Creating Enchanting Stylized Female Knight Using ZBrush & Blender

Introduction 

Hi, my name is Stasia Bubnova, also known as Stylitrix. I’m a stylized 3D character artist with around 3 years of professional experience working at outsourcing studios. Before that, I was a 2D freelance artist since high school. I spent a long time exploring different areas of 2D art until I discovered digital sculpting in ZBrush.

From there, I gradually began learning new tools as a self-taught artist, took several courses, and gained experience in creating game-ready characters.

I especially enjoy working on characters with diverse personalities and styles. It's a great way to explore both technical and artistic challenges, experiment with more complex concepts, and streamline my workflow for better productivity.

Pink Knight

I would like to tell you a little about my latest work in the portfolio, "Pink Knight". I’ve been actively following Aleksandra Alekseeva, and one of her recent sketches really impressed me. Without thinking twice, I decided to bring it to life in 3D.

Aleksandra has a very expressive 2D style, and I wanted to experiment with applying some of those techniques in 3D modeling.

During the reference-gathering stage, character screenshots from Marvel Rivals helped me a lot. It’s one of the best examples of comic-inspired stylization in games: 3D models feature built-in geometry strokes, heavily painted base colors, and shaders with rim lighting and outlines. Of course, I couldn’t implement everything due to time constraints and software limitations, but I did my best to push things as far as I could.

Sculpting

I sculpted the head from scratch and then used ZWarp Projection in ZBrush to transfer the shape onto a base mesh with cleaner facial topology.

I love working with characters in Dynamic Subdivision, as it allows you to sculpt at low subdivision levels while still achieving a smooth and clean result, which is especially useful for stylized characters.

For facial work, I mainly used proportional correction brushes like Inflate, Move, Pinch, and  Smooth. Since I was working with a relatively low subdivision level, I had to lower the brush intensity to maintain control.

Once the facial proportions were blocked in, I switched to Blender to create the knight helmet and the base hair structure using Curves. That gave me a solid first blocking pass in one evening.

Then came the challenge of how to detail the hair. The main reference showed the dreadlocks in a fairly abstract way, so I started exploring different methods. I could’ve used a simple IMM Brush, but that wouldn’t have matched the artistic style of the character.

I was especially inspired by the Lora Alt Hairstyles (from the game Wayfinder), which were sculpted and textured by Olga Skaskevich. I loved the idea of dreadlock ends curling into rose-like shapes, adding a softer and more delicate touch to the character.

To achieve that, I used the Spiral brush for shaping the ends of the locks and refined them with Orb_Crackes_1, Pinch, and Geo_Soft_Forms. I also created a custom Insert Mesh Brush from simple cylinders to add individual strands and break up the hair silhouette.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the process from blocking to the final hairstyle:

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: outlines.

Outlines are a powerful tool in stylizing 3D models. These days, they are often added using shader settings in rendering software. In my case, I used Marmoset Toolbag 4, which has limited outline customization, so I used a geometry-based solution.

I duplicated the mesh, then used ZModeler, Flip Faces (All Polygons) to invert normals. Then I did a slight Inflate using CTRL + Scale in the Gizmo. Since outlines should only define the outer silhouette, I excluded parts like eyes, brows, and lashes.

To make the outline more dynamic, I slightly pushed and pulled parts of the inflated mesh to give the line variation in thickness. Also, instead of a flat black outline, I went with a colored one, which is a common trick used by many 2D artists.

Texturing

For hand-painted face textures, I won’t be creating a UV map. Instead, I’ll be using Vertex Paint. Vertex color data is stored in the model’s attributes, so it’s important that the model has a high polycount to display high-resolution texture detail.

That’s why I first prepare the model and apply Dynamic Subdivision. For a single floating head, 1 million polygons is usually enough.

I don’t use any special add-ons or Spotlight for reference palettes. I usually insert an image onto a plane with about 6 SDiv. I find the average skin tone on the reference, then use the C key to pick the color.

Next, I paint using brushes with ZAdd and ZSub turned off, leaving only RGB and enabling Backface Mask. These are my brush settings for texturing.

From there, I begin building up shadows and highlights.

One super useful tool I rely on is Adjust Last. Besides helping me speed up my sculpting and giving me more stroke control, it allows me to halve the intensity of a stroke during painting – incredibly helpful when working with soft shadows and transitions.

At this stage, it’s really important to stay true to the character’s concept. When working with Vertex Paint on a high-poly model, I also take the opportunity to tweak facial proportions and add asymmetry for better expression and likeness.

Let’s talk about painting the eyes separately.

For the iris, I usually use Adobe Photoshop. It’s a more flexible and controlled approach, especially when working in a full character production pipeline for games. Once the iris texture is ready, I simply insert it into the eye geometry.

Export

Before rendering, I prepare the model for export. I try to decimate meshes that have a very high polycount. To make sure my Polypaint is preserved, I go into Decimation Master and click “Use and Keep Polypaint.”

For the face, I assign a separate polygroup for the lips, and in the export settings, I enable “Export Polygroups as Mats”. I then export the head separately.

Lighting & Rendering

For lighting in Marmoset Toolbag, I used very high sky brightness settings, with a main light source and several secondary ones. It’s a bright scene, and my goal was to achieve soft shadows on the character so they would blend naturally with the white background.

I set up an Unlit Material for the Outline Meshes. In the material settings, I disabled all options except Albedo and Diffusion. In the scene menu, I selected the outline meshes and turned off the Cast Shadows option.

For the skin material, I used Subsurface Scattering in Transmission to give the skin a more lively and slightly translucent appearance. I also used Emission to brighten and soften the shadows.

The lip material in my scene required some additional preparation. Normally, Roughness is painted in a texture and loaded into Marmoset as a separate map. In my case, I created custom topology for the lips that can be easily selected as a polygroup, matching the anatomical shape. Since I previously exported the head with extra settings, I now had more flexibility in adjusting the lip material.

The main material parameters I adjusted were Roughness and Specular, which help to enhance the hand-painted Polypaint detail. In the camera post-effect settings, I used Bloom and Chromatic Aberration.

Bloom adds a subtle glow to the silhouette, helping it blend better with the white background. Chromatic Aberration introduces a slight glitch effect in the final presentation, making the character look more visually interesting.

Post-processing, and here is our final result!

Conclusion

This project took me about a week of free time to complete, working for 2–3 hours a day. The most challenging part was preparing the geometry of the hair and lips for the final render, which required a lot of time and patience.

Practice is essential for any artist, and I’m really glad I created this character for my portfolio. When working on a 3D character, it’s important to pay attention not only to core hard skills but also to rendering and lighting.

Throughout the process, I improved my skills in material setup and rendering. I plan to continue practicing and creating new 3D characters in the near future.

If you enjoyed this short breakdown, feel free to check out more of my work on my social media: ArtStation, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Stasia Bubnova, Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine