LogInLet's celebrate this year and look forward to the next with this collection of the greatest 3D character art breakdowns of 2023.
We're slowly approaching the end of 2023, which means it's time to prepare for the future by thinking about the past. It has been a long year full of challenges but also hard work by talented artists, whose projects we're going to celebrate today.
So welcome to our selection of 2023's best character art. We've highlighted the extraordinary abilities of artists who've brought to life a fantastic range of characters in their unique style, both stylized and realistic, in their interviews for 80 Level. Enjoy this triumph of creativity together with us!
Let's start out fest with Jordi Ros Torrents and his Darth Maul straight from Star Wars. In this comprehensive breakdown, the artist talked about his texturing and rendering pipelines and explained how he worked with Unreal Engine 5, ZBrush, and Substance 3D Panter to get this beautiful result. Here, you will also find the creation process behind the iconic lightsaber and the outfit.
Next on our list is a grand work by Sana Almusalli Alawadhi, who told us about the Drift project in great detail. This massive tutorial will teach you how to set up outstanding realistic skin and hair and work with clothes in Marvelous Designer and ZBrush. The creator also explains the workflow behind the rifle and discusses the texturing process.
Back when Halloween was only coming, we got a glimpse of Lya 'The Witch', an incredible character by Mike Miranda. The artist showed us his work with references and the sculpting process. From this breakdown, you can learn how to create eyes and set up hair using FiberShop and GS CurveTools. You'll also see Miranda's texturing process and the rendering pipeline.
Let's move on to shaders now, which can transform any character if done right. Michal Patton demonstrated this fact perfectly in this interview where he talked about the Cadet project. Patton walked us through the modeling and texturing, explaining how this particular painterly flair was made, and then took us on an educational journey where we learned how the shader was set up.
Blackpink fans should definitely visit this next article because Diana Kaspruk showcased a fantastic recreation of Lisa, so realistic it could be a photo. The artist stopped at every intricate detail of the MetaHuman-made singer's dress, crown, and accessories, touched on the grooming process, and showed the texture work. It's one of my personal favorites of the year, so go give it your time.
We've seen several great takes on Spider-Verse's Gwen Stacy this year, but Clément Néca's is one of the best. The creator shared their ZBrush workflow and the tools they used to achieve this high-quality result. You'll witness every step of the modeling and texturing processes and see what post-production settings Néca tweaked to get this sharp look.
Gwen Stacy is not the only famous character you've seen on 80 Level in 2023. Lucy from Cyberpunk Edgerunners has captured countless hearts, so it's obvious we'd have her in this digest. Rafael Benedicto's work especially impressed us in all its realistic glory. In the article, Benedicto unveiled his secrets of taming hair and creating gorgeous eyes. He demonstrated how the cybernetic implants were made and shared the lighting setup in V-Ray.
Another famous character on our list is Harrier Du Bois, the protagonist of the popular Disco Elysium game. In this insightful interview, Jean Zoudi talks at length about his interpretation of the man, explaining the modeling and texturing done to the model. Zoudi recounts his sculpting journey in ZBrush and moves on to the hair set up with XGen. He then describes how Du Bois's "kinda flabby chest but strong arms, long thin legs, and bulky torso," were recreated and concludes with his rendering pipeline and advice for other artists.
We've seen a lot of Jokers lately, but this one might take your breath away (it would actually be in his style.) Created by 3D Character/Facial Modeler Rodrigo Avila, this realistic character has every right to be in every art digest. To learn more about his creation, be sure to read the article, where Rodrigo discussed the tools used for the work and talked about the workflow in ZBrush, MetaHuman, Maya, and other software. You'll see how the suit was done in Marvelous Designer and understand how Substance 3D Painter helped the artist with texturing.
Finally, we have an unusual participant here: not a person but a cat, and not just any cat – an emperor! Andrii Karpylenko talked about this charming creature, made with Blender, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, and Substance 3D Painter, and showed the grooming process. At the end of the interview, Karpylenko briefly discussed the lighting setup and shared what the project had taught him.
These are the character breakdowns that have caught our eye. Which one is your favorite? What did you learn from them?
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