I gave myself a challenge to model semi realistic animals in Blender to learn Blender. I was a bit apprehensive to start modeling the seagull since I had no idea how the wings could be made. After research I learned about hair cards/feather cards, which I sculpted and imported as a mesh plane. Using real wing anatomy as a reference, I meticulously attached them to the bird. The second major topic I learned was the hair particle system which I tried to use the best I could to enhance the model. I think there is quite a long way to go to fully wrap my head around it.
All in all I am very happy how the seagull turned out. This took me about 50hrs to make. Most of that time I used scratching my head and thinking "How the hell am I supposed to make that?" Making realistic animals is not my ultimate goal, but learning to make them as realistic as possible sure teaches a lot.
Sorry about the boring A-pose presentation. Next I will learn about rigging and through that I can actually start moving my animals!
Looking great. I am going to assume his name is Mr. Larus Fuscus and he is not going to migrate this year in protest of the bird government establishing taxes on migration routes.