https://reddit.com/link/1vspef7/video/ovwiuewqfckh1/player
The scene looked flat under regular lighting, so we added moving light above it to imitate sunlight passing through the water. This was the result.
We built the river, rocks, and plants first, then added the dinosaurs. Now we're moving a few trees around and filling in the last gaps.
We shaped the cliffs by hand, planted the forest one tree at a time, then added a tour boat, a pod of orcas, and a bear on the ridge. Once we added the boat and animals, the scale finally felt right.
This piece had to work from above and from inside the tunnel below. We built the water surface in layers, added the sharks and boat, then painted the wake and surface texture by hand. The internal lighting brought out the depth in the final scene.
We assembled the figure in sections, cleaned the seams, and finished the crown by hand. The flame is a separate translucent part with a small light inside. For the finish, we built up the patina in several passes instead of spraying the whole model one flat green.
We built the model from CT scan data taken from a real specimen. The body hairs are placed and colored by hand because their direction and density change across the body. This is one of ten large-scale insects we made for a museum exhibit.