create this furry monster

Kevin Ives describes how he developed this hairy creature for Monster.com, and Todd Akita takes us through his fur simulation workflow

the Mill recently created an epic, 50-foot CGI purple monster for Monster.com’s latest campaign. From a full muscle system built under the monster’s fur, to each pore and wrinkle, the team were meticulous and precise in their craft, creating something hyperreal and lovable. Learn how the team crafted this furry purple giant in this step-bystep tutorial.

As renderers have become more powerful, the amount of detail that can be added to your CG characters is now endless. When tasked with creating a giant character that will be seen through extreme close-ups, the amount of work can be daunting. Luckily, this monster is covered with procedurally generated fur, meaning as long as the stylistic choices of fur are specific, most of the fine detailing follows easily.

The focus of this guide will be on fur, and how to specify grooming choices. For this tutorial you will need some prior knowledge as well as access to your fur system of choice. When creating this monster, The Mill used a proprietary fur setup, Furtilizer, to create guide curves and Furprocedural to create render hairs.

Author Kevin Ives Kevin is a VFX supervisor and lead 3D artist at The Mill in New York. With a focus on highly realistic animated creatures, Kevin has led projects such as the critically acclaimed PETA ‘98% Human’, Hallmark ‘Mother Bird’ and Coke ‘Footpri