C-21 Dragon Assault Ship

At Weta Digital one of the projects I worked on was Avatar. The most challenging task I was given was building the CG version of Qauritch's Dragon Assault Ship. A full scale set of the first quarter of the ship was built on the sound stage at Stone Street Studios (the set extended to just before the main engine intakes) and the model had to line up exactly to extend or replace the set. The model was built using a lidar scan of the set as well as set blueprints, artwork and a Rhino reference model built at Lightstorm. The Rhino model was useful as reference for overall shape and proportion but would not have stood up to scrutiny on screen.

The model was made in Maya and adding UV's took almost as long as building the geometry. The model shown in these Renders is NOT the model I built at Weta, as assets are not allowed to be copied and taken offsite. I rebuilt this model on my own time from memory and available reference (The Blu Ray mostly) It's not 100% accurate, but pretty close.