How to Reimagine Ice King from Adventure Time as More Realistic 3D Model

Introduction 

Hello, my name is Ismael. I live in Florianópolis, an island in the south of Brazil. I was born in 2003 and was fortunate enough to spend practically my entire childhood inside a video rental store. So, from a very young age, I had a lot of contact with games and movies, and that sparked in me the desire to one day be part of this fictional universe that has always fascinated me.

Currently, I’m 21 years old and finishing my degree in Game Design. I started studying 3D modeling in 2021, while I was still in high school, and since then I’ve been dedicating myself a lot, taking courses and workshops. I also had the opportunity to work at a studio in 2022 and 2023, which was a very important experience for me.

Now, I’m focused on constantly improving and taking new steps in my career as a 3D artist.

Ice King

The idea was to take a cartoon-style character and reimagine it in a version closer to realism, while still preserving the fantastic essence that defines it. For this, I chose to follow the dark fantasy style, which blends darker elements with a highly imaginative atmosphere.

Throughout the development process, I aimed to keep the original colors and proportions so that the character would remain immediately recognizable. At the same time, I allowed room for artistic experimentation, creating unique solutions that enriched the overall look without altering the character’s identity.

A key aspect was the preservation of the character’s distinctive traits, which are fundamental to his recognition in the process of translating him into 3D. Elements such as the pointed hands reinterpreted as long, unkempt nails, the long, narrow nose, the white, expressionless eyes, and the long, rounded beard were carefully adapted in order to reinforce the characteristics of the original character.

Beyond the aesthetic aspects, the character’s narrative dimension was also considered. In several episodes of Adventure Time, the Ice King is portrayed as a lonely villain whose central motivation is his desperate search for a princess. From this perspective, the intention was to convey the feeling of a king without a kingdom, without companionship, and without a people to rule. To materialize this sentiment, special emphasis was placed on the symbolic use of the color blue, often associated with sadness.

In addition to remaining faithful to the original design, I drew upon artistic references that enriched the project’s conception. The aesthetic construction was inspired both by Renaissance works due to their closeness to reality and emphasis on expressiveness and by 3D artists whose work I admire and follow, as well as real-world references and medieval fantasy franchises such as The Lord of the Rings and Elden Ring. These sources of inspiration made it possible to create a more complex representation that balances realism, fantasy, and symbolic depth.

High-Poly Sculpt

In the sculpting process, the first step consisted of creating the throne, starting from a simple cube. From this primary shape, the structure was gradually developed with the help of brushes such as Move and ClayBuildup, balancing the use of visual references with artistic intuition until the desired result was achieved.

With the throne already blocked out, I used the ZBrush mannequin to define the seated pose of the character. Even though this tool has its limitations, I aimed to apply as much gesture as possible to the character.

After defining the pose, the body was modeled without clothing, with the purpose of providing a solid foundation for the later construction of the garments. Although the body was planned to be fully covered by fabric and eventually removed in later stages, this initial structure proved essential for ensuring proper drape and volumetric consistency of the cloth sculpted over it.

During the blocking phase, I always try to keep the process free and dynamic, making use of Sculptris features and respecting the hierarchy of primary, secondary, and tertiary forms, while paying close attention to the silhouette and how the shapes interact within space. As the sculpture progressed, the polygon density was gradually increased, allowing for the refinement of forms and the addition of smaller-scale details.

For the face, I started with ZBrush’s default head as a base and gradually built the structure and proportions I wanted to emphasize for the Ice King. While sculpting, I always focus on following the hierarchy of forms and anatomical logic, aiming to give the impression that beneath the skin there are bones and muscles.

For the facial expression, I worked to make it truly convincing and convey a sense of sadness. To achieve this, I used wrinkles to my advantage, making the character’s emotions clear through details such as the downward curve of the mouth and the slightly raised eyebrows, as if he were holding back tears.

Bake & Low Poly

Since the project has a predominantly artistic and visual focus, manual retopology and UV unwrapping in Maya were not performed. Instead, I chose to use ZBrush’s automated tools, applying ZRemesher for retopology and Unwrap for UV generation. After that, the bake was carried out directly in Marmoset Toolbag, where it was possible to individually select each texture map for every object, ensuring greater control over the results of each stage of the process.

Additionally, the texture maps generated during the bake were used to apply the textures, enhancing the model’s reliefs and cavities. This approach allowed the structural details to stand out, providing greater depth and realism to the scene.

A transparency map was used to define the cut areas precisely to create the tears at the bottom. For the hanging threads, the process involved a combination of a mask layer, a fill layer, and a paint layer, allowing for detailed control over the volume of each thread.

Hair & Beard

To create the hair, the head was first duplicated in ZBrush, and then the regions corresponding to the areas where the hair would grow were separated. For this, the masking tool was used, followed by organizing the parts into polygroups and removing unnecessary sections, leaving only the base, as if it were the hair roots. After this preparation, ZRemesher was applied to reduce the mesh and achieve low density, finishing with Polish to smooth and round the edges.

After finishing this part in ZBrush, I brought the model into Maya. There, I used the hair roots as a base to apply the hair in XGen. From that point, I experimented with Maya’s brushes: I used the Comb to style, Move to adjust the strands, Curve to define the locks, and Noise to give a messier, tangled appearance. This approach allowed me to create locks, flows, and directions for both the hair and beard, making everything look more natural and aligned with the character’s concept.

Scene

For the environment construction, the process began with gathering visual references that matched the desired atmosphere. The goal was to create a setting reminiscent of a church with stained glass windows, while still maintaining elements characteristic of a medieval castle. From this concept, modeling began using cubes and cylinders as the structural base. These blocks were later refined, using the initial cube to generate the edges and corners of the architecture, thereby establishing the primary forms of the scene.

Once the primary forms were well established, I used ZModeler to create the structural details, such as edges and recesses. When everything was properly adjusted, I applied a high-density DynaMesh, allowing for the addition of details like scratches and cracks.

For the stained glass, Polypaint was used to draw the desired patterns in black. Then, Mask by Intensity was applied to convert the drawing into a mask, which allowed the shape to be extracted directly from the mesh. From this process, the design was exported and converted into an FBX file, serving as the base for the final composition of the stained glass. 

ZRemesher was applied to optimize the mesh for the glass portion, followed by UV unwrapping. In Marmoset Toolbag, a crystal normal map was added, along with a copy of the ice material previously developed for the rest of the scene, but adjusted with a different hue to create variation and enhance the stained glass’s aesthetic.

Renders & Lighting 

Throughout the project, various test renders were performed, serving as previews of the production’s progress. These tests played a crucial role, as they allowed for a practical observation of how the project was evolving and how light interacted with the objects, acting as a guide for decision-making. Based on this analysis, it was possible to adjust not only the lighting, which directly contributed to the gradual refinement of the pieces until the desired final result was achieved.

Conclusion

For this project, I tried to take a very free approach, without sticking too strictly to rules. I wanted it to be more artistic – a piece that would serve as a plus in my portfolio. For me, the most challenging part is always knowing when to stop. I often feel like I could push it further, that there’s always a detail that can be improved.

The renders were a challenge on their own. Every time I looked at them, I thought the lighting could be better, that the colors could be more balanced, more harmonious. I ended up doing several tests just to understand how the lighting reacted to the model. This helped me refine the forms and also understand better what really worked.

But there comes a point when you have to stop. I feel the urge to keep adjusting and improving forever, but there’s also a lesson in accepting that the project has fulfilled its purpose and that part of the process is moving forward and evolving in the next one.

Ismael Souza Lemos, Character Artist

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford