ZBRUSH | BLENDER | SUBSTANCE 3D PAINTER | MARMOSET TOOLBAG | PHOTOSHOP
Learn how to build a stylised character for your portfolio from scratch using Nicolas Guillet’s optimised workflow
Making a 3D character based on a concept is a classic way for artists to learn new tools and upgrade their skills, but creating your own design from scratch is even more challenging for stepping up your art style. To help you get a handle on that process, let me show you how I create a unique character.
My personal project here is a tribute to World of Warcraft and features a goblin fit for use in a cinematic. We’re going to cover all the steps and tools you can use, starting from sculpting with ZBrush, exploring techniques to optimise your model and setting up a smart material in Substance 3D Painter, before finishing our journey rendering the character with Cycles in Blender.
01 SET UP A PUREREF FILE
Take a moment to create a PureRef file where you can choose images to inspire your project, rather than sculpting without any references. Of course, creating our own character design is the primary target here, but having some good references such as clothes, environments and moods will give you an overall feeling for where you’re going and will keep you on the right path, which can save a lot of time. For example, I took inspiration from in-game props and weapons to help with the character’s storytelling.
02 START THE BLOCKOUT
You can begin sculpting from scratch with a raw sphere to blockout your character in ZBrush.
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Working with the DynaMesh option is good for building the wireframe with a simple click and drag in the Viewport. With that, you can use your Move brush to reshape the model without fear of destroying your wireframe. The most important brushes you can use here are the ClayBuildup and Smooth to add the global shape, the Move brush for the silhouette and the proportions, the Dam Standard for cavities and folds, and the Trim Dynamic for the hard-surface elements.
03 USE ZREMESHER FOR RETOPOLOGY
When your blockout is finished, you can start the retopology with this simple method for rebuilding meshes. For a detailed character like this, ZRemesher will get the job done and save you a lot of time. Set the Target Polygons Count to 5 for the majority of your mesh’s parts, which is a decent percentage of polygons to catch all the shapes. Increase this to 10- 15 for the important areas like the head to keep the silhouette and shapes readable. Next, use the Project All tool to reproject all the detail information from your old mesh to the new topology.
