Started on modeling the bear

Got started on modeling the bear. BUT....of course, there's always a catch. i got most of the bears hind-end formed, worked on saving it, but it decided to freeze:

lately the programs seem to work against me. i will prevail.

videos displaying Caribou's walking/etc

http://www.naturefootage.com/stockfootage/Caribou

Rigging the Caribou 2

Rigging the Caribou

The start of the rigging process went a bit haywire. Maya didn't feel like working last night with rigging, and no matter what I did it wasn't allowing me to set joints anywhere in the work field. I ended up having to save my mesh as an .OBJ, re-import it into a new scene, save it over the previous file, and go from there. As you can see from the following screenshots, it worked.

Antlers = finished

Managed to finish the antlers and mirror everything over to make sure it was good. Now that I'm satisfied with them, I'll redo the tail (idk where it went) and finish the hooves. After that, and some tutorials for Modeling2, it'll be time to start getting the fur and other textures in place.

Modeling the Caribou 2

Had to restart the head, but it ended up doing just fine. Got the antlers started, the ears set, and the nose is good. I'll be cutting the mouth out later, and forming the hooves as well. Afterwards, I'll be focusing on the fur dynamics, then doing the rigging. 

Once all this is done, I'll save it as a separate file, and then tweak the body (mainly elongate it and delete the antlers) and form the Moose. This way will save me a lot of time in rigging. 

Here it is thus far smoothed out.

Modeling the Caribou

The head and hoof areas are giving me slight problems, but nothing that can't be fixed. I haven't started the antlers yet, they'll take the longest on this particular animal. Once those are knocked out I'll be applying fur, creating the eyes, mouth, and eyes.

Undecided on a Musk Ox

Wolverine photos

Walk/run cycle study: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YraUjbNL2JE

Grizzly Bear photos

Walk cycle video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x625t7BKylo

Moose photos

Bear/Moose walking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lnEKOovinA&feature=related

Caribou photos

Current Ideas

So far I have planned at least 4 different animals (bear, moose, caribou, and wolverine), and placing them in their perspective environments in the Alaskan wilderness. This means I will be creating at least two different scenes, one with green foliage, and another with snow-covered tundra.

What this means, especially the latter, is I will be extensively using fur dynamics and particle dynamics, such as dust, for the snowfall and snow scattering on the ground as the animals walk/run. The most difficult to do will be the wolverine, as they don't have much to work with as far as photos/videos to study and work with.

Working with snow I will be needing to create impact points for the paw/hoof prints, which may end up being difficult as well, but not too impossible.