I haven’t been posting much, but I was very busy with various aspects of my project. First of all, I have finally decided on what the chapters of my work will contain. They will be divided into sections named after the most important projects that Travis Scott created and will also include some interesting facts in small pieces of text. The most important mixtapes and albums that I will use as a guideline are: Owl Pharaoh, Days Before Rodeo, Rodeo, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, and upcoming album: Astroworld. They will be divided into 5 double spreadsheets giving me enough space to present both story and artwork.

I have decided on what 3D model I will include in the first chapter: an owl and a glass pyramid. Owl Pharaoh was a crucial step in Travis Scott’s career as it was noticed by Kanye West and T.I. opening his way to the top tier Hip-Hop scene. The title of the mixtape is rather mysterious, but I wanted to present an obvious representation of the name in, but in a unique style, as some of the audience might not be very familiar with this early project.

Modeling an owl was a challenge, as I didn’t have any tutorials available. Unlike in the case of the 3D head model, I had to follow my instinct without helpful resources. I was also struggling with a really accurate reference for an owl, but I finally found a perfect template. The process itself started with the wing. I created one feather and kept repeating it as the guidelines followed. Clone Effector seems a more efficient solution, but I was slightly scaling some of the feathers up and down to avoid too much of a repetition. After making 2 layers of feathers, I created an arm structure by extruding plains. The owl presented in the image wasn’t the species I was looking for, as artists representing the album normally use a horned owl. I decided to see the topology constructed by other 3D artists. There was one particular model which turned out to be really helpful, in the body mesh creation. The human head model turned out to be super useful, as I approached the owl in a similar fashion, starting with a plain shaping up for a beak and the eyes. After that, I played around with some basic materials and light to see how the model could be presented. I’m yet to construct the legs and the pyramid, but that will be the easiest part.

It’s important to note that there’s a special Feather tool within Cinema 4D for realistic feathers, and it would definitely be useful, but in case of this model, realism wasn’t the main priority.