Bulgaria's National Hero Recreated in 3D With Unreal Engine 5

In a feat of inspirational patriotism, 3D Character Artist and character art trainer Ivailo Ivanov, renowned for his outstanding 3D portraits of famous characters from movies and TV series, has recently unveiled a marvelous recreation of Bulgaria's national hero Vasil Levski.

Born in 1837, Vasil played a pivotal role in the Bulgarian revolutionary movement aimed at liberating the country from Ottoman Empire rule. Today, he is celebrated as the Apostle of Freedom and is regarded as one of Bulgaria's greatest historical figures, with numerous national institutions and monuments paying homage to his revolutionary legacy.

Using the remaining photos of Vasil as the main reference, Ivailo imagined a highly-realistic portrait of the hero, noting that there might be slight differences between the portrait and Vasil's actual appearance, given the heavy retouching of the existing photos. According to the artist, the character was created using ZBrush and rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

Earlier, the artist also unveiled "Oi!", a lifelike 3D take on Billy Butcher, an iconic character from the comic book and TV series The Boys, made with ZBrush, TexturingXYZ's materials, XGen, and Unreal Engine 5:

And prior to that, Ivailo published a fantastic 3D portrait of MyAnna Buring, who played the role of Tissaia de Vries in Netflix's The Witcher, offering a new take on the artist's previous MyAnna Buring project:

If you would like to learn more about Ivailo and his character art pipeline, we also recommend checking out our 2020 interview with the artist, in which he talked about the production process behind his Tognatale project, which replicates the likeness of Ragnar Lothbrok from Vikings, and shared his character creation techniques.

You can check out the artist's entire portfolio by clicking this link.

Previously, Character Artist Fei Huang also paid tribute to a famous revolutionary, recreating the famous photo of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 3D using Maya, ZBrush, and Substance 3D Painter:

Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.