Introduction

Hi, My name is Phu Nguyen, and I’m a Lookdev Artist working for Vinata Animation Studio in Saigon. I was interested in Painting and Drawing when I was a kid. Later, I went on self-taught on those things and slowly made a transition into 3D.

I started as a 3D Model and Texture Artist at outsourcing studios for the gaming industry, then I move to BlueR studio working on Film and TVC. Working on that team helped me improve so much and I can have an overall look about how each department (concept, model, animation, lookdev, comp, etc.) can connect/work together to fully create a product from start to end.

Now, besides working for my current studio, I also do some personal project at free time. Learning and experiencing new things, new knowledge and improving my self as an artist, and those are something I always looking for. So that’s why I decided to take the CGMA course “Sculpting Anatomy: From Animal to Creature”.

Gathering the Reference and Inspiration

For the first half of the course, our goal is to study a random animal and create a sculpture of him/her from the inside out (bone, muscle system, skin). So I started gathering reference images about Panthera, not any pacific type, just a bunch of images of tiger, leopard, jaguar, lion… as well as the skeleton, and anatomy references from the book. Two main books I like the most is:

Animal Anatomy for Artists, The Elements of Form by Eliot Goldfinger

An Atlas Of Animal Anatomy For Artists by W. Ellenberger, H. Baum, and H. Dittrich

I also take a look at some artwork from other artists, especially my lecturer, Gael Kerchenbaum, and Jun Huang from Jun Anatomy.

After that, I begin to analyze that information, compare proportion, shapes between each type and try to imagine how the study could turn out. Finally, I decide to pick the Leopard (Panthera Pardus) because of how elegant the shape and the movement of that creature are! Then after that, the reference board was born!