My Little Yeti Girl (WIP)

So.. my first thought for the contest was to make a family of Yeti with Santa Claus in some capacity. I really didn't know how to make it work especially since the Gen 8 Yeti looks absolutely ravenous and demented. So.. I thought what if I made them look more bubbly and cartoonish. Well I'm not bad with reference and pencil but in the 3D world if I'm not making a piece of furniture, I might as not even bother. 😀

So after some brainstorming I came up with this:

EDIT: OOPS THAT WAS AN OLD RENDER HERE IS THE MOST UP-TO-DATE:

Popular comments and questions (that absolutely no one has) asked:

Q: Wow, that is the most amazing thing I have ever seen! How did you do it?

A: I loaded the Yeti HD for Genesis 8 Male figure. Then I used the Growing Up morph by Zev0. Then I posed the figure. Then I used Mesh to Volume... and Back by Alessandro_AM. Then through very careful calculations of about 100 attempts I finally got a VDB asset that I felt was bubbly/cloudy enough yet still retained the figures form to move on from there. After that I messed with the dforce hair included with Yeti HD and gave it a pink/purple hue. Then I added new eyes and repeated step 4. Then so on and so on..

Afterward I applied subdivision to all the VDB nodes and ramped up SubD levels to 6. That is what really gives the VDBs its extra fluff.

This is done for everything you see in the scene and will be the same process for everything I make in the final scene. So MINUS the Yeti dforce hair, everything will be a mesh turned VDB.

Q: Your Yeti is adorable but how can you be sure it's a girl?
Well the hairbow of cour.... wait times have changed. IDK, then.

Q: Are you going to create the Santa / Yeti render?
Yes. BUT.. it isn't going to be a simple process even though I now have a template to work with. As far as I know, the Mesh to Volume... and Back will only create a one and done volumetric node meaning I can't change the posed figure to another pose and expect the VDB to also change poses. I could be wrong on this and if anyone knows a way to bypass the problem, your input is greatly appreciated.

MAYBE THAT IS WHAT THE 'and Back' means in the Alessandro_AM script.

If not, then I will have to pose out my entire scene, then apply the VDB for all scene objects, then apply the coloring.

Q: Couldn't you just use a displacement map and get the same results?

A: I HATE YOU. 🙂 😀 😛 ..but honestly, probably. I wanted to try something completely new and different. I like to break the cycle and explore the unknown sides of Daz Studio, learn its limits and work through them when given opportunity. This is a challenge to myself. As my time with Daz nears its end.. I want to go out swinging.

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Again, this is WIP.

- Take care