Smilodon

This is Part 1 of my two part VFX final year individual project which spanned for 4 months. My inspiration to work on a creature was strongly drawn from Lion King, Jungle book, Ningyo, Mowgli and my passion for animals. I chose to go with a Saber-toothed tiger because of the artistic freedom I could have in terms of look development as it is an extinct species but that came with it's own set of challenges such as limited information and references as compared to existing animals. This was a huge learning curve for me too as it was my first time sculpting a creature, grooming, rigging and learning Houdini. 

Environment Set Dressing and terrain building for where the Sabertooth tiger may have dwelled. Terrains were built procedurally with heightfields and some rocks were scattered using simple dynamics. 

Walk cycle animated by Denzel Eu.