Creating Diablo IV-Inspired Female Warrior with Substance 3D & UE5

Introduction

My name is César Párraga. I live in Andalusia, Spain, and I love art and creating 3D characters. I've been drawing and sculpting traditionally since I was a child. My passion and curiosity for video games and animation eventually led me to discover the 3D art industry behind them.

I was about 15 years old when I tried ZBrush for the first time, and I instantly fell in love with it. Over time, I decided to pursue art as a career, attended university, and studied fine arts. In my free time, I continued learning 3D on my own, practicing every day.

This year, I had the opportunity to work as a Freelance Modeler for Digic Pictures. However, it was a short-term contract, and now, despite these challenging times for artists, I'm eager to participate in more projects or work in a studio. 

Inspiration & References

The Crusader is a character I created during my enrollment in J Hill's Character Art for Games class, which I highly recommend. As a big fan of Blizzard games and a dark fantasy enthusiast, I chose a concept art piece from Diablo IV by the talented Igor Sid.

I was drawn to the idea of a paladin-like character with incomplete, damaged armor, wounds, and an overall appearance of having endured countless battles – yet still ready to fight one more time. I also appreciated that the concept allowed plenty of room for personal interpretation and creativity, something I enjoy exploring in my personal projects. 

I start collecting references as soon as I decide on a character. I gather images from various sources, primarily Google Images and Pinterest, but sometimes, I also take photos with my phone if I come across something interesting. I organize everything on my reference board using PureRef.
 
When building the board, I initially throw in a wide variety of images – anything related to the character or that inspires me somehow. To keep things organized and efficient, I refine the board as the project develops, saving the most relevant references and discarding others. For me, it's an ongoing process from the beginning to the end of every project, as each step often requires new references. 

I usually conduct quick research for every project I work on. For the Crusader, I focused on medieval plate armor. Since the concept didn't show how the armor was attached to the character, I studied real examples and incorporated those details into the design. This step is crucial, as it adds believability to the character.

For the portrait, I used Ess Hödlmoser's appearance as a reference without aiming for an exact likeness. I envisioned the Crusader as a young, tough woman and recalled a role Ess played in The Boys, which I thought matched the facial anatomy and expression I wanted to capture.

The primary goal of this project was to learn Unreal Engine and refine my skills in creating game-specific characters, as I usually work on characters for cinematics or VFX. With UE5 receiving frequent upgrades and becoming a powerful tool for artists, I felt it was the right time to dive in. Unreal is now being used for incredible cinematic and VFX projects, and its potential keeps growing, making it an essential skill to master.

Modeling

The modeling and sculpting phase is my favorite and where I spend the most time. I primarily use ZBrush for the entire process. I start with a rough blocking of the character, using simple and undefined forms to focus on getting the proportions right and beginning to interpret the concept. This step involves setting up all the character's pieces.

For this project, I used a base mesh and decided to model only half the character's body. I aimed to keep the project small so that I could concentrate on learning and reinforcing my skills. 

Next, I moved on to the high-poly phase, starting with the character's costume. I usually work in an order based on materials. For this character, I focused on armor, clothing, and leather.

For this process, I mainly use ZBrush's basic brushes: ClayBuildUp, Move, DamStandard, and TrimDynamic, along with some alphas and deformation sliders, depending on the material I'm sculpting.

While sculpting the portrait, I find it helpful to use polypaint and do quick paintovers on my model to check if the character's face transmits the desired vibe.

If I plan to create the hair using cards or XGen, I first block out the primary shapes in the sculpt. This serves as a useful reference, making it easier to place the final hairs. 

The eyes are from MetaHumans. Since it was my first time rendering a character in Unreal Engine, I used the incredible eye shader created by Epic's team for the MetaHuman project.

For the armor, I used a simple yet effective method. First, I applied ZRemesher and ZModeler to achieve a solid base topology. Then, I subdivided it multiple times to retain details at a higher resolution.

In the first layer, I used the Move brush to give the metal a more natural, believable look. Next, I added noise in a new layer, followed by a TrimDynamic pass to blend the noise and preserve the details I liked most. This step often leads to "happy accidents" that enhance the design. Finally, I used the fantastic Orb brushes in the last layer to sharpen edges and add scratches or damage.

To save time, I rely on ZBrush's Layers and Morph Target tools for all my projects. These tools keep the sculpting process non-destructive, offering the freedom to experiment without worry. Plus, controlling each layer's strength separately keeps the workflow organized. 

Retopology & Unwrapping

After finishing the high-poly model, I exported a decimated version into Maya and began the retopology. I used various methods depending on the asset. For most parts, I created new topology by drawing directly over the decimated model using the Quick Draw tool. For the armor, I utilized the first subdivision from ZBrush and adjusted it for optimization.

For elements like the scarf and tabard, which I intended to make look like tattered fabric, I ensured the topology left extra room at the edges. This allowed for more flexibility with opacity adjustments later in Substance 3D Painter. 

Once I finished the retopology, I began unwrapping the model and placing the UVs, using Maya for this step as well. I separated the UVs into four texture sets based on the materials: skin, metal, clothes, and leather. 

Texturing

For this project, I did the texturing in Substance 3D Painter. First, I baked the maps, cleaned up any imperfections, and set up the scene to make the process more comfortable and organized. I created simple layers for each material, naming them and assigning temporary values to help differentiate them.

To approach the skin texturing, I decided to transfer maps from a Texture XYZ scan onto my sculpt. This served as a good base, but since my character has very damaged skin, I sculpted additional details on top of the transferred maps. The resulting detail was then exported from ZBrush as a Normal Map, which I imported into my Substance 3D Painter scene.

I began adding layers, starting with those that set up the color variation of the skin. On top of that, I added a layer to paint inflammation in certain areas of the face, which helped blend the wounds more naturally and made them more believable. The next step was to create different layers for the wounds and scars. I wanted them to look distinct, reflecting that the character has been in battle for a long time. Some wounds appear fresh and bloody, while others look nearly healed. Finally, I used hand-painted dirt layers over everything to enhance the storytelling and emphasize the worn, battle-hardened look I was aiming for. 

I followed the same strategy for the other materials – creating layers from basic to complex while keeping the storytelling in mind. I tried to avoid relying too heavily on procedural masks, opting instead for hand-painting. This approach gives me greater control over the materials and helps make the character look more interesting and unique. Plus, it's much more enjoyable to paint by hand.

Lastly, I want to share the layer I created to simulate the tattered cloth using an Opacity Map. To achieve a good result, I had to do some research. The layer features a procedural torn edge, with a Voronoi pattern to simulate holes in the cloth. It's effective because you can simply add mask paint layers to draw the damage, and the other layers will automatically adapt, creating a weathering effect around the areas of damage. 

Lighting, Rendering & Post-Production

While working on the textures, I brought my model into Unreal Engine 5 to set up the scene and materials, allowing me to see the character in its final context. This approach enabled me to iterate on the textures while simultaneously evaluating how the character would look in the final rendering engine. 

I like to experiment with lighting when presenting my characters. For this project, I used the classic three-point lighting setup and played with colors to emphasize the duality of the design. The key light illuminates the character from the left side of the view, creating a clear separation between the two halves of the portrait. I gave this light a warm tone to accentuate her courage and fierceness while also creating a beautiful contrast with the blue tone of her remaining eye.

On the other side, the fill light illuminates the most damaged part of her face. This cold light contrasts with the key light and emphasizes the hardships of being a warrior. I positioned it strategically to add volume without overpowering the image's main focus. Lastly, the rim light helps separate the character from the background and highlights details like subtle highlights and the subsurface scattering in her ears. 

I also added some assets from the Megascans library to the scene to help with the composition of the main render. To create depth and a cinematic effect, I adjusted the focus distance value of the main camera. 

Conclusion

It took me eight weeks to complete the character, which was the duration of the class I was enrolled in. The main challenge was stepping out of my comfort zone and creating a character using a nearly new workflow. I had never used UE5 before this project, so I took the opportunity to learn how to create grooming for games using hair cards as well. 

I would recommend this approach to beginner artists: work on smaller projects from time to time and treat them as quick opportunities to learn as much as you can. Choose a concept that has elements you're unfamiliar with, and challenge yourself to research and learn new techniques and workflows.

César Párraga, Character/Creature artist