Nemesis the shark becomes a 3D animation
Nemesis, the great hammerhead shark known to divers and scientists for her annual winter visits to Bimini, has always been a model shark. Nowshe’s a supermodel. Earlier this year, multiple cameras spent days recording her every movement around the tiny island 50 miles east of South Florida — every flip of her tail, every turn ofherfin, every twistof her10.8-foot body.
The result: An animated, 3D model of Nemesis, the first of its kind that shows with scientific accuracy the movements of a large, underwater species in its native environment.
The 3D Nemesis will serve as a resource for scientists who want to study sharks to research behavior such as locomotion or hydrodynamics, as well as educators and conservationists.
But shark enthusiasts anywhere can also spend time spinning Nemesis backward or sideways, making her swim faster and enjoying her natural movements.
The project was headed by the West Palm BeachbasedANGARI Foundation and the Digital Life Project, a non-profit initiative led by Dr. Duncan Irschick at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst.
ANGARI (pronounced An-jarry) and Digital Life, along with videographer CaseySappanddigital artist Jeremy Bot, produced the breakthrough model, which was made available to the public lastweek.
“This is the first initiative to do what would be considered videogrammetry or what would be considered volumetric capture,” Sapp said. “And capturing digitally the entire animal and its movement underwater, its natural movement, it’s never been done. No precedent, no history. This is the first of its kind.”
The great hammerhead is the largest of the nine hammerheadshark species.
Its fins are valued as an ingredient in shark fin soup and, as a result, the hammerheadis classified as endangered in many locations around theworld.
The Nemesis video session off Bimini wasn’t easy. Similar recording sessions have been tried in the past on sharks in captivity, but never before with great hammerhead sharks in the wild.
Maybe Nemesis wasn’t camera shy — she was relatively cooperative during the sessions, Irschick said. “Whenwewere filming she just was the best shark. Kind of the most regular shark, the most, I don’t know, well-behaved. She does the things we wanted her to do.”
But other factors complicated things.
It took several cameras and lots of careful coordination to captureNemesisand her friends doing their thing. The crew and researchers had to set up the cameras in circular configurations, synchronize them and get the sharks to swim through while other fish weren’t in the frames.
The team also had to make sure the water had good visibility for 15 minutes at a time while battling currents. Cameras had to be sufficiently weighted so they didn’t shift during tide changes.
“I think we did have one day where we sat at the dock because itwas just too rough out there,” said Angela Rosenberg, captain of the 65-foot research vessel ANGARI, and co-founder of ANGARI Foundation. “And you’re only diving in 20 feet so if it’s surgey, you feel it.”
The resulting model was madefor free to researchers in the public in the hopes it will become a blueprint for recreating more species in their nativewaters.
“I think the main point is these models are provided free to the public for nonprofit use and anyone can download and use them – teachers, kids, artists, scientists,” Irschick said. “It’s not just creating technology, it’s creating technologywe give backandthat’s a big distinction because I think you’ll find the basic rule of highquality digital content is it’s never given away free, or extremely rarely.”
The project has the potential to change the future of aquariums, which could use 3D models instead of holding living sea creatures in captivity, the researchers say.
In that way, the camera work by Nemesis will have a lasting effects.
“Anything that moves, this is our foray into being able to recreate that digitally,” Sapp said. “There’s very, very little precedent to doing this in the wild.”
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