The Sphinx, sculpted and animated

I started from the historical image of the Sphinx and her appearances in video games and films.

I blocked out the shapes and sculpted the face and body with my own alphas and brushes. I painted the feather and fur alphas in Clip Studio Paint instead of using photos, for a more unique finish.

I projected those same alphas onto a simple mesh, layered like a bird’s feathers. The mane is a mesh hidden under a hair system with feathers.

Since the mane hides the neck, I split the head and body into separate meshes and UV maps.

I baked the sculpt onto the retopology, painted the color in Blender and used hair systems for the fur and feathers, controlled with weight painting.

I built the rig with Rigify (a quadruped with human facial bones and bones in the wings). The hardest part was weight painting the feathers so the wings would fold properly.

I modeled a cliff facing the sea, dressed it with GScatter and used textures and HDRIs from Polyhaven. The ocean uses Ocean modifiers baked as displacement.

I animated the landing with wind simulations for the feathers and vegetation, added sound effects and edited the render in Premiere.