Designing Details as a 3D Character Artist
Detailed Sculpt
Lesson 2 of 5 3D Character Art
Bring definition to your rough sculpt by adding small details like clothing, hard surfaces, props and more. By the end of this lesson you will have a fully finished sculpt.
Prepping the Topology Homework
In order to work more efficiently when adding in small details, prep your topology in a more optimized way. You can use external software if you prefer, or you can stay right inside ZBrush by using the ZRemesher.
Clothing Details Homework
Add details to your character’s clothing. If you don’t have enough references on PureRef for clothing styles, take this chance to gather some more.
Beginner Path: Create clothing folds that match Antonio’s work on his character. For extra credit, you can change the style of clothing the character is wearing.
Hybrid Designer: Add in the details for whatever kind of clothing your character design calls for. Pay attention to the different ways that various kinds of materials can fold.
3D Character Artist: The character design you’re working on will have defined areas for clothing, but the exact materials may not be clear from the 2D images. Take care to find good clothing references.
Detailed Hero Piece Homework
Now it’s time to detail the ‘hero piece’ of your character, which would be their most iconic or eye-catching element. Take extra care with this part, because it’s where most viewers’ attention will be drawn before anything else.
Beginner Path: Create the mask details along with Antonio’s design. Pay attention to the choices he made for interconnected pieces and materials.
Hybrid Designer: Whatever hero piece is called for by your design, make sure it feels aligned with the overall look and style of the character.
3D Character Artist: Your hero piece will already be defined by the original design, but take extra time to make sure you do justice to the look and feel of that concept.
Remaining Details Homework
It’s time to fill in any gaps of detail and finish your character sculpt. Make sure that all parts of the character are detailed up to the same standard, and that they all work together without subtracting from the whole.
While your character sculpt should be finished after this assignment, you don’t need to explicitly sculpt the tiniest material details. Much about textures, patterns, damage, dirt, etc. will be added during the Materials stage later in the course.
Presenting Your Sculpt Homework
Create a simple pose that clearly shows off your character and their silhouette, then export an image of it directly from ZBrush. You can use some of the simple lighting techniques that Antonio showed in the first lesson to accentuate the character, but don’t go overboard. Reference can help a lot here as well, to ensure sure the pose looks realistic.
Student Homework
Lesson 1
Rough Sculpt
Choose from three distinct learning paths, then plan out your character and go over the basics of sculpting, before building out a rough sculpt in 3D.
- 4 hours 51 minutesTotal Lesson Duration
- 32 VideosVideo Lectures in this Lesson
- Project FilesDownloadable Project Files
Guidance
Introduction
Understanding Character Art
ZBrush Tips
Quick Character Design
Initial Design Ideas
Design Fundamentals
Building Out the Rough Sculpt
Finding the Final Shapes
Conclusion
Lesson 2
this lessonDetailed Sculpt
Bring definition to your rough sculpt by adding small details like clothing, hard surfaces, props and more. By the end of this lesson you will have a fully finished sculpt.
- 2 hours 58 minutesTotal Lesson Duration
- 23 VideosVideo Lectures in this Lesson
Guidance
Introduction
Prepping the Topology
Clothing Details
Detailed Hero Piece
More Detail Pieces
Presenting Your Sculpt
Conclusion
Lesson 3
Optimizing
Set up a low-poly version of your sculpt, create UVs, and finally bake, using professional techniques.
- 2 hours 40 minutesTotal Lesson Duration
- 22 VideosVideo Lectures in this Lesson
- Project FilesDownloadable Project Files
Guidance
Introduction
Organization
Basics for Final Low-Poly
Unwrapping
Bakes
Conclusion
Lesson 4
Materials
Create ultra-detailed materials for your character like metals, plastics, clothing and more, as well as props and other costume elements.
- 2 hours 4 minutesTotal Lesson Duration
- 15 VideosVideo Lectures in this Lesson
- Project FilesDownloadable Project Files
Guidance
Substance Painter Crash Course
Material Creation Examples
Final Material Breakdowns
Render and Export
Conclusion
Lesson 5
Presentation
Pose your character, then set up environments, lights and cameras to render out a series of high-quality keyframes.
- 3 hours 39 minutesTotal Lesson Duration
- 28 VideosVideo Lectures in this Lesson
- Project FilesDownloadable Project Files
Guidance
Creating Poses
Unreal Engine 5 Crash Course
Materials
Presentation
Alternate Rendering Option
Final Artwork
Conclusion
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