Development

(Q2 2024)

This character was completed over 4 weeks and took a total of 70 hours. The project was completed and rendered in Blender.

Week 1 - Modeling (18 Hours)

Week 2 - Texturing & Fur (16.5 Hours)

Week 3 - Custom Control Rig & Physics (27.5 Hours)

Week 4 - Initial "Thunderbolt" Animation Test (8 Hours)

Battle Animation

The battle animation & scene was created over 11 days and took a total of 47.5 hours.

I originally created a simple 'Thunderbolt' animation to demonstrate the rigs functionality, but I knew I could take it further.

In doing so, it allowed me to get more experience with cameras & lighting, develop an audience with the addon 'Procedural Crowds', work with VDB volumes, sound design, and animation.

Fur

The fur was developed with Blender's procedural fur system. At the time it was relatively new so it could be a bit challenging to find solutions when running into problems. Thankfully since this model was relatively 'simple shaped' and short-haired, I didn't run into any issues that were unable to be solved by trial and error.

Rigging

I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to learn how to make much more complex rigs, especially for animation. In the end I was able to learn how to create an in-depth custom rig + UI that incorporates shape keys, model swaps, FK/IK toggle, head/eye tracking, and a physics system for the ears and tail utilizing the addon 'WiggleBone'.