Azraïn - Angel of Death

Maya

Modeling by Souame Ayad

Texturing by Shade Laffond

Animation by Marcelin Lamaty

Azraïn - Graduation Movie

His name, Azraïn, comes from North African traditions, it's the name of the angel of death, because in our story he's the one who brings death.A creature inspired by spiders, crabs, and scorpions. His carapace protects him from many attacks, but it's not without weak points. We wanted to evoke the viewer’s anxiety through the creature’s design, accentuated by a multitude of eyes and countless teeth.

Concept of our creature made by Souame Ayad

Challenges

The creature presented major technical challenges during the rigging process.

Its retractable teeth were one of the most complex elements to set up, tooth needed blendshapes to allow smooth extension and retraction without intersecting with each other
Skinning was also complicated due to the creature’s rigid carapace, which allowed very limited deformation, we had to carefully balance weights to preserve the solid armored look while still enabling the small amount of movement required for animation
The tail added another layer of difficulty, being both retractable and flexible, requiring a hybrid rig combining spline deformation with retractable joints

Overall, the combination of multiple eyes, rigid body parts and retractable tooth made the rigging and technical setup one of the biggest challenges of the project.