Creating a Detailed and Expressive Character Inspired by Cretan-Mycenaean Culture

Introduction

My name is Dmitry Bezrodniy, and I have been working as a 3D Character Artist for the past ten years. The major projects I have contributed to as a Character Artist are Hell Let Loose and Hunger.

Ariadne

As you may have noticed from my other personal projects, I am drawn to unusual historical periods and the events that shaped them. I have already created two projects inspired by the Early Iron Age — Satanaya and Farewell to the Steppe. With Ariadne, I decided to go even further back in time and create a character based on the Bronze Age Cretan-Mycenaean civilization.

I am fascinated by the distinctive clothing and armor associated with this culture, as well as its vivid colors and ornamentation. It is also a world of deep antiquity about which we know relatively little, leaving plenty of room for imagination.

As usual, I began by gathering references. One particularly valuable source was the website of Greek blacksmiths and historical reenactors, Hellenic Armors, where they showcase their reconstructions of Mycenaean armor. I also collected references for clothing, including photographs of original frescoes and modern reconstructions of Cretan women's garments.

I chose to omit one of the most recognizable features of Cretan dress — the exposed chest — so that the project would not have to be marked as 18+. Even so, Ariadne still ended up being the most lightly dressed of all my characters.

MetaHuman

After working on Guine, my previous personal project, I decided to build this character for MetaHuman from the very beginning. I started by creating a MetaHuman character in Unreal Engine, adjusted the proportions to suit my design, assembled the character, and exported it through DCC Export. In the first stage, I wrapped subdivision level 1 of my high-poly model onto the MetaHuman low-poly mesh using ZWrap.

This gave me a precise match between all joints on the high- and low-poly models while preserving the medium- and fine-level detail of the high-resolution scan. In the second stage, I wrapped the MetaHuman low-poly topology onto the scan so that I could bake the textures as accurately as possible and later obtain a properly functioning rig.

Once the first stage was complete, I began dressing the 3D scan, which was now aligned to the MetaHuman pose, with clothing and armor. I followed my usual workflow: first creating all fabric elements, then moving on to straps, armor, and jewelry.

I then assembled everything in ZBrush, adjusted the clothing to the body once again with the Move brush, and began detailing. The brushes I use for detailing have changed very little over time; for example, all the brushes I described in my article on creating the Scavenger are still part of my workflow. This time, however, I wondered whether I could expand the set with the help of AI — in my case, Nano Banana Pro AI.

I started with metal surfaces. At first, I asked it to generate damaged and scratched metal, then converted the results into Displacement maps. This gave me a set of brushes for bronze plate surfaces and another set for scratches, which I used extensively across the model.

Using the same approach, I created a Wrinkle brush and a Fabric-Damage brush.

I did not abandon my older brushes and used them alongside the new ones. I also used a modified Hook brush to create torn fabric edges and give the model a more complex silhouette.

In the end, I worked my way up from the footwear and legs to the shield and helmet.

Retopology

After the high-poly, I moved to retopology. I created all of Ariadne's topology manually. My experience with Nika, where I based part of the mesh on retopology created in Marvelous Designer, proved unsuccessful: cleaning up that 'automatic' topology took me longer than building it from scratch.

The cards used to bake the torn edges required particular attention. I not only had to create and unwrap them, but also average the normals where they joined the main model. I divided the final geometry into five texture sets and baked them in Marmoset Toolbag.

The updated baking system in Substance 3D Painter is also excellent, but unfortunately it could not handle my torn edges correctly, so I was unable to use it for this project. For baking transparency in Marmoset Toolbag, I use a small workaround: instead of baking opacity directly, I bake a black-and-white texture — Roughness in this case.

I place a polygonal backing surface beneath the card that will later become transparent, assign roughness 0 to the backing material and roughness 1 to the high-poly material, and in this way obtain a clean black-and-white opacity texture without artifacts.

Texturing

A defining feature of the texturing workflow in my three most recent personal projects has been the use of layered smart materials directly inside Unreal Engine. They were created for Hunger by our outstanding technical artist, Danny Ivan Flu, and I was happy to adapt them for my personal work.

This approach limits the artistic variability of the final result to some extent, but it also makes it possible to reach the desired look much faster, since every parameter change is displayed instantly in the engine without the need to re-export textures.

Creating the tiling materials for the fabric and the embroidered edge of the skirt was a particularly interesting process. AI was not very successful at generating genuinely compelling patterns, but it worked extremely well when enhancing real photographs that lacked sufficient resolution.

I therefore searched for suitable reference images, processed them with AI, and then brought the results into Substance 3D Sampler, where the Convert Image to Material mode generated Roughness and Normal maps for me.

The fringe used on the belt, plume, and tassels was another interesting challenge. I created high-poly models of individual threads and baked them onto a plane in Marmoset Toolbag. I then built a polygonal base for the fringe, using the same general approach as hair cards.

The Face

For the face, I was inspired by the appearance of Irish actress Jessica Reynolds. I came across a scene featuring her on social media and felt that her face was a perfect fit for Ariadne. I used a head scan mesh as a base and, after several step-by-step iterations, arrived at a result I considered strong enough.

I then wrapped the MetaHuman head mesh onto my sculpt and baked the textures onto it. Several additional passes of shape and texture adjustments were still required in Unreal Engine before I was satisfied with the final result.

As for the hairstyle, I decided to give XGen another try after all the headaches with Nika's hair. This time I followed a strict rule: one Maya project per hair element — one for the eyebrows, one for the main hairstyle, and so on — and I gave every mask in every collection a unique name.

As a result, I was able to create all hairstyle elements without any major issues. I even edited and re-saved some of them in Photoshop. The MetaHuman Alembic exporter also sped up the workflow considerably, so special thanks to Epic Games for that tool.

I switched to rendering in Unreal Engine quite some time ago, since I also use it on Hunger. I was particularly impressed by MetaHuman's automatic facial and body rigging too. I started with one of the lighting setups used in the MetaHuman Creator — available for download on Fab — then added more lights and adjusted the existing ones.

I transferred the automatic body rig to Ariadne's clothing and armor and, with a few minor corrections, achieved a solid rig for the entire character. This allowed me to use a wider range of poses for the final presentation than I normally would. I uploaded the rendered results to ArtStation without any post-processing.

Conclusion

The most interesting and unusual part of creating Ariadne was exploring AI and looking for ways it could improve or accelerate my workflow. My conclusion is that AI is not a universal solution, but it is an interesting tool with clear limitations. I am also very pleased with the facial animation work achieved through MetaHuman.

My advice to beginners is not to be afraid of AI tools, but not to overestimate them either — and, when starting new projects, to seek out distinctive and unconventional settings or visual styles. Thank you for reading!

Dmitry Bezrodniy, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Emma Collins