Breakdown: Creating Cartoon-Style 3D Electric Guitar In Blender

Introduction

Hey everyone! I'm Mohamed Aziz Setti, a 3D Character & Environment Artist from Tunisia. I actually started in mechanical engineering, but my path eventually led me somewhere I had been drawn to since childhood. I've always been fascinated by the idea of taking something that exists in my imagination and making it real, and that's what pulled me into 3D art.

I began completely self-taught, it was such a cool challenge! Starting with ZBrush gave me a great push to learn the whole pipeline. Without mentors or roadmaps, I spent countless hours digging through forums and tutorials, that intense grind eventually allowed me to start freelancing. And before I knew it, I was managing that while simultaneously finishing up my full-time bachelor's degree in 3D animation. Of course, it won’t stop here. I'll keep scaling up the complexity of my projects and forcing myself to hit new levels. 

As for this specific project, it's actually my second time working on a stylized project, and my very first time using Blender!

Getting Started

Lately, I wanted to step completely out of my comfort zone and try something new, so I decided to tackle a stylized look. That's when the incredible work of the Concept Artist 火山火山KAZAN caught my eye! So I picked two of his concepts, Electro Girl and this specific prop, Electro Guitar.

For this piece, I experimented with different workflows to achieve a different and distinct 2D cartoonish style using a full 3D pipeline, and as always, starting with collecting some references to make the idea clearer.

I also liked the idea of normal painting, so I wanted to try it. I recommend using Aysu Hoscan's latest tool for that. It wasn't available yet when I was working on this project, but definitely go for it, it'll make the workflow much easier and faster!

Modeling

To be honest, when it comes to hard-surface modelling or sculpting, I make everything in ZBrush, and with the latest versions, which have the new topology tool, I start with a simple plane. Adding the Guitar's shape on top of it, then playing around with masking and moving the polys to their place. At this stage, I don't care about the topology, I just need the right shape, then simply use ZModeler for everything. Extruding, adding polygroups so I can make creases later with a dynamic subdivision trick to use that as the high-poly.

Since the shape is there, I simply used ZModeler to add some thickness and improve the overall shape, adding some polygroups, then creasing it, with the dynamic subdivision on to display the way I want my high-poly for later. To maintain maximum control over the shapes, I split the controller and the guitar into separate subtools.

Once the primary blockout is close to the final proportions, I used DynaMesh to combine everything and start adding the necessary details. I also used booleans and masking some shapes. After that, a clean retopology step, with the new Retopo brush, which made it as easy as you can see!

Wires and tubes are so simple and easy with Maya's Sweep Mesh tool, just add some curves and adjust them the way you want.

As I finished the primary part, I simply used some cubes and cylinders with ZModeler to make each piece.

Once the whole model is done, it's time for the UVs, so I used RizomUV for that. It's a time saver, to be honest, with its tools making very clean seams and packing.

Texturing

For baking and texturing, I used Substance 3D Painter with the usual workflow, painting the normals at the same time. I only used one brush, which is the Knife Painting Soft.

Rendering

Now it's time for rendering and adding some cartoonish detail: I used Blender for that! It's my first time using it, and I really loved it. The built-in plugins are so easy to use, and rendering with Eevee was a time saver.

I made a simple shader and lighting for the model, yet I decided to make a kind of stylized liquid material on the Tubes, which I found in this tutorial by TutsByKai: 

I also made some outlines using Blender's Stroke and Line Art modifiers, it's so easy and cool. Just add a stroke to your model and enjoy playing around the way you want!

Another thing to mention! I had to change the color space since I usually use the ACES workflow, which ensures color consistency across Substance 3D Painter and the render engines.

Finally, I exported the EXR renders and moved into the compositing stage. I kept the Nuke setup clean and efficient, focusing primarily on dialing in the color grading and enhancing the asset's stylized look through procedural glows and outlines. 

Conclusion

Overall, this project was a great opportunity to dive into a new pipeline to achieve such a new style, and of course, not to forget about the technical and clean workflow. Also, it was a great chance for me to try out new software such as Blender!

A huge shoutout to the team at 80 Level for providing a space where I could break down my process. Having my work recognized here is incredibly rewarding.

For anyone out there teaching themselves or just stepping into the industry, I hope my story shows what's possible with a bit of persistence. Feel free to ask or contact me whenever! You can find my portfolio, socials, and all my other links here.

Mohamed Aziz Setti, 3D Character & Environment Artist

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford