How to Model 3D Horns for Infernal Girl

Introduction

Hello guys, my name is Veronika Neklyueva, and I am currently working as a 3D character artist. 
I came to 3D about 5 years ago, but I never thought that it would become my main job. I really dreamed of being an artist and designer, but one day I came across 3D works by Maria Panfilova, Qi Sheng Luo, Rafael Grassetti, and other great artists on ArtStation, and that was amazing! I wanted to figure out how to do such work. I started learning ZBrush and practicing sculpting a lot. I was mainly interested in character art since I drew characters in 2D for a long time, and it so happened that I found my new passion!

Probably what helped me most in my growth as an artist was learning the basics of 2D and understanding the basic forms, I was able to apply the skills I learned in art school in 3D. Then, I did a lot of training work, which helped me develop my speed and sculpting skills.

Thanks to my first job at Artvostok, I was able to try different projects and styles: from realistic to stylized. I made characters and creatures for printing for the board game Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, as well as creatures for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and others. Then I got a job at Sperasoft, where I also had a lot of interesting tasks as part of the Star Wars: The Old Republic project, which is what I’m still working on to this day.

Hell Girl

I started working on the Hell Girl model after coming across a reference on Pinterest, and I really liked its energy! I thought it would be great to transfer this emotion and this character into 3D. She also reminded me a lot of Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3, whom I just adore! She was also my reference for this work. Usually, when selecting references, I try to choose both 3D work and interesting solutions from the real world. It's not always easy to figure out where a character's hair might lie at a given moment or what exactly a necklace should be. This is exactly why I always look for references.

Modeling

I would like to start by talking about the creation of the head and torso. This is still not an easy moment for me since women's faces are probably the most difficult part of sculpting for me. You can recognize bone and muscle structures in men's faces, but this is not easy in women's. I'm still practicing this.

Hair

In general, I use the most basic brushes, which are very easy to use: Move, Clay Buildup, Dam Standard, Curve Tube, and Standard. Usually, I type the shape or take a regular sphere. Afterward, I like to use DynaMesh to sketch out a good shape and then make a ZRemesh and project using the history of the part. 

Horns

When I sculpted the horns, I tried to pay attention to important points, such as the flow of lines, repetition, and rhythms. I used standard brushes, such as Clay Buildup, Dam Standard, and Move. Below you can see how I detailed all the other parts of the horns. I would like to point out a very useful Roll Dist setting, which is located in the Stroke menu. If you set the value close to 5, then you will have something like this: (on the left is regular Clay Buildup, and on the right with the Roll Dist setting enabled):

And here's the result with my comments:

Clothes & Accessories 

In the process of creating clothes, I also used the standard set of brushes and tools. Here is how I made the t-shirt:

For the amulet, I used IMM brushes to insert new elements like teeth and small ropes. In the process, I took an otter skull as a basis, as it seemed the most interesting to me, although not the most suitable in size. I took the main reference from Pinterest and just tried to repeat it, as I really liked the idea.

And there is the final high poly model! 

Retopology & Unwrapping

The next stage of my work is the UV unfolding and creating bakes. For these tasks, I chose a very simple pipeline since my goal was to make a beautiful picture for rendering. I made an automatic ZRmesh for all subtools since it saves a lot of time. Then I added subdivisions and, using the Project History function, projected the layers onto an already correct mesh. 

I repeat this process with each subtool so that they all have fairly low subdivisions for future UV maps. I also use the standard settings for the UV maps. I repeated this process with all the subtools. I packed the UV and materials in Maya since it is much easier for me to do it there.

Texturing

The most challenging thing in this work was to create beautiful skin since other elements are not so important, and their texture space is much smaller. In general, I used the most standard masks in Substance 3D Painter. For example, I decided to disassemble the character's skin.

The character's eyes are from FlippedNormals' Eye Kit, you can check out this product on this store page.

Rendering

In the process of rendering, I used Marmoset Toolbag 4, it is a wonderful software for fast and high-quality rendering of a character. I will show you the basic settings of my light sources and shaders.

Conclusion

It took me about a month to complete the whole project, as I worked in between and sometimes only managed to work for a few hours. It is also okay to take a break from your work and come back after a few days, weeks, or months to understand what else can be changed or to get new inspiration and ideas. The most difficult thing was probably to get into the original concept, as I really liked it and wanted to convey the character's personality. It took a lot of time, but I am happy that I was able to bring the character to the end!

I think many artists face the fact that they cannot finish something, and this is absolutely normal. You do not stand still and develop, your interests change, and this is cool. You just need to remember the process itself, and it is very important that you enjoy it!

Veronika Neklyueva, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine