Photoreal Dachshund
This has been my passion project for a while and I am excited to reveal it here on The Rookies.
Photorealistic Dachshund
This is the current state.
Process
I modeled most of the body except the arms, then moved to sculpting when more detail was necessary.
Ear Shape Test
LookDev I
Here you can see that I had not joined the limbs to the body yet as I was sculpting too much detail in the arms before getting the general silhouette down first. Lesson learned, work broad and general then add detail, iterate and refine. I experimented with eyes and did my first groom. The results were terrifying, hilarious, and glitchy. It is all part of the process though!
This was originally filmed to test how the model would like incorporated but was ultimately unused. The footage was shot on an iPhone 7 Plus with the Moment Anamorphic Lens in Filmic Pro Log. It was then de-squeezed and a more intense sunset was added with compositing.
First Successful Fur Groom Test
Here I was testing how the model would look with a fur groom to reassure that the project was moving in the right direction. At this stage the limbs were joined to the main sculpt and blended fairly well. The measurements were also approximate to real world scale at this stage I had a notebook of diagrams and measurements to help ensure accuracy. Finally I wanted to test the lighting so I used the Physical Starlight and Atmosphere add-on for Blender.
Scaling The Face & Eyes
Eye Depth and Overlay Sculpting
Utilizing PureRef I layered my reference on top of my sculpt. This allowed me to do 2.5D sculpting. This again helped me improve the overall quality and photo-realism of the face. Still ensuring accuracy using my hard scale limits knowing not to go bigger than them.
Expressions Test
Go ahead try it for yourself! If you can't try and break your own model and make weird expressions with it what is the point?
Here I was testing shape-keys and experimenting with making different funny faces to convey the emotions of the character. Blender's tools make it easy to quickly iterate, implement or discard ideas.
Lookdev Render Test II
That top image is a bit cursed eh?
That was a technical goof where I hadn't properly applied the texture but had moved the physical location of the eyeball.
I fixed it by applying the texture coordinates.
Here I took the sculpt and went ahead and quickly made an eyeball following a YouTube tutorial. I did two with and two without the ears down. The reason was to test how the ears hang and how the volume would be maintained. Eventually the ears will have a cloth sim implemented as well. Overall this gave me reassurance to continue with the project and that it was possible. I decided to go back and focus on sculpting because I realized that was going to be the fastest and most efficient way of pushing the realism to where I wanted it.
LookDev Test III
Did you know a dog has over two million hairs? Me neither!
Also some breeds of Dogs have different fur density, Dachshunds in particular tend to have a luscious and tightly knit fur.
I also approximated the tip of the fur based off a research paper by a University that measured it to a fraction of a micron which Blender can apparently calculate. The last picture is a closeup of the eye which demonstrates the need for precision to the best of our ability when trying to achieve photo-realism. At this point the eye textures and materials still needed a lot of development.
Current State & Future Development
At the moment I am currently still sculpting and adding minor details like the tongue, teeth, lips and freckles. This detail pass will be baked out to a displacement map after I make a UV mesh for the model.
Above you can see a fraction of the reference I have used for this project.
Acknowledgements
Thank you for viewing this submission, feel free to reach out with any comments or questions. Thank you to Goldie who without this would not have been possible. Thank You to my Family and Friends who have encouraged me throughout. Thank you all researchers, internet forum answers, and tutorial makers you truly make a difference to artists everywhere!
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