This image was based on a TV ad for Marineland Niagara Falls, and a recent visit to Sea World San Diego. The Marineland ad has a particularly annoying jingle, but the images of the resident orca population are nonetheless beautiful.
This image also gave me a chance to use some of the Poser People I don't usually get to use - they'd seem somewhat out of place in the Space and Fantasy scenes I usually depict! But since the F & SF images aren't to everyone's taste, I turned my attention to a more down-to-Earth subject.
I completed the basics of this particular image some time ago, but wasn't happy with the orcas themselves. After studying the orcas at Sea World San Diego this past summer, I realized what was wrong with the Zygote orca - mainly, it's too 'squat' compared to a real orca! Stretching out the body sections did the trick (see the female swimming past the family on the right).
Oh, yes, gender dimorphism! It had occurred to me that the stock Zygote orca is a male, and my image just looked 'wrong' (to my zoologically-trained eye) with only mature bulls in the tank. The vertical dorsal fin is a sign of an adult bull - the females have more curved dolphin-like dorsal fins. So, I created my first-ever 'morph target' - a gender-bender fin for the Zygote orca! Thus, at least one of the tank occupants is female, somewhat redressing the gender balance!
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