INK Creatively Combines Pooches and Planes.
INK is an award winning digital production studio in London, England. Spurred by their love of dogs and airplanes, artists at INK decided to blend the two together to create “Dogfighters.” World War II planes were carefully paired with various breeds of dog with the hope of matching the dog’s personality with that of a particular plane.
We use V-Ray in every single project in the studio. It's a critical part of our pipeline.
James Ball, Partner at INK
They found that some planes naturally lent themselves to certain breeds. For example, the Lancaster Wellington - a very hardy, trusty British airplane - paired perfectly with the hardy and popular family dog, the Golden Retriever. While entertaining the idea of using a jet plane to match with a breed, it was agreed upon that propeller planes were more conducive to the playfulness of the project. “Which dog is that plane?” was a constant topic of conversation around the studio.
All modeling, texturing and lighting was done in 3D Studio Max using the Hair Farm plugin to craft the fur. Artists found that V-Ray provided them with about 90% of the final product and was an excellent base for further retouching. One of the challenges was to brush the right type of fur for the specific dog. A Golden Retriever has short yet relatively messy fur, whereas a Schnauzers is more fine, longer and hangs free from the face, so to recreate this specifically presented a steep learning curve to begin with.
From the beginning the idea was to go for a studio fashion shoot aesthetic. Using V-Ray RT for scene and lighting setup proved to be essential. INK uses V-Ray for all of their projects.
