Character 3d Modelling - Body
Character 3D Modelling - Body
14/06/25 - 09/07/25
Introduction
This blog post will be similar to my previous blog post that analysed the development of the character's head, however, will focus on the body. The body is likely to have it's own challenges. The head is really important because it holds a lot of the personality and life that make the character unique. The body still holds a lot of personality, however, this focusses a lot more on the silhouette. There is also a vast array of body reference that I will be able to look at in order to get the anatomy correct. However, some of the challenges are likely to be creating the hard surface elements because this is a different modelling approach and is harder to achieve with sculpting that I have become comfortable with. Furthermore, the body has several of these different armored elements that all have their own forms. To support my development I'll continue to learn on research and visual references as well as consistently reflecting on my progress!
By the end of this blog post I will have developed the body and armor, which will tick off a lot of the tasks in the initial modelling pipeline. After this I'll be able to move over to retopology, which will be heading towards the end of the character creation pipeline! Its been rewarding seeing the head come to life and will be even more so when the body is complete because I'll have a finished high poly character and I'll be able to see the concept fully brought to life. The next most significant stage after this will be the completed textures!
Project Management Reflection
In terms of project management things are going okay, however, my teaching role is very demanding with the end of the academic year. This has required some evening attendance, attendance on my part-time non-working days and over night stays with trips I've organised for my students which has slowed down my progress. I had hoped to be further forward but I have adjusted my production schedule to allow for this. Furthermore, due to this additional attendance I've accrued additional time to take off in summer meaning although my progress has been slower now soon I will pick up the pace.
Below shows my Trello board, which isn't vastly different to the last time! I've organised tasks into checklists and I'm working through the checklists. This is giving me clear focusses for what I'm doing when I focus on my project's development.
The below image shows the task card for the character modelling and as you can see the head is ticked as completed! This blog post is studying the body development, however, this will also include the armor and boots too. Therefore, throughout this blog task I'm likely to tick off a lot of these aspects before moving onto the next stage of the pipeline which is retopology. I'm expecting retopology to be a more time consuming task, however, UV unwrapping and texturing are likely to be shorter tasks. I'm confident with UV unwrapping and find unwrapping characters easy to approach. The character is stylised so I'm hoping to adopt a simplistic texturing approach that matches the concept. I'll be researching approaches to texturing so that I can polish the character to a high standard.
Below shows my production schedule showing that I plan to finish the character around the end of June. This may be slightly ambitious still especially given some of the time I've lost with work. I'm also keen to not rush and finish this character to a high standard. Reflecting on the module's progress holistically, since it is a double module spanning 6 months I feel I can afford the extra time to do things properly. Furthermore, I may adjust my project schedule to organise the workload as completing the 3d character and rigging within the length of one module (3 months) and then completing the animation in the length of another module (3 months). This would mean I would need to finish the 3d model and rigging by the beginning of September which feels achievable. Furthermore, this feels like a significant set up from previous modules where I have worked with pre-built character rigs.
Therefore, whilst this definitely feels tight I feel I have leeway room and I feel I am making good progress and developing good skills. This will set my work apart from others with creating a bespoke character and will deepen my skills in technical animation to support my employability. None-the-less, these critical reflections and updating of project management will be key to staying on track as well as always looking at the bigger picture!
Now its time to dive into development!
Research
Research has always been the key to success - particularly visual research! This enables me to closely study key elements that inspire the approaches I take to development. For this section of the project I'm interested to study torso, leg and arms anatomy so that I can build a strong anatomically-correct structure. My concept is stylised and also is wearing clothes so I want to incorporate a good foundation that I can then smooth and soften to show that underneath the clothes the anatomy is present. This will help ground the character in reality and add visual interest. This also shows how I'm using my concept as a guide and adapting where it makes artistic sense to.
Below shows my full mood board I've collected to support sculpting; created in Pure Ref. This enables my to easily zoom in and out whilst it is open on my third monitor. I'm looking at where the muscles are and how they spread across different body parts. I'm going to be closely studying this and using it to inspired the direction and location of my brush strokes. I've organised this logically by body part so that I can easily navigate and focus on particular elements when sculpting. The images below the image below show each section.
Full mood board:
Torso reference:
Arms reference:
Next I returned to the video series SpeedChar (2022a) produced to learn from his pipeline. I'd skipped through a lot of the videos to gain an overall understanding of how useful they were and it is clear these early videos were really important in understanding professional pipelines and approaches. Therefore, these were really useful to me! Some of the later videos were repeating a lot of the same techniques. This will be the same for retopology and the start of other key parts in their pipeline. However, at this stage I was absorbing a lot of key information before I planned to listen casually as I was working.
The key things I learnt from this video (SpeedChar, 2022a) were:
- Starting with a basic sphere is a good way to begin the body sculpt, as it keeps things simple and manageable early on when blocking out the core shapes.
- It’s important to keep the mesh low poly in the early stages so that it’s easier to control the overall shape and structure without battling too many vertices.
- The 'Draw' and 'Clay Strips' brushes helps to build up the anatomy gradually, layer by layer. Here I will need to study my reference images and use these brushes in the direction of the muscles to build up these forms.
- The shoulders can be pulled out and the arms and legs created as separate meshes to keep things organised. This makes it easier to focus on each element before combining them.
- I learnt that arms and legs can be quickly blocked out by using a line and applying a solidify modifier to give them thickness. After this you can convert them to a mesh and work on the detail, however, this method means you get the cylindrical shape and can easily create and adjust the right length.
- When sculpting hands, you should make them wider at the knuckles than at the wrist to get a more natural-looking shape.
- Fingers were created as separate meshes and later merged. Duplicating a base finger is a smart way to save time while keeping the proportions consistent. Minor adjustments will be needed here.
- When creating the fingers they shouldn't be made completely straight. Instead fanning out the fingers slightly and angling them makes the hand look much more realistic and sit more naturally.
The next video below (Speedchar, 2022b) further developed the body beyond the initial forms., focussing a lot more on refinement.
The key things I learnt from this ((Speedchar, 2022b) were:
- Refining and defining the anatomy is an important step once the basic forms are in place, helping to push the sculpt towards a more believable shape. whilst also showing the importance of the pipeline. Details are pointless to define if your core shape isn't good.
- The main tools used during this process are Clay Strips, Draw Sharp, Grab, Inflate, Flatten, and Pinch. Clay Strips are good for building up layers, Draw Sharp is useful for carving in sharper details, and Grab helps with reshaping larger areas. Pinche enables you to sharped elements or build more angular elements. Draw shape is an easy way to cut into the model and work with a subtraction focussed approach.
- The artist regularly brings in their concept art to compare it with the sculpt, using it to make adjustments and stay on track with the original vision. I have this set up within my mood board to mirror this workflow. They also discuss the importance of making modifications in 3D using the concept as a guide. However, they are much more skilled than I so they are more easily able to create outcomes that more closely resemble the concept.
- They also talked about the benefits of working from professional concept art, explaining how it gives a clear goal and speeds up the decision-making process. This is something I can relate to, especially with how I used AI-generated concepts to help professionalise this element of the pipeline. It would have been more beneficial to work with an artist, however, I do not have the funds to pay an artist to create one for me. I also could have taken a concept from online, however, this would have presented me with a lot of constraints.
- One point that really stuck with me was how easy it is to get distracted by other things. They mentioned the importance of getting attached to your sculpt so that you stay motivated. This resonated with me because during the module break I started playing a video game and haven't completed it yet, this is distracting me a little bit and because I like to close things off. However, I do tend to prioritise my masters work over other things so I am not too worried about this. Furthermore, I'm doing some freelance work for an exam board atm which is also demanding some of my time. I discussed the my time management in my project management section, however, I am looking forward to completing the academic year and shifting my focus fully to this project. However, I recognise that this time of year is always busy for me but it does feel like the home stretch and I want to complete this project to the best of my ability!
The last video in this series that I felt was useful to informing my process was the one shown below (SpeedChar, 2022c). This one focussed on merging the arms together and beginning to create the armor and clothing pieces.
The key things I learnt from this ((Speedchar, 2022c) were:
- You can use Ctrl + J to join separate meshes together, and then remesh the geometry to properly connect areas as one mesh, like the arms to the body. You might need to step up the levels on your remesh because the mesh is now bigger and is likely to require more verts to hold the shape. If you don't you may notice you lose some detail.
- It’s important to spend time working on the join areas to make them look clean and natural, especially when merging different parts of the model. The smooth tool will often correct the initial errors, however, some parts may also need sharpening up and defining.
- The Pinch tool are helpful for sharpening up edges and tightening up details in specific areas. This can help define edges or create more angular forms in the mesh, if needed.
- I also found it useful seeing how the artist masked, extracted and remeshed using a Quad Remesher (2025) add-on to create the trousers and belt. It was a quick and effective way to block out clothing whilst staying in sculpt mode.
I did a little research into the Quad Resmesher (2025) addon through looking at their webpage. I learnt that it appears to be an effective remesher for hard-surface models, however, may not produce desire results for animation deformations. Therefore, this may be an effective short cut and remeshing tool for the hard surface elements of my character such as the boots, gauntlets, pauldrons and other armor/clothing elements. However, other solutions may be more effective for retopologising the organic parts.
Development
15/06/25The first big challenge was to make sure that the proportions of the character were accurate to the concept and true to anatomy as well. I brought my concept art for reference in so that I could use it as a rough guide to block in the major forms. My concept art wasn't completely orthographical from the front and side so this made things a little trickier because I couldn't match the proportions exactly. Despite this I was still able to use it as a rough guide to pinpoint particular key elements like the waist and where the boots ended. After all it was absolutely better than not having a guide!
This next image shows refinement across all areas of the body. I've blocked in a lot of the major muscle shapes to refine the foundation a little bit more. The arms look a lot less like random tubes and more like actual limbs! Its great seeing these milestones as you can start to see the concept come to life! I'm referring to my anatomy mouldboards closely to block in these muscles, however, since the character is wearing a suit I will soften the muscle definition. This will make it look a lot less defined so that the muscles look like they're covered by fabric.
Overall progress has been really good for one day! The majority of the character's body is fleshed out with a good anatomical foundation. I'm happy with the overall look because the anatomy feels believable. It is definitely stylised and cartoony through the exaggeration of elements like the chest, which matches the concept. Achieving this blend of anatomical correctness and stylisation is challenging, however, does give me some creative licence with how I develop the forms.
I started with a simple UV sphere with symmetry turned on to start blocking in these key forms. This part is always really exciting because you can make significant progress quickly, however, it also defines the rest of the sculpt. This means that it is important these key forms are accurate before they are refined further. The image below shows me blocking in the major torso shapes, thinking about where the ribcage lies and how the shoulder protrude from the body.
The mesh is going to be made of multiple meshes and I will be able to join these together and refine further later. The image below shows me keeping the mesh as low as possible so that I can get the anatomy correct and building foundations for the arms and legs to be added as separate meshes. The chest is slightly more refined here and the overall structure is good. I'm using SpeedChar's (2022a) advice to work quickly but accurately so that you can see more of the character to really help pinpoint the specific things that need to be developed.
The next image below shows me laying the foundations for the arms and legs using curves to meshes. This enables me to easily add vector points and manipulate their size to create bends and tapers in the limbs. This will enable me to sculpt on both the body and the limbs separately to easily create the definition between the two. It also means I can't accidently affect one mesh when I'm working on the other. This is a powerful tool early on in the sculpting workflow and enables me to be quite carefree and rigorous when sculpting. Once the meshes are joined I will need to be a lot more careful and deliberate when refining the meshes.
This next image shows refinement across all areas of the body. I've blocked in a lot of the major muscle shapes to refine the foundation a little bit more. The arms look a lot less like random tubes and more like actual limbs! Its great seeing these milestones as you can start to see the concept come to life! I'm referring to my anatomy mouldboards closely to block in these muscles, however, since the character is wearing a suit I will soften the muscle definition. This will make it look a lot less defined so that the muscles look like they're covered by fabric.
This next image below is the rear view of the above image. Here the groove down the back is defined and the buttocks is starting to be formed. The character is fairly thick and chunky in the concept so I wanted to make sure I retained that in the model. Progress is going well and at a good pace - its fantastic to see the character develop quickly. The more I sculpt, the more I enjoy it and build confidence it it. It feels incredibly artist and tools don't feel like a barrier, I just select the right one for the next step.
The next two images show further refinement and polish to the torso mainly. The chest is pulled out and squared off slightly to keep him feeling strong. The abs are defined a little more. The crotch area is formed so that there is a clear groin area and space between the legs. Whenever I've modelled a character using box modelling techniques I've always struggled with getting space between the groin and getting the loops to fit nicely and stay as quads. Achieving this is so much easier with sculpting as I'm not thinking about the topology at all and instead focussing on how it looks. Therefore, its a lot easier to bring my vision to life.
This image below shows the rear view of the above image. Shoulders are slightly more defined. The waist is narrowed and the buttocks is formed to flow into the leg.
This next image below shows the same stage of the model again but from a rear three-quarter view. This shows how I'm sculpting in the curve to the spine. I really wanted to achieve a natural look to the character and it can be easy to think that the spine is flat when it isn't. The shoulder areas also tends to protrude further back than you expect too, particularly in stronger physiques. I'm happy with this curve to the spine, its making the character feel believable and look aesthetically natural.
This next image shows some further refinements across the torso. Its less noticeable to see the changes now, signaling that I'm entering the polishing stage and also suggesting that I should perhaps move forward onto other key parts. The hand area is quite underdeveloped, I'd planned to make the fingers as separate meshes similar to how I made the limbs. The chest and abs have been slowly polished and the difference is actually quite great when you look back at the original images. He's feeling strong, chunky and matches the concept which was the goal!
This image below is the same as the image above but from the side angle. I'm particularly happy with the body shape where the chest puffs out and the spine curves. The anatomy is looking good and shows that my observations of my concept and reference material have been successful!
The next image below shows the rear view of the above two images.
Overall progress has been really good for one day! The majority of the character's body is fleshed out with a good anatomical foundation. I'm happy with the overall look because the anatomy feels believable. It is definitely stylised and cartoony through the exaggeration of elements like the chest, which matches the concept. Achieving this blend of anatomical correctness and stylisation is challenging, however, does give me some creative licence with how I develop the forms.
Next steps will be to join the limbs to the body and refine further from there. You'll also notice that the lower leg is quite underdeveloped - this is because the character will be wearing big boots so I don't need to get these absolutely perfect. I'll also be starting to develop the bits of armor such as the pauldrons, gauntlets, belt and more. These pieces will hide parts of the body so I shouldn't over invest time in the areas they hide!
20/06/25
I tend to study and reflect on my work a lot after I log off the computer (I've typically saved a image to my phone). This gives me time to step back and reflect on what I've achieved and what I should do next. The anatomy did feel good but something did feel a little bit off about it the more I looked at it. I also tend to share my progress with friends, colleagues and peers quite a lot - particularly when I'm proud of what I've managed to achieve. One of my colleagues is an incredible artist and I really value his opinion so I showed him the progress I'd made and asked what he thought was off. He'd pointed out the hips were a little wide and then when another colleague came over they bluntly stated "Yeah, he's got child bearing hips!" It seemed too obvious once I realised it, however, when you're in the thick of it you don't always notice these things. This is why I really believe in taking that step back and getting feedback from trusted individuals.
Therefore, next on my to do list was to rectify the hip area so that it looked more masculine. I had two choices, I could either make the hips and legs smaller or make the whole upper body and head bigger. Making the hips and legs smaller seemed like the easier choice!
The image below shows these corrections to the hips and it instantly looked significantly better. I wish I had have noticed this sooner as I could have made the legs thinner to begin with, however, it was just as easy to use the grab tool to correct my forms and push everything inwards. I was worried that the legs would be disproportionate and flat on the outside but this wasn't the case! If I hadn't have made this correction and added more detail and refinements to the legs this work could have potentially been wasted or harder to make the corrections I wanted.
The next image below shows the rear view of the image above. You can see the waist is a lot narrower here too as it balloons into the upper body strength. This exaggerates the chest area even more which accentuates this strength. Therefore, this improves the overall design aesthetic!
Next I joined the limbs to the body mesh and began to create the foundation for the leg muscles anatomy. Similarly I followed my anatomy reference closely to inform this. The image below shows how I'm blocking in the core shapes for the muscles - the clay strips tool is great for building up layers of the muscles, followed by smooth and inflate to refine these areas.
This next image shows the rear of the leg muscles, following the same techniques. I'm not putting too much detail into the calves until I add in the boots so that I can optimise my time and not spend ages on refinements that will be hidden by other meshes.
This next image below shows further refinements to the legs and blocking in of the knee area. It's starting to look really good, not only are the legs thick overall, they now have the muscles to real accentuate this physical strength. Its super rewarding to see this model develop and look realistic and visually appealing. Studying anatomy really is the key to success and then artistic application of tools to achieve that creative vision.
I started to block in more of the armor so that I could work around these whilst sculpting. They also enabled me to see this character get closer and closer to the concept art. I added the chest gem and the belt. I liked the angular ridges I'd created on the gem, however, the base holder looked a little awkward. I was having some trouble creating this as one mesh as the bevel modifier wasn't applying properly due to some narrow edges. I may remake this but as two meshes so that I get more flexibility on this area. The belt was fairly simple, just a smoothed cylinder with a bevel modifier, moulded to the shape of the waist. Overall, its looking good and good to see these key elements of the character start to come together.
22/06/25
The more I looked at the chest gem the more I hated it. Due to the lack of the bevel it wasn't looking hard and stylised like I wanted. I deleted it for the time being and will rework it using my previous plan. The image below also shows some slight tweaks to the neck to define the Adams apple a little more as well as moulding the neck into the check collar a little bit to hide the join into the body suit. a simple belt buckle has been added too so that the belt is now complete. Next I would restart the chest gem and move onto the shoulder pauldrons. These are all key features that will help me see the full character and show me where I need to direct my next refinements.
This next image shows the side view to show how the gemstone protrudes from the chest. This is where it does look a little small in comparison to the collar, however, it might possibly be because the gemstone holder is a little thin and I might need to thicken this!
I started having a go at making the shoulder pauldrons. I started making a flat plane and added some edge loops to get the rough shape, however, it was challenging to get the correct edge flow. I thought I'd maybe try the artistic approach and try to mould it using sculpting, which the image below shows. I absolutely hated this. It was easier to mould the shape, but harder to keep things looking hard and uniform as a piece of metal armor should be. I was trying to crease and pinch the ridges but it ended up just looking really lumpy and unsightly. This confirmed that I would need to spend a little longer perfecting the edge flow using hard surface modelling techniques. This was definitely a worry because I needed this to have a clean edge flow to create the ridge but also mould around the shoulder. Nonetheless it was a challenge I would need to overcome!
I deleted the pauldrons for now and turned my attention to the hands and gauntlets, these were the next areas that were most behind! I created some simple gauntlets that matched the shape in the concept and placed them over the forearm. It was at this point that I noticed the forearms weren't straight and had a curve to them. I found this because no matter where I rotated the gauntlet I couldn't get the ends to line up without it looking weird. Therefore, I decided to place the gauntlet right near the elbow and then use the grab brush to move the forearm and wrist back into place. Once I did this it make the arms look a lot more realistic and believable, which is good! The hands had previously been just flat paddles so I started to make these chunkier with the inflate brush. I began to block in the rough hand structure and would add the fingers in later.
This next image shows a little more of the palm with the key structures blocked in such as the lower thumb muscles, thicker outside palm and dip in the centre of the palm.
This next image below is the same state as the above two images but from the rear angle. This shows how the belt hugs around the back and how the buttocks blends into the upper legs.
Overall the design was again coming along nicely and getting closer to the concept. I was particularly impressed with my ability to reform the mesh to solve problems, like the gauntlets not aligning with the forearm. These were creative challenges rather than technical ones and it was really rewarding to be able to confidently correct them and improve the overall design. The next major parts to develop would be the hands, boots and pauldrons to give me all the key features of the concepts.
I took some time just to reflect on the model and review how the full design was working together. I made some slight tweak to head that had started to stand out to me! The major thing I noticed was that the jaw itself didn't look like it was going to close properly and instead would fall slightly short. This would mean that the upper teeth would intersect with the lower lip which would not look natural. I pulled the jaw forward more so that the lower lip would close in the upper lip groove. This would mean the peak on the upper lip would just overshoot slightly and create a good close. I also pinched the lip edges to create more of a ridge which defined these features more. Lastly, since I had been pulling the neck around to get it to meet the collar properly some of the detail became a little lost. I spent some time reforming the neck tendons and the Adams apple. The image below shows these modifications.
Overall the head looked a little more natural now and had some more refined features such as the lips. Little by little it is taking shape! It definitely is taking a while, however, I'm happy with the results so it feels worth investing the time in. I love how much character there is in the head with the unique features and I can't wait to see the same with the body as more of the armor takes shape!
I created a small gif to show a 3D turn around of the character. I feel you get a much better view of the 3d forms as it rotates and the light changes. I'm super proud of this progress - it looks like the concept and like a real game character! Next I need to add the boots because the weird stubby legs are breaking the believability at this point. A key elements I'll need to get right is the proportions to ensure that it looks like his leg and foot fits inside the boot. I'll refer to the concept to get it just right! Overall, its looking great, I felt a lot of pressure when the concept was strong and I was initially worried I wouldn't be able to do the design justice in 3D. However, across this progress to date I've grown in confidence with my sculpting skills significantly as it clearly looks close to the concept, which is the ultimate goal! The next worry is that retopology and baking needs to go well, however, I've proven than I can creatively and technically problem solve so I need to have faith in my skills to research, learn and apply skills as I have done already.
I updated my Trello, as shown in the image below, to reflect my progress. I keep extending the deadlines slightly, however, I do have lots of time off work soon where I can work almost full time on this project so I will be able to catch up. I also want to make sure it looks awesome and isn't rushed so whilst it is taking longer than I first hoped its also looking great and my skills are developing. Also lots of the big jobs are complete and I should be able to check through the rest of these items quickly - anatomy typically takes the longest to nails as you make lots of small subtle tweaks. I may separate out the retopology, UV and texture tasks into their own cards as this is feeling a little cluttered. In summary, progress is a little slower than I would like, however with my large summer holiday I will be able to make progress significantly more swiftly!
29/06/25
This character has gone too long without feet, so the next step was to create the boots. I created these from multiple different objects that were composed together. The cuff at the top is a simple cylinder with subdivision and bevel modifiers on it. The sole is similar although this is shaped into a 'foot' shape. I actually started with symmetry turned on but your foot isn't symmetrical so I turned this off so that I could get more natural curves to the foot. The main section started life as simple polygon that roughly formed the shape I needed and then I sculpted this th achieve the forms and detail.
The shoe had all these sections that made it look stylised, cartoony and overall interesting. I was using the concept as reference throughout this. To sculpt the main forms I used a lot of masking. This worked really well to keep it as one mesh with clearly defined areas. The crease tool worked particularly well to smooth and polish the joins between different parts afterwards.
I really loved the way the creases in the back turned out. I hard this sort of patch at the base of the heel in the concept that made this looked reinforced but then I continued these ridges up the back oft he shoe and it made it look great by repeating these slightly curved forms. The detail across the full boot is chunky which helps it give that stylised cartoony feeling.
When I positioned the boot on the characters leg the whole design really came to life! It looked like a complete character now and it was awesome to see all the proportions of the character finished. I rotated the boots slightly outward to give it a more natural stance since it looked really stiff when they were pointing straight forward.
04/07/25
It absolutely was time to start the hands and I hadn't actually gathered proper reference for these. I gathered the images shown below that focus on the skeleton and muscle definition. The bones create a lot of ridges as the skin forms around it. The flesh has an array of creases as the multiple complex moving parts in the hand form together. I was beginning to really trust in my artistic judgement to gather effective reference, study it and then use it to inform my brush strokes. This is a process that happens fairly natural and at the same time.
I started sculpting a single finger, as the image below shows, with the view to duplicate this across the other 2. I decided to do 3 fingers and 1 thumb to keep with the stylised cartoony feel opposed to a realistic 4 finger formation. I started with a simple cube that was extruded into the rough finger shape. I then applied a subdivision modifier and began sculpting on top of this to create the more nuanced forms and detail.
Since this was a separate object I was able to easily blend the finger into the hand and tweak without affecting other parts of the hand mesh. The image below shows me forming the knuckle and thinking about how it blends into the webbed elements between the fingers. You can also see me adding a little bit of bulk to all the knuckles in a very stylised form to suit the style of the character.
It was starting to come together! The length felt about right. It was actually difficult to tell the length because my concept had closed fists, however, I used the annotate tool in Blender to draw an arced path to the body to ensure the finger tips would land around the knee. The hands were a little large, however, this suited the stylisation of the model so I wasn't too bothered if they weren't completely anatomically correct. Next I would make a few more tweaks to finish this mesh before duplicating it for the other fingers, merging with the main hand and crafting the thumb!
07/07/25
The image below shows further developments with the hand. I've duplicated the fingers and arranged them naturally. The middle finger is slightly larger and the pinky is slightly smaller. I've also sculpted the thumb in and matched the style of the other fingers. I've actually left all the fingers a little bit squarer to help them look nice and chunky. This guy has big strong hands!
This next image below shows the hand merged together and refined slightly. I really liked the chunky finish I've managed to achieve - it matches the strong physique of the character. I did try sculpting more detail into the knuckles, like little creases, however, it looks a little too realistic so I left them smoothed and chunky which suited the design better. The creases underneath to show the muscles underneath the bone turned out really well. These are defined and bulging to show where the knuckles would bend.
Lots of the big forms were becoming complete so the next task was to retackle the shoulder pauldrons. I knew I needed to take a more hard surface approach rather than sculpted since the previous attempt didn't work out. I had this lip around the edge of the pauldron that held in this gemstone, which was the most challenging part. I started with a simple plane and added loops in to create more detail and form. I moulded it around the shoulder just by eye but did keep symmetry turned on to make it easier. I redirected the topology to get the edge flow you see in the image below. I needed a decent number of verts and did actually use some sculpting tools to distribute the topology evenly and manipulate the forms. When I did this I just needed to keep it low poly rather than high poly like my last attempt. I corrected the rim edge loop so that the polys were consistent in thickness around the edge because this would be key to achieving the solid looking rim.
Next I added and applied a solidify modifier to this asset to get the thickness; extruded the rim; added a subdivision modifier to get the smoothness and then added a bevel modifier to get the nice hard edges. I then inserted and scaled a sphere to create an egg shaped gem. Well doesn't this look a lot better! The style matches the rest of the armor on the character and adds a lot of bulk to the upper body - giving it that strong triangle physique!
This next image below is the same as the one above from a different angle and with added kneepads. The kneepads were extremely quick to create and followed a similar process to the chest gem and belt. For the knee pad strap I moulded this to the shape of the leg. I'm not sure how this will work when rigging since the knee pad isn't meant to bend, however, I think I will weight this to the lower leg and allow a gap in the top half.
This next gif shows the character form multiple angles. It also shows the back gem which I created. This was just a knee pad that I morphed to the shaped of the back. It's really coming together now, I know I keep saying that but these armor additions show a lot more character and bring it closer to the concept. I'm really proud of how well I've managed to match the concept - particularly in the body. It really closely resembles the concept and since the concept was strong the model is turning out strong. This really highlights the importance of the pipeline and the value in artistic skills across the pipeline. Next I need to finish the arms and back properly because I never refined the anatomy of these like I did the legs. I also need to create a separation between the space suit and the arms because in the concept the arm skin is showing but the body is covered in the space suit. This creates a beautiful contrast in colours too so I want to include this!
08/07/25
I noticed the rim on the shoulder pauldrons was looking a little thin and I wanted it to be nice and chunky so it read well in the silhouette. I extruded the pauldron rim so that it was slightly bigger shoulder rim and I actually made the chest gem marginally bigger again. I wanted this chest gem to be like the main source of power so it needed to feel big and powerful! These were minor modifications but I felt it looked stronger. The shoulder pauldron rim was just that little bit too subtle and it needed to stand out. I love the shoulder pauldrons look quite medieval yet the gem brings the sci fi themes back into them. Its really got that sort of retro-space vibes that I wanted.
This next image shows the biceps. These were kind of already formed but I polished these a little further. You can also see the forearm muscles coming in over the elbow here - it is important to note there is a lot of overlap from the top and bottom of the arm rather than a line between them. I'm really happy with the arms now, having this deeper study into anatomy has made these arms more believable and visually appealing.
I next moved onto the back and applied the same level of anatomy study and application of brush stroked to achieve it. I'm really looking at where the muscles start and end as well as their overall shape. Then I'm inflating the middle parts before smoothing them down to create these interesting forms. Again it looks a lot more believable which makes it look a lot better overall. Since he is thick - the defined muscles really sell this idea.
This next image below shows the separation of the arms and body. I masked out the arms and then separated the meshes. I then pulled the arms inside the body a little so that were was overlap on the edges. I then pushes the body out a little to make a rim so that the clothing had thickness and used a pinch around the edge to define this even further. This was pretty fiddly to do to be honest because I needed to keep a roughly even thickness around the edge to look like the edge of the clothing and it was hard to keep this consistent!
This next image below shows the same as above but from the front angle. I feel I could have masked a little closer to the centre of the armpit as it blends out onto the arm a lot, however, I don't think this will make too much of a difference. This is because it will be covered by the shoulder pauldrons and is going to be on the inside of the arm which is typically seen less. It was super faffy to get to this point so I didn't want to reset it all again!
The next image shows the back of the character. I actually really like how it sits here because the suit creates a nice angle slice. This also accentuates the triangle shape of the character and the size of the shoulders. As I've mentioned previously this is all to make the character look strong in a stylised fashion.
This next image shows the character from the front but with the shoulder pauldrons visible. The line between the suit and the arms is less noticeable now and is really minor in the grand scheme of things.
The character is now almost done, which is awesome! The gif below shows the character from multiple angles. I feel it looks super professional and really closely resembles my concept. The armor works so well together with the power gems featuring strongly in the design. This really pulls everything together and makes you believe this is a real character from a real world. The original concept was that this character's race was the guardian of the plants and they would nurture them across planets. Therefore, these power gems were the lifeforce that powers the strength of these creatures but also what is used to grow, heal and maintain the plants.
I revisited my concept and realised that I hadn't added the thorns on the character's gauntlet! These are a key design feature because they are meant to show the closeness between plants and these characters. I created a simple curved thorn and 'armor hole' that I could then duplicate around. The plan was for these all to be the same so that when I got to UV unwrapping I could just unwrap one and then have all the shells overlap. This would optimise my UV space and save me time!
The next image shows a zoomed out shot of the full character but with the thorns visible. These look awesome! I love the detail that these add to the silhouette and again the characterisation of the thorns to the original idea. I needed these to be fairly small because if they were too large they could get in the way when animating and I didn't want this challenge! another nice thing about these thorns is that they mirror the spikiness of the hair. All other forms are either hard or rounded so its nice to see some spikey, sharper forms lower down in the design. The shape language is feeling really strong across this character for all these reasons - there's plenty of recurring forms but also clear contrasts and gaps between them. This almost breaks the character up into sections, which ultimately strengthens the silhouette.
Polish
09/07/25
Next I wanted to review the full design and polish or fix anything that really jumped out at me. No doubt there would be things I missed but if I could improve all the obvious stuff without over obsessing over insignificant details then this would be good from a time perspective. The image below shows some polish to the eyelids to create a bit more thickness and sharpening oft he edges. It also shows the addition of some simple eyebrows to match the concept. The teeth aren't super visible but they have always felt a little unfinished so I'd polish these next.
In typical fashion I got distracted and noticed the thorns weren't aligned to the surface properly. I watched the video below by (INSERT REFERENCE) and learned how I could use the face snapping feature with some minor modification to create some perfect alignment to the surface. This would then make the thorns sit properly on the surface oft he gauntlets. A minor tweak but one that would look amateur if there wasn't perfect alignment. Its also a super short tutorial suggesting minimal effort to create this good level of polish!
In typical fashion I got distracted and noticed the thorns weren't aligned to the surface properly. I watched the video below by (INSERT REFERENCE) and learned how I could use the face snapping feature with some minor modification to create some perfect alignment to the surface. This would then make the thorns sit properly on the surface oft he gauntlets. A minor tweak but one that would look amateur if there wasn't perfect alignment. Its also a super short tutorial suggesting minimal effort to create this good level of polish!
The image shows the outcome of this research. I love the arrangement I have going on with varying placements and sizes. I wanted this to look organic and not too mathematical and I feel this has been achieved through the arrangement and rotations of the thorns. The base of each thorn is a metal hole and this will be a metallic gold colour.
The image below shows the refinements to the teeth. Before they were a little lumpy and low resolution. I tightened up the forms; improved the creases and gaps between the gums and teeth; added some bumpiness to the teeth and pinched the edges and corners of the teeth to make them look a bit squarer and solid. Overall they look much better. I'm sure I could make them even better but they are not going to be seen most of the time so it wasn't worth the time. At least now I could get a good bake on the teeth!
Next I did some minor tweaks to the nostrils and lips to sharpen and define them further. I also duplicated the bottom teeth and positioned them in the top. This means I only need to retopologise and unwrap one of these, which will save time and be more optimised in the long run!
This is the final turn around of the character with all the tweaks! I'll leave my reflection for the conclusion!
Conclusion
Well this most definitely has taken longer than expected, however, I'm so happy with the progress I've made and the outcome I achieved. Most of the character is relatively simple with big chunky forms, however, as a whole this creates a great silhouette. There is great contrast between big and small forms as well as the shape language throughout. I do really like how the spikey hair and spikey thorns mirror each other in different sections of the model. I also love how the character tapers outward from the thinner legs and hips all the way out to the large armorer shoulders. The head, hands and feet are also equally over sized which makes this even more interesting. The great thing about this is that they are larger moving out in front of the character rather than to the side. Therefore this means the contrast works in 3 dimensions.
I've learnt a lot on this section! My sculpting skills have grown and I've been able to effectively study anatomical reference and apply in a stylised fashion to my model to create a believable stylised character. I've followed professional pipelines and approaches that have made it easier to construct such as making limbs and appendages from separate objects. Everything has been approached artistically which is nice and has allowed the process to feel very creative. Trial and error has allowed me to solve problems like the shoulder pauldrons and sometimes you need to try a different approach.
I now feel extremely confident sculpting compared to when I started this project. I now have the same apprehension about the next stage, retopology as I did when starting the model. However, again I need to get stuck into it, research and apply knowledge and I'm sure this stage will go well. Because the character has lots of clear joins and sections this should make it easier because I don't need all the topology to completely line up!
A fantastic outcome - I'm so glad to see my concept come to life and really proud I've been able to do it justice!
Animate in unreal : https://youtu.be/Nvt14TgqMsE?si=dn0dRbBZvcN0MR9i
References
- Exoside (2025) Quad Remesher. Available at: https://exoside.com/ (Accessed: 19 June 2025).
- Grant Abbitt (Gabbitt) (2022) Snap Objects to Other Objects - Blender 3 - Quick Tips. 12 May. Available at: https://youtu.be/Dt0PfqOc0ls (Accessed: 10 July 2025).
- SpeedChar (2022a) Making the body – Create a commercial game 3D character episode 03. 15 March. Available at: https://youtu.be/vRk3lr0vZ5s (Accessed: 19 June 2025).
- SpeedChar (2022b) Detailing the body – Create a commercial game 3D character episode 04. 17 March. Available at: https://youtu.be/80_YoQSNFns (Accessed: 19 June 2025).
- SpeedChar (2022c) Adding base clothes - Create a commersial game 3D character episode 05. 18 March. Available at: https://youtu.be/ukcnsROqV-g (Accessed: 19 June 2025).
