Hundreds of starlings swirling in a real murmuration. 200 tris per bird. One component, free forever.A living murmuration for your sky, completely free.Maeko Flock is one component and a realistic painterly starling. Drop it in, press play, and hundreds of birds gather into a single breathing cloud that swirls, stretches, scatters, and settles like the real thing.The bird is a European starling rendered in a realistic painterly style, iridescent greens and purples, pale speckles, soft feather detail. Just 200 triangles per bird, rigged, with flap and glide animations. It reads as a true bird up close and as living smoke in the hundreds. A 500 bird murmuration costs you around 100,000 triangles, about what one detailed prop would.WHAT THE FLOCK DOESCalm Swirl, the default murmuration, tracing a figure eight, racetrack, or circle around its anchorHover, parking the flock tight and dense over a landmarkPanic, scattering the birds climbing and flapping hard, then settling on their ownDive Attack, orbiting a target while birds take turns striking at itPatrol routes, flying between any number of waypoints, looping foreverSpawn and despawn on a trigger zone, a timer, a finished route, or from your own script, with birds streaming in from the horizon and leaving the same wayTHE DETAILS THAT SELL ITOne dense blob that grows with your bird count, so 500 birds fill more sky than 100Liquid stretch, the ball elongating as it travels and rounding up as it slowsBreathing, swaying, and sharp little twitchesLone scouts that peel off ahead or beside the flock, then sprint homeBounding flight, mixing flap bursts with natural glides, speed synced per birdProcedural head stabilization, keeping each bird's head level as its body pitchesBanking into turns, obstacle avoidance, and a ground floor so birds never sink into terrainA 3D audio slot: drop in any looping bird chatter and it pans, fades, and dopplers from the center of the flockWHAT IS INCLUDEDPainterly style starling: FBX, albedo, normal map, material, prefabRig with Maeko_Fly and Maeko_Glide animationsMaekoFlock component, fully documentedTwo demo scenes: a studio showcase of the bird, and a simulation room that tours every feature by itselfIllustrated PDF documentation and a READMEUnity 6, URP. No dependencies.BUILT FOR MAEKO SKYScreenshots and video show Maeko Sky, plus third-party trees and terrain. None of these are included in this package, they are for display purposes only. Maeko Flock contains the starling, its animations, and the flock component.This asset is free and always will be. If something is broken or confusing, please email me first and I will fix it fast. And if the flock earns a place in your project, an honest review helps a small studio more than you know!MaekoStudio@outlook.comNumber of textures: 2 (albedo, normal)Texture dimensions: [1024x1024]Polygon count of Starling: 200 triangles, 183 vertsMinimum polygon count: 200Maximum polygon count: 200Number of meshes/prefabs: 1 mesh, 1 prefabRigging: Yes, 10 bones, generic rigAnimation count: 2Animation type list: Maeko_Fly (flap cycle, looping), Maeko_Glide (soar, looping)UV mapping: YesLOD information: None. At 200 triangles per bird, LODs are unnecessary.Types of materials and texture maps: 1 URP Lit material, albedo and normal mapAlso included: MaekoFlock runtime component, 2 demo scenes, illustrated PDF documentation, READMEAI tools were used in parts of the production pipeline for this package:The base mesh for the starling was generated with an AI model generator, then retopologized, cleaned, UV mapped, and finalized by me.Textures were authored by me from that base in a realistic painterly style.Rigging and animation were done in Blender using my own preparation pipeline.AI coding assistance was used while writing the C# runtime, which I then reviewed, tested, and documented.All content in this package is original work owned by Maeko Studio, and the final assets were authored and verified by me.
