Siluro I. Is it a Pig? Is it a Fish?

Last week, I met up with my C4D colleague Rem ("Remdreedee"). We decided to have go at a joint project and "produce" our own C4D movie. This idea was triggered by the ongoing "underwater scene" project, the development of which can be followed at magrathea3d.com, but it is an expansion of the thought that a group of enthusiasts should team up to complement each other's talents and get "bigger stories" out. For, yes, there will be a story (albeit short and simple) and it will include a manned torpedo from WWII. This will all be explained later in what may be called a "Project Kick-Off Document". For the moment, however, I am providing you with a glimpse of the Italian underwater craft at stake (the "siluro a lenta cosa" nicknamed "Maiale" or "Pig"). Its first version is developing into a high-poly model, I'm afraid, but we might be able to prune it before we get to the animation operation. We hope to draw in other contributors. Thus, someone will have to model the frogmen who will carry the joke. We hope it will constitute a trial run for future joint ventures...

Rem asked me how long it took me to model the thing so far. Well, it actually it took me a long time. I have been at it for, say, over 12 hours now. You see, I haven't given myself enough modelling practice yet, so I am still quite slow. On top of that, there are some serious lacunae in my knowledge and imperfections in my methods. I am clumsy when it comes to using the "maths" of the program, i.e. "duplicate" and "align along spline" and things like that. I rather tend to clay away like a modelling monk. That is also one of the reasons why my models tend to become TOO HEAVY. Still, I am getting there. And so is the "Siluro" (the Italian word for "torpedo" which, incidentally, derives from name of a fish, the silurus glanis or European Wels Catfish, on account of the similarity of their shape).

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