![titelFINAL.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbZUjzpras6fbM9PV4WpWgfUG3bKsg5gehiN1p8gQJegG/titelFINAL.png)


Dear Steemians!

I participated in @w0olf ‘s [contest](https://steemit.com/designacharacter/@w0olf/design-a-character-contest-week-4-special-edition-win-sbd). This weeks contest is a special edition in cooperation with @fraenk. The goal is to design a female cute little cat in different poses for @steemkitten.



<center>**CONCEPT**</center>

For the sketch I tested out a similar designs, but mixed up the proportions - changed up the size of the head for example and added a few frames to make a gif with *Photoshop*.

![steemkitten_sketch3.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmdbFqRzAiKk1bJ1uLwRxt2wswckZyGiuUKDHxG7c96MKb/steemkitten_sketch3.gif)

I was inspired by [this cute little tickled cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8). Just love that vid! Later on I sporadically colored in the sketch to determine the color palette, as I wanted to design the cat in 3D and wanted to expand my skills for fur, as I just learned how to style realistic looking hair.

![coloredsketch2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYf82djwaCfevmPYiTt9v3rDvPazxMXEGtKDxSyMk4ZR8/coloredsketch2.png)

<center>**IMPLEMENTATION IN 3D**</center>
I (box) modeled the cat directly in *Blender*, starting with a cube and after the base form was accomplished, I started to sculpt the mesh. For this I downloaded blender sculpt tools [here](https://github.com/MadMinstrel/blender-sculpt-tools) and installed the Add-on in the User Preferences.

![first mesh.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXN6T3fRA4JNALP3XJo49cHaKmFP692VhbJAp5Q5qGFE3/first%20mesh.png)


<center>**SCULPTING AND RETOPO IN BLENDER**</center>
The ears and paws are not combined, but instead of combining them with ctrl+j, the new Add-On I downloaded will be used to unify all objects selected with shift (parent-object at the end). So now everything is ready for sculpting. I only concentrated on the parts, that were visible, so the body was quite square at the beginning. The character is symmetrical, so I enabled *mirror*, so that every action will be adopted to the other side and of course to rigg (=give the character a skeleton) and animate the cat later on. 

After that I retopologised the body and duplicated some parts, where I wanted to add the fur. 
After the retopo I added eyes and lid, that also could be animated

![retopo.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZrCtxTitctgqxZNTXcbLxBSpmQcDqZEWGsi9ta7UxwFG/retopo.png)

<center>**PARTICLE SYSTEM**</center>
Now was the time to add the fur. Therefore I used the Particle System, chose the length of the fur and set the amount to zero. I enabled the Particle Edit, where I systematically placed the fur and enabled *Children* in the *Properties Panel*, where you choose the amount, that will be placed and be rendered. This makes working with fur/hair more  clear, because you can just edit one strand, which affects 50-100 other "Children-Strands".

![hairparticle.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTSNkyJ1osZMR6fDH9LJRs3Upw2KXnWMDocVyBsFkcw7B/hairparticle.png)

I edited this post since yesterday. Here‘s a side by side, what I‘ve changed: the fur, the position of the eyes, the smoothness of the box and the background (subdivision surface) and played a little with lighting. There‘s of course always something you can change, but for a small project, this is what I came up with:)

![sidebyside.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmboWMjhn9WB7DUR5XpYT7LbmzatEo87wCfFR4crtNgPVH/sidebyside.png)


<center>Here‘s my version of Avatars [**Katara**](https://steemit.com/designacharacter/@jellenmark/surfer-girl-3d-workflow-of-reimagined-character) I modeled for the last contest, with a little more detail about the progress.
 And here are the [top three of this contest](https://steemit.com/designacharacter/@w0olf/design-a-character-contest-week-4-special-edition-top-3)! Please head over and give your vote until Wednesday!:) </center>

<center>**Thanks so much for reading!**

**xxx.**</center>