Dissection of a Digital Illustration

Modeling: 3D Studio Max

The heron with the basic head and neck added. You can see how only a few points are used to define a rough outline mesh. The program can add more smoothing automatically.

Comments:

Here is the start of the heron model in 3D Studio Max, one the the more popular 3D programs. You see 4 views at once, top, sides, and perspective. As you can see in this screenshot, I found an image of a heron, and used it as a reference for m. I started with a box, and moved the points around to start to create the basic body shape.