Effetti Digitali Italiani (EDI) shared a VFX breakdown of their stunningly realistic CG jaguar for Andrea Corsini's movie FERINE. Gaia Bussolati was the VFX supervisor on the project, while Marco Russo and Francesca Granatino were FERINE's VFX producers.
As the team explained, the CG jaguar was their most pre-visualized asset of the entire project. The trick was that while it had to be anatomically accurate, it was supposed to feel like another actor in the scene rather than an animal straight out of a National Geographic documentary. "It had to establish a level of empathy and exchange feelings and emotions with the actress," explained Bussolati.
To build up the jaguar, EDI started with the model of a tiger the team had previously made and modified its anatomy to match that of a jaguar. EDI's artists created a complete anatomical representation of a jaguar's body by making a full simulation of the layers of its body, from bones to muscles, fat, and fascia to skin and fur, for extra-realistic movement.
