Breakdown: Creating a Stylized Hellboy Inspired by Wayfinder & Darksiders

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Jean Fernandez. I'm a French 3D Character Artist and, after graduating from ArtFX in Montpellier, I set up my own video game development studio with some friends, NoReply Studio, and we've released our first game, D.U.M.B! Feel free to check out its Steam page!

I'm always on the lookout for character designs to recreate so I can improve my skills, and I came across the amazing Hellboy design by Ludollabi on X. At the time, I was playing Wayfinder with a friend after having devoured Darksiders 2. I was looking for a project in that artistic style, and I liked Ludollabi's concept so much that I wanted to create something as if Hellboy had his own single-player adventure game, in the style of Airship Syndicate.

I aimed to push the boundaries of my sculpting and texturing skills whilst staying true to and consistent with Airship Syndicate's art vision. Whilst trying to get to grips with the character, I fell in love with Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics. The character holds a special place in my heart, and I don't think this will be the last time I try my hand at depicting him.

Setup

This project has evolved significantly thanks to the feedback from the 'La Boulange' Discord community, but the guiding principle has been the Ludollabi concept as well as the Wayfinder renders, particularly those by Andrey Naydyushkin, Lead Texture Artist on Wayfinder. I spent a lot of time analysing how he handles hard edges and soft shapes, as well as how they render PBR on hand-painted textures.

Hellboy has been portrayed and interpreted in many different ways. His gears vary considerably depending on the work in which he appears. I therefore chose to draw inspiration from the versions that resonate with me most: those from the comic books and the figurines based on them, as well as the references that Ludollulabi kindly shared with me.

To guide my design choices, I also drew on three key words: heroic, sharp, and demonic. These served as a guiding principle throughout the process, allowing me to strike a balance between the character's heroic and demonic aspects, whilst introducing a certain aggressiveness into the forms.

Before jumping into the 3D part, since the concept does not cover the entire silhouette of the character, I had to figure out the missing parts myself. After a quick paintover, I had a better vision of the proportions of him and what dynamic I would give him. Even if the result isn't the same, it's essential to have a good sense of the vibe it gives off and to keep that in mind as you sculpt.

Blockout & High-Poly

I used basic shapes to create a clean blockout. I quickly established the character's essence, drawing inspiration from the bony, muscular appearance of Fabian Orrego's sculptures. I started with the silhouette without overthinking the small details. This allowed me to capture the final vibe in line with the guidelines set out beforehand.

For the gear, I used Kirill Senzu's approach of stylized leather and kept the same process for the entire gear of the character, also for the trench.

For the hair, I learned a process from Julia Acherontias, leaving small sections of 3 strands of varying lengths and thicknesses, and also maintaining the overall flow of the mesh in an S-shaped curve.

I also wanted to learn how to use ZBrush's ZModeler effectively, so I could model hard-surface models more easily directly in ZBrush. I modeled the entire gun in ZBrush. Some parts weren't necessarily the easiest to create with ZModeler, but I learned a lot from it, including its limitations.

Low Poly & UV's

After a quick decimate in ZBrush, export/import the model in Blender with the GoZ and GoB add-ons, which saved me a lot of time because many of the high-poly models were built on top of the low-poly models, so I could just use GoZ to quickly make their UVs in Blender.

I'm using a mix of Retopoflow and the native retopo tools from Blender to have a nice and clean flow for the body, especially the Looptools devices like relax or space, which makes the work much easier.

The goal was to keep the edge flow as clean as possible so that the animation would look smooth and there would be nothing to fix if a future rigger took over the model. The UVs were created using Blender's native tools as well as the UniV add-on, which makes UV packing and straightening easier.

Texturing

I split all the parts to get a clean bake, and then I moved on to texturing in Substance 3D Painter. I quickly applied color schemes to each material, then immediately set up my Marmoset Toolbag rendering scene so I could see how the character looked in the near-final scene.

Whenever I made enough progress on the texturing, I'd export it to Marmoset Toolbag and compare it to the previous version to see if I liked the result and if it was heading in the right direction based on my references.

After trying out several brushes, I ended up using a square alpha brush with 0 contrast, which allowed me to blend the colors together and get a smooth render on each stroke. I also started by painting with the darkest value directly using the brush's grayscale, gradually working my way up to the lightest value within the same layer. That way, I could more easily control the color of a material.

Keeping the same process also for the weapons.

I ended up creating the strong light-and-shadow contrasts for each material on separate layers so I could control the final result when I converted the character to grayscale to check the values.

Posing & Lighting

I set up the character in ZBrush with a simple rig using the ZSphere, which allowed me to iterate on the general pose of the torso and limbs, and I ended up moving the fingers and head by masking the mesh and manipulating it directly in ZBrush.

Once I'd found the right pose, I modelled the flames in ZBrush and imported them into Marmoset Toolbag. For the crown, I used an unlit material with a little emissive, along with the smoke, and I duplicated and flipped the entire model to create a black outline, giving it a cartoon-like look, similar to a Mignola panel.

The lighting should be subtle, not to interfere with the hand-painting. Just enough to bring out the character of the background, but the aim is for it to look like an illustration rather than a 3D character.

Conclusion

The challenge here was to retain the essence of the concept whilst blending in a Darksiders 2/Wayfinder vibe. During the process, I went through many iterations on certain aspects of the character, such as the face, where I experimented with different balances between a heroic and a demonic look, as well as the Hand of Doom, which underwent several texturing explorations before settling on its final appearance.

Establishing key guidelines before entering the iteration phase was crucial in helping me harmonise the character. It also allowed me to trust the process and know that everything would come together coherently in the end.

I really enjoyed every aspect of creating this character, and this project also allowed me to discover the work of many artists, especially Mike Mignola. Thank you so much for reading me, and thanks to 80 Level for giving me the chance to share my creation process with you! 

Jean Fernandez, Character Artist