Reflection

Reflection

I was originally going to make a game about the North Atlantic right whales and essentially create an experience that put the players through an experience that was similar to how I imagined right whales would feel due to the stressors in their environments such as large ships, ocean pollution, and other disturbances caused by humans. As I was making the game, I came across a video of two humpback whales dancing and couldn't help but be moved by it. I saw the whales in what I felt was their "natural element" - two whales undisturbed by people or anything that could be stressing them, just dancing in the ocean. I wanted to instead create an image with the model of a right whale that would show the whales in a way that I don't think they've been presented before. With some inspiration from the iconic Free Willy poster, I rendered the three whales with the same idea that they were completely undisturbed by people or any stress. I spent hours creating over a dozen images with the whales in different poses and in different lighting until I was confident in that I was capturing the beauty of the right whale. I've learned a lot about these whales and I truly do believe that showing them in a light that doesn't talk about their struggle but rather talks about what makes them beautiful will drive people to want to do more to make sure their beauty doesn't go extinct.