Introduction

This is a high-quality and cute shelduck model with maps, fur, rigging and three animations. The artist referred to a lot of video and image resources, and even purchased a real shelduck to observe the structure and texture of its feathers under different lights and shadows. We used the widely-used feather cards and particle hair on this model, and created a complex shader system to combine both technologies and present the physical characteristics of the feathers in different environments. The rigging is made after real bird bones, there is also a fine feather controlling system. To make the animations as realistic as possible, our artist shot footage of the real shelduck and manually created the animations. This model is made with Blender and Cycles renderer at real-world scale.

[ytb-vid=A8cVry13OYw]

Description

It consists of the body, legs, third eyelids, mouth, pupils, corneas, lacrimal caruncles, teeth, tongue and feathers.

Polygons

Body: vertices 10,562; polygons 10,540
Legs: vertices 6,598; polygons 6,582
Third eyelids: vertices 258; polygons 240
Mouth: vertices 13,996; polygons 13,912
Pupils: vertices 2,660; polygons 2,656
Corneas: vertices 548; polygons 544
Lacrimal caruncles: vertices 144; polygons 112
Teeth: vertices 760; polygons 532
Tongue: vertices 6,578; polygons 6,576
Feathers: vertices 387,024; polygons 306,403
Total: vertices 429,128; polygons 348,097

The number of polygons in the OBJ file differs from the above, because the Mask modifier of the body is applied before exporting.

Project Format

There is a Blender project and an OBJ file.

Size of Maps

JF0L528A0_Duck01_BackFeather_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BackFeather_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BackFeather_Height.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Body_BaseColor.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Body_BaseColor.1002.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Body_Height.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Body_Normal.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Body_Specular.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodyFeather_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodyFeather_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodyFeather_Normal.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodySideFeather_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodySideFeather_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_BodySideFeather_Height.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_ShoulderFeather_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_ShoulderFeather_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_TailFeather_B_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_TailFeather_F_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Tongue_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_Tongue_Normal.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingDownFeather_Alpha.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingDownFeather_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_B_BaseColor.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_B_BaseColor.1002.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_F_Alpha.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_F_Alpha.1002.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_F_BaseColor.1001.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_F_BaseColor.1002.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_U01_Alpha.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_U01_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_U02_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFeather_U02_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFrontFeather_Alpha.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingFrontFeather_BaseColor.png, 4096 *4096
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingUpFeather_Alpha.png, 2048 *2048
JF0L528A0_Duck01_WingUpFeather_BaseColor.png, 2048 *2048

Rigging

With fine controllers, it's easier to create postures and animations, the features are as follows:
The customized attributes of CTR_gravity_b control whether the head rotates and moves following the neck, and whether the neck rotates following the spine, and the switch between IK/FK of the neck.
The customized attribute of CTR_foot.L switches between IK/FK of the legs non-seamlessly.
CTR_root controls the entire model.
CTR_foot.R and CTR_foot.L control the movement of the feet.
ROLL_neck_a and CTR_gravity_a control the front and rear centers of gravity of the body.
CTR_gravity_b controls the overall movement of the body.
DEF_hip_a and DEF_hip_b control the contraction and bulging of the abdomen, as well as the trembling of the buttock.
CTR_IK_head controls the movement of the head.
CTR_wing.L and CTR_wing.R control the quick folding of the wings by Location, so as to improve efficiency.
CTR_featail.L controls the folding and unfolding of the tail by Location.
Additionally, there is very detailed rigging for the wings and tail, and each feather comes with skinned bone and a separate controller, making it possible to control every feather, and fold, unfold and bend all feathers conveniently.
And more ...

Animation

Loopable walking at 30 fps, frame range 0-210
Loopable eating at 30 fps, frame range 0-440
Loopable watching at 30 fps, frame range 0-327

A shape key named "Ani_Eat/See_HairRepair" is animated and added to Duck01_Body to fix interspersion in the eating and watching animations. Another shape key "Ani_Repair_Eat/See" is added to Duck01_CovertsMIN_SurfaceDeform to fix the animation. The shape keys should be disabled when the model is restored to the initial pose.

[ytb-vid=IObztuJIlaU]  

[ytb-vid=kV3trjSd09M] 

[ytb-vid=VZXFgsB7AtI] 

Features

The model is in meter units at real-world scale.
To run faster, the fur is hidden, with Render enabled.
Some objects used for rigging of the body feathers are not rendered, they are not included in the exported OBJ file.
Vertex color is used for a better effect.