Creating 3D Hand-Painted Man With Robotic Arm

The Jack Project

A while ago, I discovered a concept art by Deepfry that I loved, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try hand-painted textures. I would like to show you the process used for this character step by step, from blockout to render.

Blockout

The first step is always to start with a blockout. I usually do this in ZBrush. In this step, before adding details, we will work on the main proportions and shapes of the character. Depending on what you want to do, you can stick 100% to the concept or, as in this case, add or change details. 

Once the blockout is done, we can move on to the high-poly phase. This phase is a lot of fun because we start adding details little by little.

High-Poly

It is important to follow these steps when starting your high-poly:

• Primary details. Large, general details;
• Secondary details. They are the shapes that add functionality and determine how the pieces connect;
• Tertiary details. At this point, we can go crazy and add micro-details such as scratches, smaller wrinkles, construction details, etc.

For some hard surface details, we can work both organically and with ZModeler. For some parts, we can also clean up the topology by exporting them to Maya and re-importing them into ZBrush. In this case, I used a little bit of everything. First, I sculpted the main shapes of the arm organically, and then I flattened or remade the topology within Maya. 

This is an example of some of the pieces that were created entirely in ZBrush. It's essential to keep our polygroups clean in order to maintain a more intuitive and less destructive workflow when making changes or adding details.

To have more control over the case, I created most of the main shapes in Maya to gain speed, and once I had them, I imported them into ZBrush to start adding the more organic pieces.

Once we have polished the details on both the character's high-poly and the prop, we are ready to start decimating in ZBrush and begin the low-poly.

Low-Poly & UVs

Depending on the case, the character may or may not have all the pieces in a single geometry. In my case, I separated them by clothing item and body part: head, jacket, pants with belt, shoes, robotic arm, and hand. Each piece requires more or less detail. In this case, I followed the shape of the wrinkles as closely as possible to obtain a less flat bake.

Due to the shape of the hair, it remained attached to the head, taking care of the seam that could be created.

As I finished each piece, I added the necessary cuts and applied hard edges. This way, I can work on the low-poly together with the UVs and make the workflow a little smoother.

Baking & Texturing

This is my favorite part! Once we have all our LPs and UVs, we proceed to bake them. In this case, they were done in Marmoset Toolbag. Not all my textures are the same size. The maximum is 4K, and the minimum is 2K, as some pieces require more detail than others.

And now, let's get texturing! First, we start by choosing the base colors, without thinking too much about the details, simply selecting the appropriate base color so that once we have it, we can add additional details.

When it comes to skin, don't forget that we have more than one color. That's why it's important to add red, blue, yellow, and even green tones, depending on the result you want to achieve. 

We can add as many colors as we deem necessary, depending on the character and what we want to convey.

Posing & Rendering

Another one of my favorite parts. Once we have finished and polished our textures, it's time to prepare our model for its final presentation! Some characters tend to remain in pose A or T. In this case, my character is originally in pose A, it's a character ready for the game. 

Still, it's important to give them a presentation that makes them more attractive and gives the impression that this character has a story to tell. And each character's pose, in addition to their characteristics and clothing, is what will tell us about them.

In addition to the pose, lighting plays a key role. Even though we have the general lighting for our HDR, scene, or whatever initial lighting you use, to present the character, we want to highlight their most striking features and, above all, give them depth.

It is important to have the main lights that will give the face the necessary light to attract attention. And contour lights are always a good idea. As always, depending on what you want to show or the feeling you want your character to convey, you can play with these factors as many times as necessary.

And that's all! I hope you liked the result!

Marcela Ruiz, 3D Artist