Introduction

Hi! My name is Andrea Buitrago, and I'm a character artist. I feel super grateful to the 80 Level team for giving me the opportunity and space to talk about this particular project, as it became a very important piece of my portfolio for different reasons I'll be explaining here. 

But first of all, let me tell you a bit about myself. It was too ambitious for me to dream of a professional career like this, so when I had the chance to study 3D animation, I didn't have too many expectations other than trying to learn as much as possible about art, which has always been my passion (I was practically born holding a pencil in my hand). The attempt to enter the industry came later with, I'm not going to lie, a lot of hard work, uncertainty, and frustration. To my perfectionist brain, this was not an easy journey, but I kept learning on my own, and the first opportunities gave me the final push to believe in myself and everything I can share through my art.

So I've spent the last four years working as a character modeler for animated series and films. I also had the chance to be in the Environment Modeling and Character Shading departments. My first project was the "Bad Dinosaurs" series on Netflix, and with that amazing experience came other ones, which I'm super glad about, such as the upcoming film "On the Edge", still cooking at the moment. 

Uri is one of the personal projects I develop in my free time. I focus on characters because I'm obsessed with stories. Their motivations, their background, their inner struggles... I love portraying them all in a static piece. So I hope you like the process behind this one.

Uri

Uri has a very personal meaning, and this became the driving force that kept me working on the project. It connects directly with my childhood and the start of my love for reading, drawing, and creating my own stories. 

He is a character from one of my favorite fantasy novels by Laura Gallego – "Donde los Árboles Cantan". He is actually a tree who has the chance to become a human and asks for help to save his home, the forest. During his journey, he can't help falling in love with a human girl, although he knows someday he will have to return to his natural form. 

The sculpture is a humble interpretation of Uri's feelings while he is suffering the transformation of turning back into a tree. I read this book when I was eleven, and I remember the tears I shed when I finished it, not understanding why it had to end so sadly. Over the years, I came to appreciate the real message of the whole story: even if things are determined to conclude, that doesn't mean they are not worth living for.

So I started the project with that idea and scribbled the first thoughts that became the final concept. I wanted to keep a very expressive curved line that showed dynamism and a clear expression on Uri's face. The ribbon also had to be highlighted somehow. Once I had the concept, I prepared some notes to keep in mind and made a reference map classified into shapes, nature, and stone.

Sculpting

This design has a very extreme pose, so I decided to begin with the default ZBrush human model to have a very basic idea of what I wanted. This way I could start blocking the different geos that composed the body. I saved a camera view matching my concept (which was projected as a texture in the background) and did the same with the horizontal flipped version of the drawing. I created a very smooth workflow, as I ended up with mid-low topology and almost all the pieces merged, so I only had to enable Dynamic Subdivision and flip the model when needed.

An interesting fact is that, at the very beginning, I was sure about merging all the geos because that would help to emphasize the human–tree fusion. However, I realized I'd already achieved the strong impact of the scene and the emotions of the character by leaving the pieces separated. I liked how they simulated different stones stuck together. So I kept working on that late decision as a personal challenge, adjusting the anatomy and... I’m really glad how things turned out, especially the face, as I think it keeps the sadness and powerlessness shown in the concept.

The roots went through a lot of changes. They were chaotic, undefined lines in the design, and I needed to keep them simple, flowing with the movement, not entangling with the body, and make them work in all views. I gave them a lot of tries until everything made sense and spoke the same language.

So in the end, I achieved the roundness and fluidity of the original design, and the unity of the whole model, which makes it easy and fast to read what is happening in the scene.

Unwrapping

There weren't any high-poly details to bake in this project, so I worked without subdivisions. I would start with the default ZBrush sphere for each stone, and once I achieved the desired shape, I used ZRemesher to get the correct poly count, so there was no need for complex retopology. 

First, I made a quick auto-unwrap of all the pieces in ZBrush and brought them to Maya. There, I fixed some mistakes or redid some of the UVs. I determined a specific tessellation mode and reorganized the UV shells into different UDIMs, depending on how much definition I wanted during the texturing process.

The entire model was prepared to create a single aiStandand Arnold material, except for the ribbon. I'll tell you why in the next section.

Texturing

I wanted the sculpture to appear tangible and delicate. I had already worked on another special project called "Camelia", and I experimented with these stone materials, which I love. So I wanted to try something similar, as both projects are based on the characters from Laura Gallego's novels. 

I always use Substance 3D Painter to texturize my models. The stone I came up with simulates some kind of marble, with its subtle veins and small dots. I opted for a delicate material instead of a rough one to show the fragility of the character. It was supposed to feel like a single piece except for the ribbon. Even though there were already some details that showed the importance of the ribbon (such as its pointy ends or the fact that it extends outside the frame of the composition), I decided to paint it with a vibrant color. I left it as a separate material to have better control of the shader in Maya with nodes like Color Correct.

A very particular decision in both projects is the use of Ambient Occlusion to create a dust effect. This way, the joints between pieces are lighter, and their roughness is higher, so it looks more like a real-life sculpture. Another interesting tool from Substance 3D Painter is baked lighting. I implemented it throughout the model but emphasized it on the face, the leaves, and all the parts that were losing definition because of how the material looked.

Lighting

The silhouette is the most important aspect of the scene, as it reflects movement and Uri's feelings, so every part of the sculpture had to be equally well-lit.

In this case, I used Arnold in Maya. I started creating a big sphere that engulfed the sculpture in order to have a smooth background in the renders. Then, I created some general and wide-area lights in front of the model, which hadn't been texturized yet.

This was a quick way to get an idea of which base color I should use when painting it. So I did several low-resolution renders with different temperature and brightness levels until I found the right one. Once I had the final textures, I continued adding lights with soft shadows and finally tweaked the color on the model and background materials wherever needed.

I ended up with two light groups. One for the two principal renders and another one for the turnaround. This way, I could remove some rim lights and have the 360° sculpture with homogeneous illumination.

I tried to achieve the very final version directly inside Arnold with minimal post-production. I used the specular AOV to accentuate the reflections on the floor, and I also increased the overall saturation and contrast a bit.

Final Steps

It took about two months of my free time to finish the project. Sometimes it's hard to develop personal 3D stuff when your full-time job involves being in front of a screen for eight hours a day. So I need to manage my spare time in the healthiest way possible. 

A very important phase of the process (and one of my favorite ones) is taking a step back and returning with a fresh mind to make up a list of things I can improve. These can go from small details to bigger ones, such as fixing wrong proportions. It's also a good point to ask for feedback and hear others' perspectives on the artwork. I needed a big rest to realize I had to add the flowers and extra leaves falling to see the sculpture fully completed. I used Adobe Photoshop a lot to do draw-overs, flip the renders, and play with colors to decide if I had to change the lighting.

Creative Challenges

The main challenge of the project was properly recreating the image of the character I had in my head when I was a kid. Bringing Uri to life with my current artistic skills was a gift to me. Designing my own concepts is the thing I enjoy the most, and turning them into 3D pieces is more than rewarding. 

There are plenty of useful tutorials and materials out there for you to learn from. Michel Lauricella's book series Morpho: Anatomy for Artists explains all aspects of the human body with clear drawings. I also find interviews with other artists on J Hill's YouTube channel really inspiring, as they talk about their technical workflows as well as their professional careers.

Conclusion

My relationship with art has changed over the years. I do a lot of preliminary exploration before taking my Wacom pen: I ask myself what the purpose of the project is, I find the right music to listen to, I write down keywords or phrases that represent the main idea... I create a whole experience to amplify the strength of the project.

One strong piece of advice is identifying the moments when you feel the most inspired. Those could be moments when you're surrounded by nature, or at night when everything is in silence. Try several locations and see where your brain is more receptive to developing new ideas. 

Don't rush. Prioritize being patient and enjoying the process so you can step out of your comfort zone without frustration, leaving room to grow. Being kind to yourself during the process is crucial. Have fun, trust your instincts, and chase what you think is worth telling.

This project is a perfect example of how the things we loved as kids are a really powerful source of inspiration, so I invite you to travel back in time and take advantage of that. Translate it into your current way of understanding the world and push the limits of your skills to bring it to life.

I think that's the biggest lesson I've learned from Uri.

Andrea Buitrago, Character Artist

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford