Avatar Thanator

myminifactory

The creature known as the Thanator, or palulukan which translates to "dry mouth bringer of fear" in Na'vi, inhabits Pandora. Despite many areas remaining unexplored, xenobiologists speculate that it may be the top land predator on Pandora. This massive animal bears resemblance to a Terran panther and is distinguished by its ability to dominate its territory and instill fear in even the largest and fiercest creatures of Pandora. The Na'vi, renowned for their bravery, are intimidated by the approach of this creature. I utilized this model for a university assignment with Zbrush and Maya. On the turntable, you can see the wireframe, texturing, and low poly version of my sculpture. I sculpted the Thanator model entirely in Zbrush 4R6 and rendered it using Keyshot 5 and Zbrush BPR render. My process involves the following steps: making a base mesh in Zbrush, defining primary and secondary forms, adding details, and rendering a presentation image with Keyshot 5. Next, I perform retopology while maintaining the details by using Zremesh and Project All. The Transpose Master Plugin posed a challenge. Once Thanator was positioned, only a few tests remained: optimizing for 3D printing by testing the mesh in Cura and Netfabb, reworking various angles of the model with smoothing, adding more details, and utilizing Move and Dam Standard Brushes. During this phase, I also aimed to reduce volume on the bottom part of the mesh. The outcome was a support-free Thanator.