Moi Guiquita is a Waorani Activist, Film-maker, member of Minga Indigena and NGO leader based in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Moi has paved the way for the many young indigenous voices to participate in global climate discussions. As a filmmaker, Moi works for his community to preserve their culture and land for future generations. After having amassed a vast following on social media, his voice is one of the loudest calling for ecological restoration and cultural preservation. He is a core member of Waponi Amazon, an NGO focused on tackling the harsh impacts of illegal animal trafficking. The aim of Waponi Amazon is to create a Monkey Rescue Center in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The first time I saw Moi was in a video posted on social media by an Ecuadorian independent media agency that was covering the events of last summer's strike in the city of Quito. It involved different kinds of workers' associations in the capital. 

Days later, they were joined by people from other cities in the country. Moi was leading the protest together with other leaders of the indigenous front, made up not only of people from the Amazon but from all parts of the country. 

I followed what was happening day by day with great interest. I had the opportunity to meet different personalities and media on social networks, but I remember that of all of them, one of the ones that most caught my attention was Moi because of his curious origin. I remember thinking how crazy it seems to think that, even today, there are people who live completely away from what we understand as “civilization”.

Further research into Moi Guiquita's background has helped me to become aware of how important it is for them and for us to maintain ecosystems and the social structures that sustain them. And not only that, but also the respect with which we should approach all people, regardless of where they come from. 

It is very necessary to work on achieving the empathy necessary to understand their circumstances, however different they may be from our own. As well as to do what we can from our position to contribute to their struggle if necessary.

Being a real person with a presence on social media, I had access to a good number of images, which helped me get closer to his personality more easily. They were of great help to find a suitable colour palette, as well as the study of its physiognomy from different angles.

After a first study in 2D I went to 3D designs, this time I have used different applications to achieve the final result.

I worked on the model at the beginning with Nomad, an application for 3D modelling on iPad. For the colouring part, I also used Procreate to create the alphas with which I added colour and texture to the model.

I chose to make a gas mask as a complementary object because that was the first image I had of him. He wore a mask while marching in the summer protests in Quito.

The images on these lines belong to the general view of the complete model and a short plane of the face so that you can appreciate the different number of polygons in each part of the model. At this stage, after several retopologies, the model has become made up of triangular polygons. To recover the square polygons again, I exported the model to Zbrush and made the final adjustment of the polygons. Eliminating all the non-visible geometry so that the result was an efficient model and ready to go to the rigging stage.

In this video, you can see the turn around of the coloured model and the polygonal structure of the whole body.