There's more than one way to skin a cat

Though I have now met the assesment requirements that I set out for myself, there's no reason to stop there. I think people will see what I have done as more of a "finished product" if he is more complete in his appearance. So, with my spare three days before the deadline I will attempt to texture and fur him. My progress so far has been good. I spent some time laying out his UV's by hand, only using planar projections and then stitching and sewing the UV's together. In order for his fur to work this has to be done, but it also allows me to create textures for his nose, paws and skin easily. Here is a snapshot of the layed out UV's:

I think I have done quite well here, and my mapping skills seem to have developed since the virtual modelling and apache projects.

However when I have finished texturing and fur I will have to delete all the history on the mesh, which will mean I have to re-skin him. This is not too big an issue however, and I'm sure I can do better than my first skin. The first skin process went quite well and works pretty satisfactorally. Though much practice is needed yet. Here's a snap:

The result is pleasing, and he behaves much like the digital puppet he should be, with very few glithches and unexpected behaviours. Here's the first pose I put him in, which was quick and simple to do using the controls I set up: