Hello! My name is Emily, and I’m a technical animator on theHunter: Call of the Wild! With the new Scotland reserve we finally introduced mustelids to the game: the Badger, Pine Marten, and my personal favorite, the Mink! Join me as I give you all a peek behind the fur on how we brought this wonderful critter to life.

In case you didn’t read Dev Diary: A Peek Behind the Tech of the Beaver[callofthewild.thehunter.com], here’s a short summary of the part I as a technical animator play in the development of our animals.

My job is basically laying the groundwork for the animation in the game. Among other things, I create the skeletons that drive the models made by our artist and make animation rigs to allow our talented animators to animate them! Sometimes I also work with the system that drives the animations, which we call a state machine: a behaviour tree that transitions the animal to and from the animations that correspond to its current action, as well as controlling other aspects of the animals movement.

Minks and many of their mustelid cousins are famously flexible animals, like furry noodles. In order to capture this it is important that the rig has the right controls that are easy for an animator to manipulate, so that we can properly display this unique physiology.

Have you ever paused an animation mid-movement and noticed that the limbs are all bent and noodley? That’s what we sometimes call a “ribbon”. These ribbon controls are usually used for cartoonish exaggeration, but we can also utilize it for the spine to create the crazy twists and bends minks are known for with only a handful of controls to keep track of. This is a common solution for most quadruped rigs, but this time a little extra effort was needed to get more precise control of the shape.

Those ribbon controls came in handy when our animators made these lovely hitreact animations where the mink jumps in the air, twisting and flailing in a very dramatic fashion, but there was one issue: the minks are class 1. They almost always die in one hit, meaning that those animations would never be seen! Luckily we were able to make them still play these animations before dying, like the rabbits do, and the roll at the end blending into the death-state tied it all together.

In case it wasn’t obvious, the mink is small, in fact it’s the smallest mammal in theHunter: Call of the Wild to date. They are also fast and nimble. Part of my job involves shooting the animals I work with over and over and over again, and let me tell you when these guys get running they are not easy to hit, and I have access to dev-cheats! You might find them easier to shoot while out on the water, so bring a retriever.

That’s right, minks are semi-aquatic. Many of us on the team are Swedes and just like us, minks have a taste for fish, so keep an eye on the lakes. Getting the swimming right was tricky due to their small size. One decimal wrong and they could either look like they’re drowning or like they’re floating above the water, so they needed quite a bit of fine-tuning. Their size turned out to be as much of a challenge for us as it hopefully will be for you!

Working on the minks has been such a joy for me. Mustelids are my favourite family of animals, so when I heard they were on the list for Scotland you better believe I was excited! I am super proud of the work me and my team have put into these adorable little guys, and I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have! While they may look too cute to shoot, I trust they’ll look splendid in your trophy lodges.

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