Making Ratita

What I'm gonna show here is not a tutorial. Just a little step by step of how I did the site's banner. Ratita is based on Victoria 4 from Daz3D model.
Normally I use Daz Studio to create the character and then open it in Carrara to compose the scene to render. But this was straight in Carrara. I like this software because it renders faster than others such as Poser and Daz Studio and in few minutes I have a great picture.
First of all, load Victoria 4 that comes with her basic texture.

Then I googled for textures and clothes that matched the visual that I had already drawn in 2d. There're several sites like ShareCG, Renderosity, MOST Digital Creations, Content Paradise, Art Raiders, Evil Innocence where you can download clothes, skins texture (skin), hair, jewelry, poses, and even full characters for free use. In Daz3D site, there're some free too.

In Texture tab in Carrara I customized textures according to her and I added the logo of my favorite band on the shirt. But you can't always find everything, like mouse ears, so I had to model them in Hexagon, a Daz3D software really easy to model.

I exported V4 head to Hexagon only as a reference for modeling. And from a sphere, I could model the ears in a few minutes.
Back to Carrara, I imported the ears and I did some test renders with global illumination.

 

Finally, I added fur on the ears with Hair tool, I posed her and adjusted the camera's frame to the size of the header and did the final render.

 

I love this character because she has a mix of cosplay, anime with a Rock'n'Roll mood. All I like!
Later on I intend to post some tutorials, tips and tricks on how to start in 3D in a fun way, without so much frustration.