Outdoor Mini Cat House

As a stray cat owner who has a cat living in their backyard (we named Reese), I wanted to design something that I believe he would enjoy and would offer maximum comfort and support to his little life.

I designed a small Cat House that could be easily built with wood planks and other easily accessible tools.

DESIGN

1. Modeling Software - (In my case I used Autodesk Maya)
2. Drawing Software - (In my case I used Photoshop)

BUILD

1. Wood Planks
2. Wood Saw
3. Wood Hole Drill
4. Nails
5. Hammer
6. Wood Glue
7. Your Favorite Paint

I first sketched out a rough floor plan of what I wanted the structure to look like. After that I made a rough blockout in Maya with simple cubes in order to get accurate measurements.

While designing this to house outdoor stray cats, I wanted two exit/entry holes for a sense of safety, as the cat living in my backyard is easily frightened and runs away often. Not only that, but I wanted there to be an easy way of replenishing water and food without invading the privacy of the cat which I calculated with the exterior 5-inch bowl holders. The 120-degree sloped roof accounts for different weather conditions such as snow or rain. The second elevated floor ensures a higher sense of safety as the cat can hop onto the surface and even be on the lookout with the second exit hole. The second exit hole also provides sufficient lighting as well as cover under the second elevated floor if they wish to remain in the dark.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this design and knew that Reese would love it too.

Next up, I wanted to finalize the design so I imported the blockout from before and made a proper model of the structure.

Using Autodesk Maya, I was able to have full creative freedom when altering and improving the original design. I wanted to make sure that it "made sense" and would theoretically be able to be build in real life.

As I am a 3D Artist, I did not just want to stop at the design phase. Therefore, I brought it into my sculpting software

(ZBrush) and added finer realistic details.

I also then gave it texturing in Substance Painter and then it was ready to be rendered.

I then imported all of my assets to my rendering software, I used Blender, and began making concept renders. I also set dressed my scene with assets I got from Sketchfab and here are the final results!