Breakdown: Sculpting a Dwarf King Using ZBrush and Substance 3D Painter

Introduction

I chose this character not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for the technical and artistic challenges it presents. The original concept by Yoo G IM caught my attention due to its strong, box-like silhouette, a visual signature of dwarven design.

In the 3D translation, my goal was to reinforce this imposing presence while adding subtle storytelling elements: a powerful, experienced king carrying a deep sense of weariness beneath the weight of his armor and responsibilities.

References and Visual Direction

My reference process is intentional and selective. Instead of collecting too many images, I prefer a clean and focused board. For this character, I organized my references around four pillars:

• Dwarven silhouette and proportions.
• Heavy and functional armor design.
• Realistic materials (metal, leather, fabric, skin).
• Personality references: expression, posture, presence.

I also included 3D references from stylized-realistic artists to study how others solve similar challenges.

Primary Shapes — Blocking

The goal during blocking was to preserve the strong box-like silhouette that defines the character. I reinforced this structure throughout the sculpt, ensuring that the torso, shoulders, legs, and head maintained that compact, heavy feel.

Even when adding hair, armor pieces, and clothing, I made sure everything supported the main square silhouette, keeping the character visually stable and robust.

A simple example of how to approach more complex objects with cylindrical shapes is to avoid starting directly from the final form. Instead, begin with a flat view, plan everything clearly, position the elements correctly, and only then apply modifiers to achieve the desired shape.

In my case, I did this for the bracelet: I organized the structure in the order metal → leather, and afterward applied the modifier in 3ds Max (of course, you can use any software that achieves the same result).

Tertiary Shapes

With the primary shapes established, I moved on to the tertiary forms. On the body, I worked on details such as wrinkles, age marks, and natural imperfections that reinforce the narrative of a highly experienced king who has been worn down by time.

For the armor and clothing, I kept only the main volumes and primary damage in ZBrush. All the microdetails, fine scratches, subtle wear, and surface texture were done in Substance 3D Painter, as this provides much more freedom for adjustments and experimentation during the texturing process.

Low-Poly

During retopology, my focus from the start was animation. Even without creating the rig myself, I treated the character as a real game-ready asset.

• Deformation loops are placed in all critical areas (shoulders, elbows, knees, face).
• Polygon economy wherever possible.
• Higher resolution directed to the face, hands, and hair cards.

The goal was to build an efficient, clean, and predictable mesh for any animation pipeline or game engine.

Probably the animal-fur coat would only be used in a very specific scene, and then swapped out for a simpler mesh to save a considerable amount of polygons.

UVs

In the UV stage, I aimed to keep the islands:

• As square as possible.
• With minimal distortion.
• Making the most of the layout space.
• Maintaining consistent texel density across all parts.

This ensured consistent texturing and a clean bake later on.

Texture and Materials

The baking process was straightforward, following standard industry practices. I kept the mesh organized, with clean naming and properly adjusted cages to ensure accurate detail transfer. Since there was no special complexity involved, I didn’t find it necessary to include it here.

After finishing the bake in Marmoset Toolbag, I exported the maps to Substance 3D Painter and began texturing. Although SPP offers great smart materials, I chose to create my own, something I had planned from the beginning, since I like having full control over the materials. I worked to balance the stylized-realistic aesthetic, creating surface variation, wear, and contrast between metal, leather, fabric, and skin.

I wrapped up by creating a custom export preset specifically for this project, an essential step, since each studio and engine has its own standards. In my case, I made some modifications to the shader inside Unreal Engine, which required the maps to be configured in a customized form.

I started by painting the subdermis, which is a good starting point for skin texturing because it allows me to create strong color variation between reds, greens, purples, and yellows, instead of simply adding a flat fill layer. After that, I added variations to the hypodermis, enhancing pores, wrinkles, and veins, and especially improving the coloration in the hands.

Next, I defined the roughness, keeping it fairly contrasted to achieve a better look inside the engine. I also created a Subsurface Scattering map, giving extra attention to the hands and head, since these are the areas most visible on the character.

Here I'm showcasing the main smart materials I created for the clothing. The elements that aren't labeled were built manually through individual layers, allowing me to refine very specific details. Throughout the process, I stayed closely aligned with the references I gathered, paying attention to fabric type, wear patterns, and color variation.

To achieve the visual style I was aiming for, I added several corrective and enhancement layers, which helped introduce additional depth, micro-variation, and surface complexity. These extra passes were essential for breaking uniform areas, improving realism, and ensuring the material behaved convincingly under different lighting conditions.

For the overcoat, I created a velvet material, and it was quite interesting to translate that look onto the character. One effective way to achieve this is by adjusting the colors within the Normal layer, which changes the direction in which the mesh reflects light. This reproduces the characteristic sheen and directional shading you see in real velvet.

However, there's an important detail to keep in mind: when you alter the normal direction, it can affect the UV seams, creating visible artifacts or odd shading along those areas. Because of that, it's essential to plan and take extra care around the seams to avoid unwanted distortions.

These are the Parent Materials I created for the character: one for the Head and Body, and another set for the clothing. They contain all the core shading logic, and from them I generated several Material Instances, allowing quick adjustments while keeping the visual style consistent across the asset.

Conclusion

This project represents one of the strongest milestones in my journey as a Character Artist, combining a complete game-ready pipeline with artistic direction, storytelling, and technical execution. By sharing this breakdown, I hope it helps other artists and also marks another step in my evolution. Thanks to everyone who follows and supports my growth. I'm committed to pushing the quality even further in the next projects.

Paulo Murilo, Senior 3D Character Artist