AUTHOR
Nicolas Guillet
Nicolas is a French character artist in the games industry, specialising in stylised creations and following a traditional mindset. He enjoys creating 3D art with catchy mood and ambience. bit.ly/3TdEgmz
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 createPureRef 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.
