Alaska the Kodiak Bear

I made this bear during my 2nd year at ESMA (2021). It was my very 1st groom and very 1st CG animal.

I'm going to show you the different steps I followed to create this bear.

I used the following software:

PureRef for my references, Maya for modeling and dressing, XGen for the groom, Renderman for lighting/lookdev/rendering and Photoshop and Procreate for postprod.

Final image of Alaska :

#0 - Concept 

Here is my original concept (drawn on Procreate), to give an idea of what I wanted : a standing, angry mama Kodiak bear in a dark, hostile forest environment. All in a vertical format and in a realistic style.

Here is my workflow :

#1 - References

The first step was to model a bear. So I looked for anatomical references. 

The references in the "Animal Inside Out" exhibition helped me a lot, as they show the skinned parts of plastinated animals, so you can really see each muscle.  Nicolas Morel's work on bear anatomy has added another useful layer of information.

I also looked references of bears with few or no hairs (wet, sick, etc.). 

And I collected images of healthy bears to imagine the essential shapes to emphasize. Looking for sculptures also helped, as sculptures generally outline the animal's characteristic lines.

#2 - Sculpt

I first modeled a skeleton to be as anatomically accurate as possible and to help identify important areas for body modeling.

Then I modeled the body, paying particular attention to the head and legs, as these are areas where the hair is shorter and the shapes more pronounced.

#3 - Grooming

After doing a quick retopo and unfolding the UVs, I moved on to placing the guides, with XGen

Then I created the fur, managing areas  with painted maps and creating naturalness with modifiers. I also made the texture thanks to the PxrMarschnerHair & PxrHairColor nodes of Renderman. I used the physical mode of melanin and managed the texture procedurally.

#4 -Environment.

I modeled and textured the trees. I made the trees tall and straight to match the mood I wanted to create.

I also made a floor by mixing assets I'd modeled and a megascan base.

#5 - Lighting, Rendering & Compositing

I created a lighting effect with a cold color.

I used a domelight with a gray sky environment, a key light, 2 fill lights and rim lights silhouetting the trees and the bear. I liked the idea of this strong white light penetrating the branches.

I rendered the environnment and the bear on separate layers.

I assembled them and embellished the image by making it brighter, while keeping the dark atmosphere. I added physical effects such as glow, motion blur and chromatic aberration with Procreate.

Here are some breakdowns of the skeleton/body/groomed bear, in the environment

B&W version

Conclusion :

I hope you like this mama bear, I had a lot of fun making it. The whole process of anatomical research and sculpting, texturing and grooming an animal taught me a lot and, above all, I really enjoyed it.