Snowy Owl - rigged - animated 3D model

Snowy Owl

Rigged and Animated for Lightwave 8.5 and up
Rigged and Animated for 3DS MAX 2008 and up
MAX 2017 generated FBX
MAX 2009 generated FBX
Lightwave 2015 generated FBX
OBJ - includes base object and all morph target objs

The feathers are geometry so they render fast and no plugins are needed.

This model comes with several pre-animated scenes to get you started.

The wings are animated using the 3 bones within each. The wings are folded using one of several morph targets.

You can also make adjustments, like spreading the wing tip feathers and spreading the tail using morph targets.

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The main controlling object is the ROOT bone

‘DBF-ZERO.lws' is the name given to my BASIC set up, no animation, but it is rigged.

I have provided several scene files to get you started:
DBF-FlyLoop.lws
DBF-LandTakeOff.lws

The feet and legs are controlled by LT-FootController and RT-FootController respectively (Lightwave)

The feet and legs are controlled by LT-FootController and RT-FootController respectively (3DS MAX)

There are two 'neck' bones, a 'head' bone and a 'lower beak' bone.

There are 31 Morph targets.

The 'Mouth' and phonemes are controlled by 9 Morph targets located when you select the mesh and go to Object => Properties => "Deform”.(Lightwave)

The 'Mouth' and phonemes are controlled by 10 Morph targets located when you select the EGF mesh and go to 'Modify' => 'Morpher'. (MAX)

The wings are controlled by 3 bones each and have 10 Morph positions, including flapping and folded positions

WingFold1
WingFold2
WingFold3
WingFold4
WingFold4-AtSide
WingFold5-Inter
WingFold6-Complete
WingFold7-Complete
WingFold7-Inter
WingFold8-Complete
WingFold9-Complete
WingTIpsDn
WingTIpsSpread-01
WingTIpsSpread-02

The Tail spread is controlled via Morph target “TailClosed, the Tail bone controls position and rotation.

The eyes have several morph targets:
EyeBrowsUP-LT
EyeBrowsUP-RT
EyelidsOpened
Eye-Iris-Size
Eye-Pupil-Size

The toes are controlled by 12 bones on each foot.

To fold the wings use the morphs noted above.

But if you have positioned the wings by moving the bones, AND you try to use morph targets to fold them, you WILL have some pretty weird distortions that will freak you out.

Don't panic, the solution is to 'zero' out your wing bone positions, as or just before you apply the 'Morph' targets.

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If, after turning the modifiers 'TurboSmooth' and 'Morph' on and off a few times, while setting up your animation, you may find that points on the model are suddenly no longer attached to their bones.

Save what you are doing, close Max and then reopen Max. Reopen your scene and you should be fine.

Max gets sometimes lost when the modifiers are turned on and off.

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The model is made hi resolution by using Sub-Patching, so the actual geometry is much less than the rendered geometry.

Both Models:

Snowy Owl:
Real Geometry:
32621 vertices
18665 polygons

Boulder:
114 verticies
112 polygons

Ground:
8 verticies
6 polygons
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the maps are RGB or greyscale, 72dpi and 200dpi, 2666px X 2666px

Additional Youtube previews:

SnOwl Anim Grey HI
https://youtu.be/1H2-135lqyo

SnOwL Anim Grey LO
https://youtu.be/vfvDsx3Xhv0

SnOwl Anim Color
https://youtu.be/i5dcZoatrBo

SnOWL Phoneme
https://youtu.be/26WwrMNDeHo

SnOWL TT Color HI
https://youtu.be/GM8PimH1kvU

SnOWL TT Fold Color HI
https://youtu.be/i4tFEWd5BhE

SnOWL TT Grey HI
https://youtu.be/RTClKDSH59s

SnOwl FlyLoop
https://youtu.be/n68bWlX9L6U

SnOwl LandTakeOff
https://youtu.be/PKpe_a-3MxM