Black CAT
Concept
The concept I chose is from Allan Poe's Black Cat. The idea is to allow me to experiment on grooming hair and furs with Maya and Houdini, and compare and contrast results.
As for shading, I used Real Life References for wounds (too bloody to show) and for the eyes.
Pic from Pinterest
Modelling and Shading (Initial Look)
I modelled the cat in Maya more like a toy with an alien look, and used Substance Painter to create textures version 1 as below.
Wireframes
Shading
UV
HOUDINI Furs and Mantra Renders (Initial Attempts)
Trying different methods to groom hair with Mantra Renders.
4 Different Fur Looks
HOUDINI Furs and Redshift Renders (WIP)
I adjusted the skin shaders to make the cat look like wounded with sss. Spent a lot time adjusting the look of the eyes, one blue, one grey like a dead eye.
As for grooming, I set two separate guides. One for the overall black and clumpy 'stray-cat' look furs that cover the entire body, and the other is for the long furs near the mouth and for the eyebrows.
I did comb, hairclump, set up masks for different length, different clump size, frizz freq scale...
I also moved from Mantra renders to Redshift. And it gives me a better look as I wanted.
/ Modeling
/ Skin Shader + EYES
/ Grooming
/ Final Look
AOVs
( Specular + Diffuse + Reflection + Refraction + SSS )
Then everyone gets so scared of the CAT.
My friend asks me to do a cuter version so...
