Mermaid Scales

About the Project

I wanted to create some mermaid scales to use as a pattern for printed products. My first thought was to model a single scale and then duplicate it via an array, but then I wondered if there was a better method. I found a tutorial from Lance Phan, who showed how to create scales via procedural texturing. It took quite a bit of time to understand what was going on in order to modify the look of the scales to suit my needs. The math behind these scales is wild. Basically, this image is simply a flat plane with a bunch of shaders applied to it.