Modelling a bird…

[Anonymous]

Well, to be more specific, Modelling, Rigging, Texturing, Animating and Rendering a Bald Eagle.

A personal project of mine, to increase my exposure to Maya, and also for fun.

I’d like to create a hi-res movie of an Eagle flying, soaring, swooping and taking off.

I’d like to take this as far as I can in terms of detail (modelling and animating ‘hero’ feathers, scripting wind causing the feathers to flutter, moving the head around etc).

I have a lot of research material for Bald Eagles, but very little for appropriate 3D techniques for same. I’d like to learn peoples opinions about which techniques to use for maximum realism.

Has anyone tried anything similar, or found any useful hi-end tutorials (other than the lame entry-level ones to be found on Google)?

Thanks in advance,

Lewis

[Anonymous]

oh, THAT type of bird… :(

[Anonymous]

Yes Mal, and THAT type of modelling!!

Sounds like you’re already on the right road Boadle, gather as much reference as you can. You can buy deatiled footage of animals running, flying etc. on cd and dvd if you have a google round for them

[Anonymous]

getty images for reference.

check out this forum page

http://www.cgchar-animation.com/forums/index.php/topic,1931.0.html

[Anonymous]

don’t forget the American flag proudly floating in the background… :wink:

Otherwise when you’ll get to the animations, there are some really interesting sites on the subject of bird flight:
one here I just googled
Oh yeah, and one other link from my bookmarks : Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow.

I know it’s not exactly the same kind of birds, the swallow would be perfect if you were modelling a falcon, since the eagle tends to soar much much more, but hey, I’m sure you can follow the trail of links :)

[Anonymous]

Thankyou all![/u]

[Author]

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