Pancake-Looking Manta Ray With Satisfying Jiggle Physics In Blender
Amber RutherfordSenior Editor02 November 2026What would you name it?Senior 3D Artist Paul Thureau is currently working on a new 3D character, and apologies if this article catches you while you're hungry. This manta ray…
What would you name it?
Senior 3D Artist Paul Thureau is currently working on a new 3D character, and apologies if this article catches you while you're hungry. This manta ray is based on a concept by Rappenem and was textured in Substance 3D Painter, where Paul did a fantastic job, so the creature looks exactly like a giant pancake. As the artist explained, achieving this look required "a lot of layering combined with trial and error in order to match IRL material refs."
The creature is also fully rigged, with some pretty satisfying jiggle physics, as you can see in the showcase above. Everything is adjustable, so you can tweak stiffness, gravity, and damping. Paul used the Wiggle Bones add-on, a popular tool for adding secondary jiggle motion to character rigs, with a few tweaks. You can grab it for free from Blender Extensions, updated with support for Blender 5.0 and fixes for several long-standing issues without changing the original physics behavior.
Paul also shared a video showing some of his texturing process:
Rappenem
The pancake manta ray makes an appearance in the demo of the artist's 1 Click Camera, a collection of Blender tools designed to let artists work with cameras directly from the viewport. It's free, and you can get it here.
We've previously interviewed Paul Thureau about his work translating Pokémon's recurring NPC, Poké Maniac, into 3D, as well as his collaboration with Adiyar Aidarbekov on a robot character for the Loot 4 Coconut game prototype:
Blender 5.3 is expected to launch on November 10, and you can also check out the official Android version.
Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed.
Latest news, hand-picked articles, and updates
Privacy PolicyTerms of useKeep reading
You may find these articles interesting
This Free Blender Tool Makes Hair Rigging Easier
Speed Up Blender Animation With This Free Tool
Watch This Blender Tutorial If You're Starting Character Rigging
Blender Tutorial: Create Vibrant Comic-Style Shader With Outlines
Create Perfect Anime Faces At Extreme Angles With This Blender Tool