2022. 9. 15

The scene of swimming eagle rays is fascinating. The way they move their wings and form a dense school is mesmerizing. I always wanted to create such a scene. Finally, I did it. Here is the summary of the process.

I first modeled the eagle ray in Blender and sent the model to Substance Painter for texturing. The texturing part is fun. It allowed me to study the patterns of the rays. After the texturing, I animated the swimming action. I also created a few extra rays with different swimming patterns. Therefore, when they formed a school, there was variation in their movement.

After preparing all the rays, I used a particle system to create a school. There is no physics involved with the particles in the case. The animation is pretty simple, as all the rays aligned well. They have minimum horizontal or vertical movements. Finally, I added the water.

If you want to learn more technique details, please contact me.