Well I finally got down to it and have started modeling the the bones in the body. I thought I'd start with the most complex bones to model, and then work my way down from there. Next I'll do the spine and the femur. Also since the back half of the gryphon is a Lion it will work out quite nicely when I start modeling an actual Lion.

I've just about finished the Pelvis, then I'll move on to the other bones in the body.

I got the reference images from http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Science.VetAnatImgs
Some of the best anatomical drawings on the planet for horses, dogs, lions, cows, and more. You have probably seen some of them already in books and online.

Well, I think I have finished the head and got the edge loops and poles setup for animation.

I've also started work on mapping out the proportions of the body, because I plan on making a complete skeleton and muscle system for him. Then I will wrap a higher res mesh over that and use the shrink wrap modifier for muscle simulation.

The feathers should be "real fun" to do and will certainly stress my computer in shear number crunching.

Thanks for any comments.

Gryphon test renders

A couple of test render. This one has an improved shader for the eyes, and some more work was done on the lower jaw.

A couple test renders of the eyes that I just finished making.

I have started a new project and have been posting my progress over at blenderartists.org, and thought I would post a kind of progress sheet and then start doing regular updates here also.

 

  

   

And here is a foot. Not a very good one, but it's getting there.