Creating Diablo 4-Inspired Character Bust with ZBrush, Substance 3D & Blender

Introduction 

Hello! My name is Alexander Chiveli, and I currently live in Barcelona, Spain. I moved here 13 years ago to start working as a 3D character artist.

I have a university background in Computers and Programming. I got into 3D with the crazy idea of making a video game with a friend. At the beginning, I had no idea what to do, and he suggested I learn 3D. He told me it would take me about two years to get the hang of it – and he was right!

After those two years, I felt the need to leave home and grow as an artist in a professional environment. That’s when I joined Gameloft as a Character Artist. I spent eight years there working on several projects, such as The Adventures of Tintin, Asphalt 8: Airborne, and Minion Rush.

Two years later, I had the opportunity to join Outfit7, where I worked for two and a half years on several titles from the Talking Tom franchise, including Talking Tom Gold Run, Talking Tom Hero Dash, Talking Tom Time Rush, and Mythic Legends, among others.

Then I had the amazing chance to join Bandai Namco, where I worked for another two and a half years, mostly on prototypes. One of the projects I can talk about is Bug Busters.

Currently, I’ve been working at Spectarium for almost a year, where we’re developing a beautiful hand-painted cross-platform project called Myths.

In my free time, I enjoy learning new tools and techniques and challenging myself with things outside my comfort zone. I believe that’s the best way to grow as an artist – not staying too comfortable for too long. I also like doing research and finding inspiration in amazing artists, like Cédric Peyravernay, whose work inspired the piece featured in this article.

Diablo IV Bust

I’ve been following Cédric Peyravernay for a long time, and I had the chance to spend some time playing Diablo IV. I think the atmosphere of the game is very well reflected in Cédric’s artwork, so I thought it would be cool to bring one of his concepts into 3D. 

His artwork is full of organic, expressive brush strokes, and I tried to mimic that — it was a great challenge for me. Also, I noticed that Substance 3D had released some new stylization filters, and I wanted to try using Substance 3D Painter for a hand-painted look (I’d always used 3DCoat before this).

My process always starts with research and gathering references. I have a few core references I always use – mostly anatomical – but for each new piece, I like to do focused research tailored to the specific project. I keep collecting references and taking notes throughout the process, and my PureRef board usually ends up looking a bit messy… like this.

Modeling

I use ZBrush for modeling. I always start from a simple base mesh with basic proportions, trying to match the concept as closely as possible. I like to keep the topology clean at the lowest subdivision levels – that gives me more control over the forms and helps build a solid foundation before moving to higher detail.

In this case, the character was quite asymmetrical, so once I was happy with the sculpt at high resolution, I started breaking the symmetry to add more personality and realism.

The feathers, jewelry, and accessories were sculpted manually, one by one, without automation. I used a rough base to define proportions, followed by clean retopology and detailed sculpting when needed.

Low Poly & UVs

For retopology, I used Blender, which I find very efficient for clean and precise topology. I unwrapped the UVs using RizomUV, organizing them into separate sets for the head, eyes, feathers, and jewels.

Texturing

I baked the maps using Marmoset Toolbag. I like the level of control it gives over the cages. Once I had the base maps, I moved on to Substance 3D Painter for the hand-painted texturing.

At this stage, my pipeline becomes more organic and artistic. I don’t follow strict rules when painting – I prefer to experiment. I begin with a few bakes as a base and start applying brush strokes, working from global to specific, much like I do in the modeling phase.

After reaching a decent base, I applied some of Substance 3D Painter’s new stylization filters to enhance the look further.

Lighting

Once the textures were finished, I decided to experiment with different effects for the rim lights. I tried some shader setups using directional lights in Eevee’s viewport, and also tested a few matcaps, but none of them gave the result I was looking for. Since the concept was designed with a specific camera angle in mind, I ended up creating custom textures for the rim light effect.

I made three separate textures, one for each UV set affected by the rim light, and used them in Blender. All the textures were connected additively in the shader editor, but multiplied by a driver that I could control externally through animation.

This way, I was able to create the fade-in and fade-out effect you can see in the video below.

Rigging & Animation

Once I had the textures done, I decided to rig the model. Even though I’m not an animator, I usually like to add a bit of attitude to my artworks – it helps me push my limits with rigging and animation. For this piece, I used Rigify and created a simple animation where the character looks to each side and then finally to the camera.

Final Presentation

High Poly

For presenting the character, I decided to show my high-poly model rendered in Eevee with a simple clay material.

Texture Timelapse Workflow

I also thought it would be interesting to show a time-lapse of the texturing process as the model rotates. Here’s how I did it.

First, I attempted to create a script in Substance 3D Painter to export each layer incrementally. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as expected, so I ended up doing it manually, unhiding one layer at a time and exporting the result. In total, I exported 119 textures, covering skin, eyes, feathers, and jewels.

Then, I set up a simple 120-frame turntable animation in Blender. I wrote a Python script that:

• Played the animation frame by frame,
  
  
• Loaded a different texture for each frame,
  
  
• Rendered the scene after applying the new texture.

This resulted in a smooth visual time-lapse showing the full painting process, one frame at a time.

As an extra experiment, I wrote a second script for Blender’s Video Sequencer. It automatically loaded the renders into the timeline, where I could define frame durations, add fade-ins, set overlapping frames, and hold the final frame longer.

And this was the final result:

Extra Renders

Using the same scripts, I also decided to show the textures in a square, nothing special, just reusing what I did this time without animation and adding a wireframe at the end.

Animation

I'm not an animator, but I try to learn little by little. As I said, I rigged the model with Rigify and tried to give a little bit of life to the bust, looking to the sides. At the same time, for the final render, I activated the fade-in for the rim lights when the animation reached the end. And this is the final result. 

Conclusion

Nowadays, we have access to many great tools that allow us to experiment and build new pipelines. It’s a great time for Blender, which opens up tons of possibilities – especially if you know some Python.

Texturing in Substance 3D Painter was a great discovery for me. Even though it doesn’t have the smoothing brush from 3DCoat, the overall experience was very positive. The control over layers and filters is something I definitely miss in 3DCoat.

ZBrush, as always, is an amazing tool for high-poly modeling, and the same goes for RizomUV when it comes to UV work.

As I said before, stepping out of your comfort zone is essential if you want to learn new things and grow as an artist. Facing new challenges is what keeps the artistic passion alive, at least for me.

I hope you enjoyed the article! If you’d like to check out the final artwork, you can click this link.

Big thanks to 80 Level for the opportunity. And feel free to reach out to me on ArtStation if you have any questions or just want to connect.

Cheers!

Alexander Chiveli Navarro, Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine