous Designer.