HMC #25 - The Oceans - Breaching Dolphins/Orcas

[RageOfAges]

Great to see you back, Felix. I've been looking forward to watching you work again. Seeing your progress on She-Ra was a treat.


Anyway, cool topic. Do you plan on modeling the splash of the water as well, or using a dynamics system for that?

-rage

[TheRazorsEdge]

Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Joel! Glad you enjoyed the She-Ra wip. :)

I guess I'll be using a combo of dynamics and sculpting for the water-splash. What exactly will work best, I'll see when I get to it.

I havent had much time for this since yesterday, so more refined sculpts are still in the waiting loop.
Using the same ZSphere Adaptive Skin-base as above, here's a first, rough approximation of the Tursiops silhouette though:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/TursiopsBase.jpg

There's quite a bit more detail in this animal's silhouette and contour as compared to the Orca. Surprisingly I find really good reference material for both hard to come by on the net, as compared to other animals. :(

Cheers!

[Intervain]

great start and a beautiful animal :) looking forward to more Felix - best of luck

[MightyReg]

That's a great start! The shapes already looks spot-on.
What's a Tursiop, is it some kind of dolphin? (googled it and it look like one) If it's the case, you should know that orcas are probably one of the most dangerous predator for the dolphin, so putting them in the same scene would maybe not be the best idea (unless you want to make a predator-prey scene).

[RageOfAges]

One thing I notice is that the fins seem to be misplaced. It tickled my brain and I looked up some images, and it looks like the fins should start a little further down towards the belly. This is the case for both the orca and bottlenose, so shouldn't affect your workflow regardless of your choice. I do like the angle of the tail, though. You captured that quite well.

Check out this image:

http://www.wdcs.org.uk/graphics_bin/bottlenose.jpg

-rage

[TheRazorsEdge]

Intervain: Thanks a lot, Magda. I'll do my best.:)

MightyReg: Thank you for the kind words. :)
Tursiops is part of the latin name for Bottlenose Dolphin. I tend to refer to these with their Latin name since there are so many different kinds of Delphinidae, the Orca being one of them. If I am not mistaken, the "Pilot Whale" is essentially a dolphin as well.
Yep, I know the Orca tends to hunt their smaller cousins at times and I wont put them in the same scene, although it did cross my mind. ;)

RageOfAges: Many thanks for your sharp eye and the image, Joel . You are spot on about those flippers. The Tursiops is only a rough pass and still needs a lot of work, but I definitely need to fix that. Even the below Orca-update needs some fixing in that regard. I am counting on you for more crits. :)

So here's a first silhouette-sculpting pass for the Orca, still at ZB Level 2:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/OrcaSilhouettePass1.jpg

There's still lots of things to be fixed, but I think its beginning to take some decent shape. Shoot me your opinions, crits and comments!

Skol!:arteest:

[TheRazorsEdge]

Here's a somewhat more refined 1st full silhouette-sculpting pass for the Tursiops:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/TursiopsSilhouettePass1.jpg

As with the Orca, there's still lots of small things to fix here as well before I can move on to contour-sculpting.

All c&c's more than welcome. :)

Cheers!

[TheRazorsEdge]

Here's a tiny update for the Tursiops: Rough contour-sculpting pass to sketch out the basic shapes and lines for retopo, with the inital ZSphere-basemesh wireframe overlayed for later comparison:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/TursiopsPreRetopo.jpg

I think I'll send this one to Topogun first and then tackle the Orca.

Cheers!

[TheRazorsEdge]

It's been a while since my last update, but I'm slowly but surely inching forward on this.
Here's the re-projected new base-topology for the Tursiops:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/TursiopsRetopo.jpg

Cheers!

[aovesen]

Spot on, very cool work so far, the overall shape and mesh looks great, cant wait to see how it will fit in the overall scene :) keep up the good work

[RageOfAges]

Glad you fixed those flippers. Looks great so far. Hope you can find time to work it some more before the deadline. Always enjoy watching your work.

-rage

[TheRazorsEdge]

Thanks a lot for the encouragement and comments, guys! :)

You wont believe it, but I am running into a completely unexpected roadblock with this project. I have looked high and low, contacted specialists in the Marine Sciences, but have so far failed to find any musculoskeletal anatomical reference for these beautiful creatures. Even Eliot Goldfinger shows only a skeleton in his "Animal Anatomy For Artists".

Anyways, I'll try to finish at least one pair of breaching Orca's, since I can take more freedom on the contour shapes with them due to a thicker layer of blubber obstructing subsurface detail. The dolphins will have to wait, I guess.

Cheers!

[RageOfAges]

Wow that is really ridiculous. What is being researched, I wonder? We're not talking about evasive creatures like the Giant Squid. We've been studying these creatures for decades, if not centuries. I'm genuinely in shock at this news. I hope you can find the references you need.

-rage

[TheRazorsEdge]

Yeah, finding decent references is a bitch for these. I think I can safely say now, a graphic representation of a Cetacean's full musculoskeletal anatomy does not exist. It appears the Ladies and Gentlemen Marine Scientists specializing in these marine mammals have so far not found it necessary and still don't think it necessary to produce one. Hence, I am stuck with guessing. Not much I can do about it, but plug along.

Anyways, the deadline is looming near and I have to make some haste if I want to complete this halfway decently, so here's a small, rough update on a male Orca and his topology:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaRetopo.jpg

I'll probably still make some edits to that and have to see how far I can get with what little usable references I could find on the web and in some books.

Cheers!

[TheRazorsEdge]

Talk about cramming! lol

After pulling an all-nighter tonight to be able to at least enter something halfway presentable, I am still not at all done with this. I really wanted to create some cool, detailed water splashes, add textures and an environment, but just did not have the time. :(

Anyways, here are some more wip images, before I post the final images in this thread:

UV's & FK-posing Rig:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaUVsRig.jpg

Mouth Interior Base Meshes:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaMouthInterior.jpg

Low-res RealFlow sim:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaRF.jpg

Ok, more images to follow in the next post.

Skol!

[TheRazorsEdge]

Unfortunately I did not have the time to create a full diorama, so I decided to make this a Keiko tribute, since the footage of him in "Free Willy" was the only real decent reference I could find.

Alrighty, here's a duplicate of the of the Final Entry post.

Title: Keiko Tribute (Star of "Free Willy")

Artist Name: Felix Lahme

Beauty Render:
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaBeautyB.jpg

Higher Resolution Image (http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaBeautyB.jpg)

Orthos:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaTopB.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaFrontB.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaLeftB.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaBackB.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaRightB.jpg

Wireframe:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/HMC%2025%20Ocean%20Creatures/orcaWires.jpg

Software Used: ZBrush, Maya, UVLayout, Topogun, RealFlow, Mental Ray

Description: I initially wanted to depict 2 Orcas or Bottlenose Dolphins breaching, but since, in addition to not having the time, I found good reference very hard to come by, decided to dedicate this work to my best reference, Keiko, the more or less voluntary star of the movie "Free Willy". As of this deadline this piece is still very unfinished, missing textures and an environment render. But what the heck, this has to do for now. :)

Great work everybody!

Cheers!

Edit: Since Roberto indicated we have till tonight and I did not really feel like sleeping any more, I took the liberty to "tweak" this a bit more with a quick&dirty RealFlow sim. If anybody has a problem with this,make yourself heard.

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