An orca carousel feeding scene
By Louise
18 December 2022
After a lot of learning and a fair share of re-doing, a functional demonstration animation of an orca carousel feeding (complete with tail swipe) is ready. One of the best things about being involved in the worlds of 3D modelling and XR is how willing people are to share their expertise and welcome new people into the fold. Without the many low-cost or freely-available tutorials on all aspects of these skills, I can’t imagine being in the place where I find myself today (right now I am particularly grateful for the YouTube tutorials by Yojigraphics).
As I continue to learn and grow in this exciting space, I get ever more convinced of the power of immersive technology to enhance people’s sense of awe, wonder, and empathy for this planet and its inhabitants.For those who are interested, a very brief summary of what I did:
- Herring: a low poly mesh with an image of a herring used to make the material
- Herring animation: a simple rig and movement animation with each “bone” motion slightly offset to make it ripple.
- Shoal effect: a particle emission with the herring model as the particle. The rotation is achieved using a vortex “force field”.
- Orca animation: translation and additional rotation superimposed onto a basic movement animation inspired by the one I used for the herring