For this project, I took an existing asset to explore a production-ready look. The goal was to push the boundaries of organic shading and achieve a high-end cinematic result.

🎨 CREDITS:
Original model and base textures by the talented Pete Juujärvi. My work focused on the lookdev, texture refinement, and final lighting/rendering.

TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN:

🦖 TEXTURE REFINEMENT: I performed a deep pass in Substance 3D Painter to enhance the micro-detail, adding layers of organic wear, scars, and subtle color transitions to ground the creature in reality.

💡 SHADING & SSS: Developed in Maya using Arnold. I completely rebuilt the shader networks to achieve a more complex Subsurface Scattering (SSS) response, specifically in the thinner skin areas and around the ocular region.

⚙️ RENDERING: The final shots were designed to showcase how the refined displacement and specular maps react under high-contrast lighting, ensuring the animal feels "present" and alive in the frame.

It’s always a great exercise to take a solid base and push it to its cinematic limit.

Hope you like the result!

https://www.artstation.com/juupete