Creating an Alien Shaman CG Character of Using ZBrush, Mari & Maya
Ronja Stucken discussed the workflow behind the Nymera project, explaining how she used real-world skin and anatomy references, sculpted from large to small forms, and used an Arnold skin shader for texturing.
Introduction
Hello! My name is Ronja Stucken, and I'm a 3D Asset Generalist for VFX with a strong interest in surfacing and realistic texturing. With a background in fashion and costume design, I first discovered 3D through that field and quickly realized that I had found something I was truly passionate about. I became fascinated by the possibility of creating characters, creatures, and highly detailed assets that could tell a story.
At the time, this felt like a distant and somewhat abstract dream, but enrolling at PIXL VISN Media Arts Academy turned that dream into something tangible. Within just 18 months of training, I was able to develop the skills and knowledge to bring these ideas to life. I'd like to share a breakdown of my alien shaman character project, Nymera, which was created as part of a collaborative production. I was responsible for modeling, texturing, look development, and compositing.
Along the way, I've also been fortunate to receive valuable feedback and guidance from many talented people in the industry, which has played a big part in my growth. I would also like to highlight that learning a new field can be challenging and that the polished projects you see on ArtStation are often the result of countless hours of work, experimentation, and iteration. If this breakdown can motivate someone to keep going, experimenting, and improving, then I'd be very happy. For me, this project represents the result of a rewarding learning journey.
Nymera Project
This project was created for my demo reel during my final terms at PIXL VISN. My goal was to demonstrate everything I had learned over the past two years through modeling, texturing, lighting, and compositing while combining it with my background in fashion and costume design and my artistic decision-making from concept design. I wanted to create a character whose surfaces tell her entire story: who she is, where she has been, and what she has been through. I also wanted to challenge myself technically by creating complex, layered skin in Mari.
Credits:
- Ronja Stucken – Character Concept, Modeling, Texturing, Shading, Lookdev, Character Lighting, Compositing
- Felix Riehle – Environment, Environment Lighting
- Stephan Vogel – Rigging
- Daniel Netusil – Animation and Character Pose
- Alexander Weber – CFX
- Julian Isaza Gierlich – Grooming
References
Before starting the designing or modeling process, I gathered a wide range of references from tribal and Indigenous cultures, including the Mursi people, jewelry, body painting, facial markings, handmade textiles, natural materials, and accessories. I also collected references for human anatomy, skin details, and aged, weathered organic surfaces, using photography and real-world observation to ground the character in believable details. Here's a small selection from a wider range of images. Good reference is key!
Modeling
I sculpted Nymera from scratch in ZBrush, starting with primary volumes grounded in human anatomy and gradually pushing them towards alien body modifications. I worked from big to small, focusing on primary forms first, then secondary anatomy, and finally surface detail. I did the retopology in Maya with rigging in mind from the start, staying in close communication with the rigger throughout.
Below are the main references for the accessories rooted in the Mursi tribe. I broke them down into smaller elements, from braided leather created with curves in ZBrush to 3 sizes of dried Sodom apples, which I scattered around a headband with random rotations and positions to create variation. At every stage of the modeling process, it was important to break the symmetry and tell a story.
For example, the character has lost one of her ear tunnel plates, leaving the earlobe hanging down, while the weight of the fruits pulls the earlobe downward and creates further asymmetry. I also kept the horns slightly uneven rather than perfectly symmetrical. These small imperfections are what make the character feel more real and help communicate her story later through texturing and surfacing.
The outfit was created in Marvelous Designer, moving away from traditional pattern making to achieve a handmade, knotted look, as if the clothing had been roughly tied together from large pieces of cloth. Since knotting isn't something Marvelous Designer handles directly, I had to find a workaround by cutting the pieces into individual rectangles as much as possible. This gave me better control over the simulation and helped prevent the mesh from exploding.
The different outfit elements and their 2D patterns are visible below. I then used the flat 2D patterns as a base for retopology in Maya, transferring the location attributes from the simulation mesh to the clean topology. It was a simple but effective way to preserve the simulation's natural drape while achieving clean, production-ready retopology quickly.
Texturing
I textured everything in Mari using a procedural, layered approach. I started by building the SSS undertones, painting regions beneath the dominant yellow skin tone to simulate tissue depth and blood variation. From there, I progressively added surface detail such as pores, scars, sun bleaching, and body paint. I also built sweat and grease masks to control the moisture levels across the skin.
I constantly checked everything in Arnold throughout the process, making sure I never spent too long working in Mari without doing a render check. For accessories like the horns and ornaments, I built a layered aging system with the raw material underneath, followed by staining, wear, and polished areas on top.
I created contrast across the character through material variety, from matte, dry body paint against greasy skin, to rough cloth against smooth ivory, and textured leather against polished metal.
Shading & Lookdev
For skin displacement, I built a complex shader setup in Maya Arnold to have maximum control over every area of the face and body. I used TexturingXYZ alongside hand-painted surface details in the Albedo, Displacement, and Roughness maps.
Getting the shading right took many rounds of fine-tuning in a neutral lookdev setup. Testing the asset under different lighting conditions also helped me understand how the materials reacted. At the top of the page, you can see the shading turntable and different lighting setups.
Using masks within the shader allowed me to fine-tune the realistic look of the surfaces, and changes such as the face paint color or dirt intensity could be adjusted easily within the shader. This saved a huge amount of time once the main texturing was done, as exporting all the textures for an asset this detailed would take a lot of time just to test small tweaks.
I packed the masks into all three RGB channels to save file size and reduce export time. They can then be split apart in the shader and used as individual masks.
Detailed displacement in clay shading:
Hand-painted albedo texture, flat view:
Final beauty render:
Facial Expression
Since we were planning a lip-sync animation, facial blendshapes were needed for the rig. I sculpted the most important ones as a separate pass once the rig was in place, focusing on the key shapes within the limited time available. The rigger then used these as a starting point for the blendshape setup, as seen below.
Lighting, Compositing & Final Touches
I developed the scene concept collaboratively with the environment artist Felix Riehle. We felt a jungle setting fit a character who is tactile and connected to nature. We chose nighttime with moonlight and a fire in the background to create atmospheric lighting and framing that would support the character's mystical quality.
I rendered the character in Maya Arnold, matching the lighting there before compositing it into the Unreal Engine environment in Nuke. Additionally, I created some ambient studio portrait renders, moving in close to the character to showcase the richness of the surface details.
Conclusion
I developed Nymera over the last 1.5 terms of my studies at PIXL VISN under tight deadlines, with rigging, animation, CFX, and environment work all happening simultaneously alongside my character creation process. The model was constantly updated to meet the group's needs, so keeping my texturing procedural in Mari was essential, not optional.
My biggest challenge was the complex skin shading and handling many different surfaces simultaneously. Early on, I plugged all the skin maps into the shader at once and couldn't diagnose what was wrong with each one individually. My mentors taught me to work with one attribute at a time, check the render after every addition, and leave SSS until last. I applied the same approach to the different materials of the accessories, taking the time to focus on each material individually rather than checking them all at once. That lesson permanently changed how I approach every asset.
As advice to beginner artists, I would say: build your eye before your skills. Go outside, photograph surfaces, and study how things age and wear. Understanding real materials is the foundation of everything I do in 3D. I always work from big to small, resisting the temptation to add detail before the large forms and colors are solid.
I would also strongly recommend finding a mentor, someone who works at the level you want to reach and is willing to tell you honestly when you are going wrong. And stay curious. The tools will keep changing, and the artists who thrive are the ones who adapt.
Finally, I want to thank my mentors Giorgio Lorenzetti, Johnny Fehr, and Renato Scicchitano for their guidance and feedback throughout my journey. Feel free to follow me on my socials for more projects:
