Jopi otter creature

Hello, everyone!

It’s been a while since my last upload, and I finally found some time to share one of my favorite characters I’ve worked on: an otter creature named Jopi. Initially, I was tasked with grooming and shading, but after transitioning the team to a Houdini pipeline, I decided to explore other aspects, such as cloth design, texturing, modeling, UV mapping, and look development.

At first, I had to make the character work within a Maya-VRay pipeline, and later, I redeveloped it for a Houdini-Renderman pipeline. It was definitely a fun and rewarding experience!

The creature and project are owned by MACK Media & Brands GmbH & Co KG, who have kindly given me permission to showcase my work. However, I’ve decided to keep any production shots password-protected in my reel. I’ve uploaded a full spectrum of videos, including sped-up work-in-progress clips, so there’s no need for a detailed explanation in text here.

That said, with today’s ever-evolving standards and workflows, I already consider some of the methods used in this project a bit outdated. If I were to groom and develop characters of this scale again, I would approach it differently, though the foundational systems for grooming still hold their value.

I hope you like it!