Frederieke Wagner | 3D Modelling Showcase 2023

Whale 14 - The Flying Factory

My biggest project to this point is the *Whale 14*.

It is a part of a story from an empire that has attained great wealth through the use of their fleet of whales. They are used for trade, war and transport. The Whale 14 has a special position: carrying the city's massive metal factory on its back and migrating between the cities above the clouds. The citizens work hard for prosperity, and even if the empire's coffers are full, the empire is still being built.

The Factory - Stahl für Alle

The whole scene is created with low poly models in mind that could be implemented into a game scene. I like to imagine the player being able to stroll in the factory and explore the different areas like the lightower, the barracks or the main factory hall. For that reason I paid extra attention on how to optimize the scenery by reusing textures and assets, and not going overboard with the topology. 

The Whale 

When thinking about a giant ship-like animal, sailing the sky, a whale came naturally in my mind: A calm compliant creature, that is being used by the people. From the long time the whale has been exploring the skies in great heights, ice has accumulated on its body and the people on its back shaped and molded it.

The whale was textured in Substance Painter where I handpainted the patterns for the skin and build the texture from different skin: dirt, leather, and other textures, as well as a scratch generator.

Afterwards, came the details, the eyes, and the baleen (The hair inside the whale's mouth). I made the baleen by creating different Haircards, started with hair particles, and then baking them onto a plane, and then editing the textures in photoshop.

The assets for Whale 14 are textured in Substance Painter, but for two of the recurring textures I created them in Substance Designer. The bricks from the factory, and the ice from the whale were so prominent from the beginning of the concept stage on, that I knew I had to give them some extra attention.

For the creation of this project, I started with a very rough blockout in Blender. I decided to start with the whale and add the factory afterward to make sure they would fit well together. After the 3D blockout I did a still somewhat rough sculpt in Z-Brush and then started adding in the factory and the Ice to bring all aspects together. Then a final sculpt to add more detail and complexity to the whale.

The Fox

This is my first experiences with creature grooming. I wanted to expand my knowledge and create a groom for a creature. I worked with 7 different hair systems: the short face hairs, the fluffy areas of the face, the mane, the legs, the body, the tail, and the whiskers. 

For the textures, I created two textures: one for the skin of the fox, and one for the hair system. While technically both textures could be merged into one, by using two separate textures the skin of the fox would still be visible in areas where the fur is less dense. 

I made multiple plant assets for the scene. Basic grass, weeds, and taller grass, as well as a leaf. I created them by photographing real plants and collaging them in one texture, after that, I made the plants by modeling them on top of the images, and created normal and roughness maps in photoshop.

The other assets I used in the scene, such as the rocks, were made with reality capture. I took around 150 pictures of an object by circling it two to three times, recreated them in 3D, and retopologised them in Blender. 

The Horse: Callisto

I have always liked horses ever since I was a kid and  wanted to make on in 3D. This is my first experience working with haircards. I used the Horse - Rig in Blender to rig the horse, but I had to do a lot of weight painting to properly fit the horse model to the rig. I also used shape keys to add simple movement to the trotting pose. 

Thank you so much for everyone that took time to look through my works. Big thanks to my friends for being on my side with good advice and support!