3D realistic dog

[Publimix]

How easy/difficult (and cheap or expensive) is it these days to make a 3d realistic dog that interacts with real people in a movie? And with realistic I mean about the same as the tiger in 'live of pi'

[firehawk]

I haven't seen the movie mentioned, but have some experience mixing 3D with people.
I am not a good modeler so I would either buy a 3D dog from a place like turbosquid or hire a talented person to create and rig it.
For simple, limited interaction among characters careful planning must be done for all scenes that mix real and 3D characters.
I like to either shoot largely on greenscreen if there will be lots of effects or at least plan on utilizing some type of dummy object as a placemarker that the actors can talk to so the interaction is believable. The dummy object can easily be covered up with the 3D model.
If its a low budget project, limiting camera movement helps a lot for those scenes too since it's a lot of extra work making the 3D character match the camera moves.

Perhaps the coolest thing is the fact that little operations can even do this wheras not long ago only big budget Hollywoood productions could

[El Director]

To really add life to the model, you'll want to have a way to simulate muscles moving beneath the fur and skin, as will as a chest that expands and contracts as it breaths. Not to mention all the subtle nuances of the animal. Can it be done? Yes. Can you do it? I don't know. I wish you the best though

[Publimix]

To really add life to the model, you'll want to have a way to simulate muscles moving beneath the fur and skin, as will as a chest that expands and contracts as it breaths. Not to mention all the subtle nuances of the animal. Can it be done? Yes. Can you do it? I don't know. I wish you the best though

Thanks, I realize my question was not clear. I could not do these kind of things, even if I wanted. I only was wondering how much effort/cost it would take to do this. Is 3D modelling still very expensive and difficult, (and better hire a real-live smart dog for the job?)

[Gord.T]

Even with a well modelled and rigged animal you still have the task of animating it (realistically?) and matching the render plates in post.
I suppose it depends on your budget and what your final expectations are but yes it would be a lot of work to do it CG and be half decent.
i.m.o. go with a live animal if possible.

[legrevedotcom]

One might be so bold as to say, that if you could pull this off by yourself, your should be fully booked very soon.... yes, there are 3D generalists, but you might see their finished product differs from production houses where the animation goes through a lot of different people who are good at that particular thing... fx. one is good at modelling, one is good at rigging, one is good at animation, one is good at texturing and one might even be good at fur specifically before you reach the guy who is good at lighting and rendering.

So yes and no, it can be quite time consuming and difficult, or you could end up saying; "I'm able to do this..." and then go with it, but I would assume that the one man band will end up with one of two things; A. a dog that doesn't look completely realistic, or B. a dog that does look realistic but took several weeks/months for you to get right.

[Gord.T]

One might be so bold as to say, that if you could pull this off by yourself, your should be fully booked very soon.... yes, there are 3D generalists, but you might see their finished product differs from production houses where the animation goes through a lot of different people who are good at that particular thing... fx. one is good at modelling, one is good at rigging, one is good at animation, one is good at texturing and one might even be good at fur specifically before you reach the guy who is good at lighting and rendering.

So yes and no, it can be quite time consuming and difficult, or you could end up saying; "I'm able to do this..." and then go with it, but I would assume that the one man band will end up with one of two things; A. a dog that doesn't look completely realistic, or B. a dog that does look realistic but took several weeks/months for you to get right.

Agreed..