Year Of The Ox 2021

It's the year of the Ox and I feel as though the 3D art community is lacking a nice photorealistic render of a cow, so I took that as a challenge. Here's 3 interesting facts I learned about oxen while gathering references that I think you'll find interesting too:

1. An ox refers to bovine (large mammal species)
2. A female ox is called a cow and a male ox is called a bull
3. Both male and female oxen typically have horns, but there are a few breeds that don't such as Angus cattle

Since I'm a sucker for microdetails this ox was no exception. The ox wasn't going into a game engine, so I went all out with Xgen splines instead of cards. Managing Xgen is no easy feat, but with proper viewport adjustments, render setting adjustments and superb PC specs I smooth sailed like butter on a hot pan.

I was planning only doing a head study, but thought it's the year of the Ox! Apparently my birth day falls under the importance of this year in the Chinese calendar and decided to incorporate an upper torso bust to make things more interesting. I'm drawing inspiration from traditional Asian cultures to create a beautiful and intricate outfit for the ox.

Enjoy!