Haas - Brand Rabbit

Rabbit or Jackrabbit?

The first step in the development process for this character was making our minds up if we want a jackrabbit or a rabbit or maybe a mix of both creatures. While rabbits are the cuter version of the animal a jackrabbit looks more sporty and active which is also a good thing for a food company.

So in the end we went with a best-of-both-worlds animal.

Hairy Volumes & Proportions

As furry characters always depend quite a lot on what their fur actually looks like it doesn't make much sense, working on the body shape without always keeping the volume in mind that the fur will add. That's why we always went through client feedback rounds with proxy fur applied. Refining both body shape and fur appearance at the same time.

Bones, Joints, Muscles & Poses

We knew this would be a print only project (for now). So we did not go into the hassles of creating a skin-sliding-over-muscles kinda rig but went with a more classical approach of rigging and skinning. Yet we needed the flexibility to pose our rabbit in rather extreme poses which required some extra care during the process. Rigging / Posing was done in Cinema4D.

Now make him Red!

The final polishing, adding of fur, lighting and rendering was done in Houdini. We created a natural colored brown rabbit for the first few feedback and approval rounds and then re-colored him to red for the rendering. This helped to get the basics locked down first and then focus on the changed fur color. As red rabbits are quite unusual to look at this way of working ensured, that we were not disctracted by the fur color for working on the more natural asthetics of our character asset