Original character concept and material map, the reference used to build the groom.
Kittyfrog is one of the main characters of the animated feature film MAVKA. The Forest Song. My task was to turn the concept design into a full fur setup that matched the reference material map exactly. The groom also had to stay light enough to get through heavy body and cloth simulation without breaking or losing its silhouette.
Build Kittyfrog's fur strictly to the approved concept: a moss-green base coat, lighter tufted ears, patterned markings along the back and tail, and fine whiskers, all readable in close-up shots for a theatrical feature.
I grew the groom in Maya with xGen, working from the material map to match density, direction, and color breakup region by region. The body coat, ear tufts, back pattern, and whiskers were each a separate, art-directable description.
Kittyfrog has heavy body and cloth-adjacent motion throughout the film, so I built and weighted the groom to hold up under simulation. It is clumped and combed to deform naturally with the body without per-shot fixes.
The finished groom shipped in MAVKA. The Forest Song and kept its detail and silhouette through simulation. It is visible in the final render above.