By Andrea Bertaccini

Unfortunately, we are unable to add any sound to this contribution - otherwise, our readers would read these lines hearing the threatening sounds of music with which, in 1975, a certain Steven Spielberg not only won 3 Oscars in the end, but changed the behavior of people on beaches all over the world for quite a long time. Of course we are talking about "Jaws" - the masterpiece of a star director to be, which was followed by two sequels.
 Andrea Bertaccini also traces his "fascination" for the great white shark back to the big screen work of Steven Spielberg. "I have more than respect for this fascinating creature which, with its mere strength, combined with its beauty, is one of the most impressive animals in our world", the Italian artist says. "Maybe our readers know it - the great white shark is the only shark that can get its entire body out of the water, its "over water attacks" are famous and feared. Its attacks start deep down in the water. Constantly gaining speed, it shoots towards the water's surface and literally jumps at its victims. With this technique, those predators manage to capture their prey, seals in particular. 
 But sometimes, it is not the hunt that makes the shark appear alongside a boat in the water, but mere curiosity. This is the moment shown by my illustration." Andrea himself has witnessed such an encounter and has been fascinated by the texture and color of the shark's skin ever since. "In the water, the shark's skin tends to reflect the environment, but when it gets out of the water, the skin becomes very dark and shiny. My idea was to show both areas in one artwork."
 Without any doubt, Andrea Bertaccini has come up to the task perfectly and - luckily - also documented the concepts and creation of the artwork for our readers. As this is a 3D artwork, many technical terms from this field will be involved. We still hope that our readers working in 2D will like this contribution and be able to understand the single steps according to the very detailed pictures.

Fig. 1
At first, I tried to determine the best position of the throat with some quick drawings before working out more details. 

 Fig.  2 Now I continue in Photoshop, as I needed a background in a color that gives me a good color harmony. In this picture, I jump ahead a bit and show the finished shark. You can see very well, how background and shark are combined later on in my background concept.

Fig. 3-5 Now starting the digital modeling process. With Edit Poly in 3ds Max I start with a simple box, behind which I place a picture from a book, and start shaping the body. It is only afterwards that I lay out eyes and teeth. In the morphing editor (as well as a bend modifier) I finally determine shark's position.

 www.tredistudio.com

 Read the whole article in issue 76.