Golden Pheasant Model

GOLDEN PHEASANT CHARACTER MODEL - FILM/TV

For this project I wanted to tackle the challenges that come with creating a feathered, winged animal and adding more organic content into my portfolio. The Golden Pheasant is a species of bird found in China and is very vibrant with its varying colours of feathers, hence why I considered it an interesting subject matter to model. I see this project a stepping stone to aid in creating more advanced pieces I have planned in the future (Fantasy themed, winged quadrupeds). This was a very fun project to create and I learned a lot about Blender's hair particle system and the usefulness of vertex groups which I want to use on other feathered creatures I design that have more complex anatomy

Animation - A video showcasing the rigged model in motion within an environment I created that is appropriate to where this species of bird would be found in the wild

Animation Still Shots - All Bird and environment related assets created by myself, but the tree Stump was modelled by (piece_by_nature on Turbosquid)

Rig Mobility Renders - Some still shots to show off the model in different positions

Model Breakdown - A slider controlled process view of front and back angles of the textured model (With & Without Feathers), details, wireframe and rig

Model Breakdown - UV Maps used and their layout. I also show how I create the feathers which are hair particle effects in Blender that I then used to project as a texture onto a simple plane object for optimisation. Any extra details for the feathers were created in Photoshop

Workflow Improvements: 

I would refine feather texture to in turn improve alpha map quality so they appear fuller at the end and reduce the issue of white rim around feathers. For the feathers I could also use photoshop to setup full wing shape as one object to optimise the model further, using pheasant wing anatomy images as reference. I would also reduce the poly count where possible on the feathers for further optimisation.

For the body, I would add even finer details around the face in terms of sculpting smaller feathers into the ZBrush model around the face as to save usage of particle effects and have the textures blend more seamlessly.