Dragons are iconic symbols of power in myths and legends from the Chinese Zodiac to Humbaba, the dragon from Gilgamesh. Today, these age-old beasts now grace our lives through cameras and computers, rather than stories filled with bards and lutes, though.The art of making a computer-generated dragon that lives up to centuries of hype isn't easy, but the the animators at Yujaeho have nailed it in their new short, simply titledDragon.Dragon is an in-progress animation test from Yujaeho's studios, which winds up revealing a lot about the effort that goes into CGI design. The incredibly detailed dragon thrashes around in a crowd of medieval sorcerors—set to Lorde's Everybody Wants To Rule The World for dramatic effect—and flashes through various levels of completion. It opens with the dragon in its basic, colorless form, then replays the same sequence in all its scaled, scary glory, before evolving even more. There's even a finished water scene that's making us nostalgic for the days we owned that coveted holographic Gyarados Pokemon card.Yujaeho composed the short in Autodesk Softimage and rendered it in Arnold. The full details of their software techniques are available in Dragon's Vimeo description. Budding VFX artists take note—this is how you make a dragon look awesome. After a couple replays of this clip, we're almost considering taking dragons off our tattoo embargo list. Almost.Check out these GIFs of Yujaeho's dragon that will make you breath fire in amazement:
Splash over to Yujaeho's website and Vimeo channel to sample more of their stunning CGI work.Related:Here's How To Create Digital Destruction In BlenderCrafting Time-Bending Aliens And Other VFX Challenges Behind "Edge Of Tomorrow"Robot Film "Construct" Could Change Everything You Know About CGIThe Newest Godzilla Would Have Taken 450 Years To Design On A Single Computer
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