This conference focuses on the evolution of El Ranchito's working methodology for the creation and integration of hyperrealistic creatures for film and television. Our clients increasingly require us to create hyper-realistic animals and creatures that do not look like they have been generated by computer.

We have developed a working methodology that includes everything from skeleton, muscle, tissue, wrinkles, probabilistic hair shaders and the styling of millions of hairs, to lighting and final compositing. We use over 500 reference images and videos in this process.

In the session we will show the base geometry we use to create any kind of quadruped, from a deer to a lion, a dog or a horse. We will also analyse aspects such as the transition of characterfx from Maya to Houdini, rigging of muscles and dynamics, fascia, wrinkles, high resolution mesh multisolver with collisions, combing of millions of hairs, total control of the final appearance of tens of millions of hairs with their dynamics, optimisation of cache generation and render times.

Finally, we will deal with the preparation and automation of render layers so that the compositing department can have total control of the final look of the creature.