Ahoy Ylanders! Today, we spoke with our Art department about what's coming to Ylands! And we bring you a short peek into the brand new guardian of Arid caves! [b]Conceptualizing the Arid Hyena[/b] The creation of our new hyena creature for the Arid region in Ylands started with the need for a guardian of the dark, mysterious caves. We chose a hyena for its reputation as a cunning and resilient animal, aiming to evoke a sense of danger and challenge. The goal was to create a creature that fits the harsh, unforgiving nature of its environment. This creature is meant to add a new layer of depth and excitement to the game, challenging players in unexpected ways. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/9f97ae610bfb9263f0d95853bafc7898d0b9be0a.jpg[/img] [b]From 3D Model to Life: Crafting the Hyena[/b] We built the hyena directly in Blender, focusing on sharp edges and glowing green crystals to emphasize its role as a cave guardian. Following our pipeline, we skinned the model in Maya to ensure smooth integration with our animation workflow. The final model, with its intimidating stance and piercing eyes, meets our vision of a menacing creature. Every detail was crafted to enhance the creature’s unique and formidable presence within the game world. [b]Animating the Guardian: Breathing Life into Our Creation[/b] For the animation, we reused the set from the Wendigo, as both creatures share the same skeleton. This approach allowed our artists to add more variations while enabling our animators to focus on other critical tasks. Creating a new animation set is very time-demanding, so reusing existing animations was a practical solution. By optimizing our resources this way, we were able to enrich the game’s animation quality overall. What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward the the hyena? Let us know!  Stay Classy!