Welcome to the world computer dolphin!

Using the programs Lightwave and Zbrush I created a pretty realistic computer dolphin. I used Lightwave to build the basic structure and get all the fins and stuff anatomically correct. I found quite a lot pictures on common bottlenose dolphins online to use as reference. Not that surprising, if I saw a dolphin I would probably take a picture of it and put it online. There seems to be a lot of people thinking like me on this subject.

All the fine details were created in Zbrush. What a great program, so much smartness put into that piece of software. In just some hours I turned my simple mesh into something quite believable. Have a look:

Perspective

Top

side

front

First I just thought that ill use the renders for measurement reference on a paper, but then I surfed some trying to find a good material for the project and ended up on a site with some guy building a car from scratch. When he created the exterior, he made silhouettes for each tenth centimeter or so from cardboard, the silhouettes showed the basic shape really good when put in place. Then filled the blanks with something similar to polystyrene and the body was good and symmetric. So as soon as I bought some good material I’ll create and cut out paper silhouettes from the 3d model!