Step-by-Step Guide on Creating an Adorable Baby Seal with Impressive Fur

Introduction

My name is Juliette Talbot, and I am a Junior Character Artist at Unit Image. I specialize in modeling, look development, shot sculpting, and blendshape creation. I didn’t always plan to work in 3D. At first, I was passionate about special effects makeup, which I practiced on my own for two years. My interest in 3D character art grew while playing video games, which led me to pursue a bachelor’s degree in video game design at LISAA Paris. I then continued my studies at New3dge, focusing on animation and visual effects, earning a master’s degree and completing a work-study program at Unit Image.

I recently participated in the TV show Secret Level and contributed to the production of several video game trailers and commercials at Unit.

Starting

In my free time, I wanted to challenge myself by creating something different from my usual work: an animal model focused on grooming in Houdini. Initially, I found the idea intimidating since I’m not very familiar with the software, even though I had used it before for my graduation project at New3dge, ICALI. I’ve always been fascinated by the work of groom artists, which inspired me to explore and learn more about this field.

References

Gathering my references was an especially fun process since it involved watching the cutest baby seal videos ever made by National Geographic.

Modeling

I started by sculpting this baby seal in ZBrush with a simple approach, focusing only on a few key details like the eyelids, nose, and feet.

Grooming

Next, I analyzed these features and planned the grooming process in Houdini, organizing the different parts. This included the full body, the whiskers, additional soft hairs for the delicate nose area, and the slightly messy hairs near the eyes.

I mostly used a setup I learned at school, thanks to Camille Fourniols. I set the hair length using attribute paint and then applied a “guide groom” to define the main direction. After that, I set up the “bend” and added a “hair clump” to help with the hair later. Since I knew I wouldn’t be doing any simulations, I didn’t go further with these guides.

Working on the hair parts was an interesting experience — well, not always! At first, I felt like giving up because I didn’t know where to start. It took me three or four days to realize that the clumps I was using were too small. Once I figured that out, things became much easier, and I finally had a clearer idea of what to do next.

I then separated the areas into body, neck, mouth, eyes, feet, face, back, and nose using attribute paint. For each area, I applied hair clumps, “bends,” “lifts,” and a little “length” adjustment. I also created “guide masks” to introduce some randomization.

I know there’s room for improvement in terms of optimization, and I’m sure there are better ways to organize myself. But that’s something I’ll focus on in another project!

Sand in Hairs

I wasn’t sure how to add sand to his hair, so I simply asked my friends, and they suggested using a scatter. It turned out to be pretty easy, and I created a very simple shader in V-Ray for it. A big thanks to Guillaume Dos Santos and Andréa Rubat-Ciagnus for the advice! 

Blendshapes

I wanted to animate him as a break from grooming, so I went back to ZBrush to create his blendshapes, which was a lot of fun. However, I quickly realized that animation wasn’t for me — I didn’t enjoy the process, so I decided to move on. Instead, I focused on creating some environments.

Environments and Lighting

For the environment, I primarily used the Quixel Bridge to gather elements, then sculpted and merged different ground textures in ZBrush to integrate my baby seal. Since I didn’t have Forest Pack to scatter grass and rocks, I used V-Ray Fur for the larger grass areas and some grass models from Quixel Bridge to enhance the scene. It took a while, but I finally achieved something convincing.

For the lighting, I set up an overcast scene for the main renders. I used an overcast HDRI, a sun, a large skylight above, and blockers to simulate clouds. 

A big thanks to Lucas Piazzini, who suggested I try a sunset lighting setup. It was really fun to do and gave the scene a completely different mood.

Conclusion

This project was a challenge in terms of motivation. I wanted to give up many times because I tend to shy away from things I’m not familiar with. But now, I’m proud of what I accomplished, and I learned a lot along the way.

Juliette Talbot, Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine