Nemo not included
The shell for this was created using the same technique as used to created the seashells and I would have been remiss to have not created a Nautilus when making underwater mechimals.
Propulsion wise this Nautilus pulls itself along with its four front facing propellers.
The tentacles were created by modelling them straight and then deforming them using the proportional editing tool (instead of using an armature).
The background was created using a couple of steps, the basic colour was just a simple blue faded from light to dark (light at the top), a semi transparent deformed mesh was added above the camera (fading at the edges) to simulate waves, finally a plane was added above this and given an image texture of some clouds and then mixed with an emission shader.
Mechticilus - Version 02
This is a Revisit to the machine nautilus concept as part of the MechZoology series, this one lives in deeper water than the first Mechticilus and so makes use of ‘luminescence’.
Caustic mask (top line, is actually a plane)
Area lamp (triangle shape)
Volume Water (cube, with principled volume shader applied)
Volume Particles (cube ‘duplicate’, with geo node setup to create particulates in the water)
Upper nodes create the background colour
Lower nodes add a blur to the lights
Atomic Jellyfish
That glow is not bioluminescence
This Mechimal is nuclear powered, the idea started as when thinking about autonomous machines/robots that could be used to explore the ocean. Initially I thought that the jellyfish would float on the surface with its tentacles spreading out, acting as wave energy generators and then once the batteries had charged it would dive down to explore.
Whilst I liked the concept I decided to give it a different energy source so that it could stay underwater longer and to go deeper.
In the original image I gave each jellyfish its own object index and then used this in compositing to fade each jellyfish by different amounts to create the appearance of them being obscured by slightly murky water. This time round though I instead incased the jellyfish in a sub-divided cube and created a volume material for it, simplifying the composite node setup quite a lot.
This has made the image more grainy but I think that’s ok for what is meant to be murky water, it did take quite a few tweaks and attempts though to get the brightness and colour to a point I was happy with.
An additional couple of views were rendered using a wire mesh material to create some ‘cut away’ images, which can be seen in the gallery below.
Mech-Kelpie
Giddy up
A Kelpie is not a Seahorse, a Kelpie is instead a spirit from folklore that can take the form of a horse that when you try to ride it will drag you down into the water and drown you. However when I was thinking of names for this mechimal this was the first name that I actually liked for it.
The inner structure materials are a set of standard metallic textures, the outer shell though makes use of a translucent shader as part of it’s setup.
The spherical corals are made by deforming the mesh using a texture and then using a rusted (oxidised) iron and copper material, with the oxidisation colouring being focused in the creases.
Arrow fish
When looking at tropical fish (for reference images for a different project) I found an image of a fish with a pattern with dark areas that looked like cut out sections and thought it would make a good base for a mech fish.
Left : My initial sketch, with sections and internal structures er sketched out
Left : The setup for creating the underwater environment
Caustic mask (top line, is actually a plane)
Area lamp (triangle shape)
Water surface, another plane, but with a ocean modifier and mostly transparent material applied. The plane was also tilted so the camera could be more side on without the water edge becoming visible.
Volume Water, cube, with principled volume shader applied
Volume Particles. cube ‘duplicate’, with geo node setup to create particulates in the water
Side : Basic composite setup to add a glow/blur to the lights on the fish
Trilobite
Trilobites are one of my favourite pre-historic animals so have added one to MechZoology series of machine animals
Left : The environment setup for this scene, sans water & ground
Sun lamp, used the sun lamp as the normal area lamp wasn’t giving a nice result
Caustic mask
Volume Water (cube, with principled volume shader applied)
Volume Particles (cube ‘duplicate’, with geo node setup to create particulates in the water)
Left : As the ground was going to be part of this image instead of just a light bounce surface, decided to use geo nodes to generate a sandy floor
Left : Setup for the caustics mask
Left : Compositing node setup,
Top 3 nodes create a gradient background to mimic the water going off into the distance
Green and red lights have their own material indexes so I can use an index mask for both to generate slightly different blur effects for each
Remaining nodes mix it all togther
Mechalocaris
For this mechimal I went back to pre-history and based this one on Anomalocaris
Armoured Fish
Part of the MechZoology series of animals, this fella is based on the pre-historic Dunkleosteus from the late Devonian.
I felt the idea of an armoured fish fit the theme quite well.
Left : The initial sketch I created, with the different colours corresponding to different sections to be created and then linked together with either fixed or movable joints.
Left : The setup for creating the underwater environment
Caustic mask (top line, is actually a plane)
Area lamp (triangle shape)
Water surface (another plane, but with a ocean modifier and mostly transparent material applied)
Volume Water (cube, with principled volume shader applied)
Volume Particles (cube ‘duplicate’, with geo node setup to create particulates in the water)
Left : The material setup for the Caustic mask
Left : The node setup for the particulate mater in the water.
Electric Eel
Self explanatory really
The mechimals exist in the same eco-system and some will prey on others, this electric eel is ambushing the motorboatman, striking from under the water. Caught between the four mouth prongs the motorboatman is stunned by an electric charge from each prong and then ripped apart by the four sets of grinding gears in the mouth.
The water was created using Blenders physics simulation for water and the eel was then moved up through the water.
This is not one of may favourite mechimals, mainly I think because of all the work I put into creating the body and then creating a composition that ends up hiding most of it, also an eel isn’t the most interesting of animal shapes to begin with.
