In My Latest Comic Episode, Pet Dragon Named Bash Looks For A Wealthy Owner (Part 6)

Bash is a young dragon, and like any baby dragon, he’s driven by a single passion — GOLD!

The story continues from the last episode, ‘The Peasant's Problem'.

Tim, a firefighter, never expected to share his home with a baby dragon—but that changed when Bash came along. Since moving in, the tiny, troublemaking dragon has turned everyday life upside down. Obsessed with shiny objects and expecting the royal treatment, Bash behaves more like an overindulged cat than a fearsome creature.

However, this week, Bash has decided to start looking for a new peasant - preferably one with lots of gold and little brains. Know anyone...?

Stay tuned for what happens in Episode 7 next week!

Catch up on the previous episodes: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5.

More info: webtoons.com | timandbash.com | tiktok.com | youtube.com | Facebook | Instagram | kickstarter.com

Humans who love animals tend to see what they want to see - a cute fluffy fluff ball. But sometimes that fluff ball is thinking about eating you. Luckily for Tim, dragons think that peasants are revolting snacks.

Besides gold, Bash has a strange soft spot for his princess doll, which was gifted to him by Tim in an earlier episode. This princess has been through a lot in her life, including being decapitated and burned alive. But she's stuck by Bash, and he appreciates that loyalty.

Tim is a firefighter, which is an ironic match for a fire-breathing baby dragon. A story that has irony embedded into the premise already has a lot of the ingredients of a successful story. Irony creates humour, suggests conflict, and creates a set of oppositions, which form the basis of many possible storylines.

We used the 3D modelling software Maya to create a 3D puppet of Bash, and the hair is created using the Yeti plug-in for Maya and simulated with Maya's Hair tools. Fun fact - Bash has approximately 2,406,310 strands of fur! Bash is also inspired by Harpy Eagles, which is why he has a set of interesting head feathers. Bash has twelve different feather types, and each feather is given variation to make them all unique. Fun fact - Bash has 7,065 feathers on his head and a total of 1,061,957 feather barbs! (The strands on a feather are barbs.)

To be able to give Bash movement, we needed to attach him to a rig. This turns him into a virtual puppet ready for animation. First we create a skeletal structure to act as the base for deforming the body. The skeleton is driven by a control system created procedurally using Python and Maya. The rig controls are manipulated using curves in the Maya scene, or by using the control picker UI. We simulate fat jiggle, body collisions and wing movement, which drives the groom system, which simulates the fur.

Using Arnold as our render engine, Bash is given materials that mimic physical properties of the real world. Fur pigmentation is controlled procedurally through the material, and texture maps are given to his iconic head feathers to give them their pattern. When integrating with the live-action footage, we use a 360 camera to create an HDRI image to use as the basis for lighting Bash. We use scans of the environment to create shadows on the floor and walls, and use colour-grading techniques to integrate him with the background.