Stingray Model
This project was created in my junior year of college in my 3d animation class. The goal of the project was to practice organic modeling techniques by creating something of our own choice that would challenge our sculpting as well as rendering abilities.
This model was made using Cinema 4d, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe After Effects.
After looking up reference images of a real stingray I began blocking out what the movement of this project would be. Keep in mind that I am trying to show off the model itself and all the detail within.
Looking at the anatomy to get a better sense of movement.
Now blocking out the scene.
With the blocking approved we can now move onto production. The first week became modeling. Turning a cube into the rough shape I need.
First I matched my reference building out the outer most part.
With feedback we agreed the eyes weren’t working yet, so to keep on pace I took them out and continued planning to revisit the eyes at a later point.
I was ahead of my schedule at this point, meaning I could add the secondary elements to my scene. And even start to color them.
I began making rocks and used instancing to fill my scene. At this point I was able to model the eyes out using techniques I learned through my long use of Cinema 4d.
At this point, I began putting colors to block out for later. I tried painting in this software but it wasn’t going exactly correct.
We begin to see the project coming together before any compositing.
I focused on creating that rough type of rock you would see in the ocean as well as creating different levels of saturation.
This became the last couple of touches in Cinema 4d before ending that phase of the project.
With compositing I can push the underwater aspect and decide the best camera angles for this.
One of my favorite parts was creating a clay render of the model to show off what we accomplished. The clay renders really used purposeful lighting and showed the form of what we made.
