My plan originally was just to do a groom study, but I ended up getting carried away and turned this asset into a mount, perfect for the Amara character I did previously. It was a good opportunity to improve my fur texturing and lookdev skills.
The eyes, saddle and accessories I built using Maya and Zbrush, textured in Substance Painter. The groom was built in Houdini, and the whole asset was rendered in Houdini.
For the deer model, I started with the base mesh from a wildlife animal pack made by the talented Daniar Joldoshbek. I did some retopology in a few areas, created UVs, sculpted and then textured the model.
The link to the pack can be found here - https://www.artstation.com/a/47245112