U3DA: Underwater 3D Animation for Divers
The complete course for transforming your photogrammetry scans into cinematic underwater documentaries
Turn your raw 3D scans into professional visualizations that capture the magic of your underwater discoveries. Six comprehensive lessons covering everything from Blender basics to advanced animation techniques, specifically designed for cave divers, wreck surveyors, and underwater photographers.
Who This Course Is For:
Cave Divers documenting complex overhead environments and wanting to share the beauty of untouched passages
Wreck Divers preserving maritime history and creating virtual tours of inaccessible sites
Marine Archaeologists needing publication-ready visuals and immersive site documentation
Technical Divers who’ve discovered something special and want the world to see it properly
Underwater Photographers ready to add a new dimension to their documentation toolkit
Your Scans Are Already Capturing the Magic – You Just Don’t Know How to Unleash It
If you’re doing underwater photogrammetry, you’re already halfway there. Those hundreds of overlapping photos you’re taking? They contain everything needed to recreate that moment of wonder. Every texture detail, every play of light and shadow, every dramatic angle that made your pulse quicken.
The problem isn’t your diving skills or your scanning technique.
The problem is the gap between your raw 3D scans and presentation-ready visual stories.
The gap between what you felt down there… and what you can show up here
photo: Michał Antoniuk
You’ve been there. Floating in that perfect moment of neutral buoyancy, your lights cutting through the darkness to reveal something extraordinary. A pristine shipwreck. An untouched cave passage. A piece of history that few eyes have ever seen.
Your heart races. This is why you dive.
But then you surface. You try to share what you discovered. You show the photos, describe the formations, explain the historical significance. Yet somehow, the magic gets lost in translation. The awe you felt 40 meters down doesn’t translate to the surface world.
What if it could?
What You’ll Master:
Foundation Skills (Lessons 1-2)
- Transform basic scans into professional 3D renders with dramatic lighting
- Master multiple texture workflows for stunning close-up detail
- Create wireframe-to-solid “build-up” animations that reveal your discoveries progressively
Advanced Techniques (Lessons 3-4)
- Design smooth fly-through animations that recreate the diving experience
- Generate normal maps to add geometric detail without computational overhead
- Apply professional post-processing to make your scans pop off the screen
Complete Production (Lessons 5-6)
- Build interactive mini-maps that track exploration paths in real-time
- Edit and publish platform-ready videos for social media, presentations, and professional documentation
What You’re Really Getting
The Complete U3DA Course
Six comprehensive lessons taking you from Blender beginner to underwater visualization expert
Professional Blender Assets
- Pre-configured starter files and node groups
- Automated material conversion scripts
- Custom camera rigs and lighting setups
- Ready-to-use rendering presets
Real-World Project Files
Work with actual cave and wreck scans, including assets from the Maria Concordia mine exploration
Exclusive Community Access
Join our private group of underwater 3D specialists – cave diving legends, photogrammetry experts, and marine archaeologists sharing techniques, troubleshooting challenges, and showcasing their latest discoveries
“My interest is technical and cave diving, I wanted to bring my diving experience to everyone’s attention using 3D models and photogrammetry. I had never used a blender before meet Marcin helped me and taught me how to make models look much better. I strongly recommend Underwater 3D Academy course. This course was an eye-opener on how to get started with blender. Besides the course, I had the privilege of working with Marcin on one underwater project, his professionalism is impressive!”
Petri Uutela, Photogrammetry expert at Bottomline Projects and university measurement specialist.
Meet Your Instructor: Marcin Stempniewicz
I’m Cave diver, 3D artist, and founder of Submerged Foundation. I led some international underwater heritage documentation projects, collaborated with the Poland’s National Maritime Museum, and presented my 3D scanning innovations at conferences across Poland, the UK, and USA.
My work has been featured in:
- InDepth GUE Magazine
- Divers 24
- XDeep Exploration Support Program
- “Odkrywca” Magazine
- Multiple international diving conferences: Including National Speleological Society (’23 and ‘24) and Hidden Earth (’23)
“While we were dedicated to pushing the boundaries of modern overhead cartography, this was never the project’s main goal. A 3D model is just a tool, not a product. The Maria Concordia Project is all about exploring ways to tell a compelling story of the place using a variety of modern visual techniques like cross sections, animation, VR, and ar. scanning itself is always just the beginning of the adventure.”
Marcin Stempniewicz, Explorer
source: https://exploration.xdeep.eu/
“While we were dedicated to pushing the boundaries of modern overhead cartography, this was never the project’s main goal. A 3D model is just a tool, not a product. The Maria Concordia Project is all about exploring ways to tell a compelling story of the place using a variety of modern visual techniques like cross sections, animation, VR, and ar. scanning itself is always just the beginning of the adventure.”
Marcin Stempniewicz, Explorer
source: https://exploration.xdeep.eu/
The Investment
U3DA Complete Course: €149
Full 3d course (1 year access) + community access
For enthusiasts and hobbyists who want to take their scans to the next level. Imagine those hundreds of hours learning Blender on your own, piecing together generic tutorials that teach you how to model donuts and coffee cups – but nothing about optimizing 50+ photogrammetry textures, handling massive polygon counts from underwater scans, or creating the dramatic lighting that makes cave systems come alive. This will save you all that.
U3DA Professional: Complete Mentorship Program: €899
One on one sessions (3 hours) +Full 3d course (1 year access) + community access
For marine archaeologists, research foundations, and professional diving operations who need presentation-ready results and expert guidance. Unlike generic 3D training, these sessions focus on the real challenges you face: presenting complex underwater data to diverse audiences, meeting scientific publication standards, and creating visuals that secure funding and support for your work.
The cost (€899) of attending a professional conference (with travel costs) – but this transforms how you present your work at every future conference, meeting, and publication.
(Sessions will be scheduled individually, within 1 year after purchasing)
First lesson (demo): FREE
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HelaJQWoQOE&t=17s
You’ll learn how to create your first professional-looking 3D render and animation of your underwater scan. You’ll produce a cinematic “build-up” animation where your shipwreck or underwater structure materializes from wireframe to solid model, complete with dramatic lighting, camera movement, and motion blur effects – similar to what you’d see in underwater documentaries.
What Happens When You Enroll
Immediate Access: Start creating your first 3D animation within hours
Community Invitation: Join our exclusive group where diving rockstars share their latest techniques and discoveries (Your phone number provided during the registration will be used to send out the WhatsApp group invitation)
Direct Support: Get your questions answered by the community of experts
Leveraging 3d in diving content – examples:
P.S. – That moment when someone watches your cave fly-through animation and says “I feel like I was actually there diving with you”? That’s when you know you’ve bridged the gap between the underwater world and the surface world. That’s what U3DA makes possible.
“Had the opportunity to be part of the pilot, and really amazed on how much I learnt and how much can be done on Blender.
Would recommend Marcin’s training videos not only for beginners but also experts in underwater photogrammetry!”
Will Passos, Cave diver and overhead photogrammetry enthusiast at Soggy Wombats
FAQ
Q: I’ve never used Blender before. Is this too advanced? A: U3DA starts from absolute zero. If you can navigate underwater and operate photogrammetry software, you can master these techniques.
Q: What if my scans aren’t perfect? A: The course teaches optimization techniques for real-world scans, including how to handle missing geometry, texture issues, and polygon reduction.
Q: How long does it take to see results? A: You’ll create your first professional animation in Lesson 1. Most students are producing publication-ready visuals within their first 2 weeks.
Q: Will this work with my photogrammetry software? A: Yes. U3DA works with exports from popular photogrammetry tools (Metashape, RealityCapture), and any software that outputs FBX files with textures.
“Inspired by Marcin’s amazing work and projects, I decided to dive into 3D graphics from a new perspective. I had absolutely no prior experience with Blender or making effects like this before. Marcin knows his stuff inside out and explains everything super clearly and easy to follow. He taught me everything from scratch. You can check out my work yourself. If you want to present your scans in a whole new way, this is the place to start.”
Marcin Cela, underwater photogrammetry expert UW3Dscans.com
Enroll now!
U3DA Complete Course: €149
Full 3d course (1 year access) + community access Learn to optimize photogrammetry textures, handle massive polygon counts, and create dramatic lighting for underwater 3D scans.
Sign up for U3DA Complete Course
U3DA Professional: Complete Mentorship Program: €899
One on one sessions (3 hours) +Full 3d course (1 year access) + community access Get expert guidance for creating presentation-ready underwater 3D visualizations that meet scientific publication standards (Sessions will be scheduled individually, within 1 year after purchasing).
SIgn up for U3DA Complete course + Mentorship program
First lesson (demo): FREE
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HelaJQWoQOE&t=17s Create your first cinematic 3D animation of an underwater scan with wireframe-to-solid buildup effects.
See you soon!