Wrinkly feline project constructed using Pixologic ZBrush 4 and The Foundry modo 701 in 2013:
(The human-headed, lion-limbed, mythological desert beast fond of riddles is a Sphinx. The kind that meows is probably a Sphynx.)
Originating as a sphere in ZBrush, the kitty model grew increasingly detailed with sculpting techniques and DynaMesh topology tools. Unrefined ZBrush geometry can become dense, inefficient, and extermely slow. Fortunately, ZBrush offers various utilities to drastically simplify mesh information without sacrificing surface detail.
This project employed the process of subdivision re-projection and 32-bit displacement maps.
The cat’s yellow eye color and texture originate from a manipulated image of a human iris.
A morph map in modo controls the eye’s level of pupil dilation.
A spherical magnet deformer gently squishes geometry out of the way, carving out a comfy socket for the eyeball. This allows the eye geometry to swivel around without intersecting with other meshes.
The eyes remain synchronized to each other using channel links. Morph maps and linked deformers ensure that the surrounding facial tissue stretches and slides as the eyes move.
A simple facial rig provides a limited range of motion to the jaw, ears, and neck.