Learn How to Create a Marty-Looking Character in ZBrush & Blender

Introduction

Hello, my name is Yura. I started working as a 3D Artist in 2013. I also worked in an outsource company Trace Studio, from 2017 to 2023. Since 2023, I have worked at OneUpGames. As I worked on various projects and in different departments, I'm a Senior Generalist Artist. I was one of the Character Artists for RedFall, Warhammer Darktide Vermintide 2. I modeled weapons for RedFall, Destiny 2, and Hunt: Showdown. Currently. I'm a Senior Weapon Artist working on a new mobile shooter.

Inspiration & References

I've always enjoyed making something at home when I get a chance, just because I want to. When I make weapons at work, I make characters at home, and vice versa. At first, I thought I would only make a backpack in FarCry 6 Style (at work, SecretSanta once got me an art book of the game). But I decided to create my artwork without using the concept art from the book, because I wanted to make something completely new. So, I found this backpack on Google. But I'm not satisfied with this work because I got tired of it toward the end and hurried up to finish it for my vacation.

Sculpting Character's Head

You almost don't see the character's face because I used a 3D scan for the body, and I didn't want to make visible the parts that I didn't do myself. As for the hairstyle, I used only ZBrush, in particular, ClayBuild, DamStandart, and TrimDynamic brushes. Last time, for hard surfaces, I used a weapon pipeline. I made everything with creases and booleans (DynaMesh+Polish). With this method, I spent less time on low poly.

Body & Clothes

As I've said before, I used a 3D scan for the body, so I was trying to concentrate on clothes. I started with the backpack, and I didn't have the main concept of the full character. After I'd finished the backpack, I started to look for some references for the outfit. I like the way a vest in RedFall looks. And it turned out that Marty has a great outfit, so I've used him a lot for inspiration.

The most difficult thing for me is switching from Marvelous Designer to ZBrush. In the course of this work, I've tried different ways of doing that. For pants, I merged all parts into one solid geometry.

For beginners, I recommend this way:

Retopology & Unwrapping

Since 2020, I've been using Blender for modeling retopology. It isn't very good in Blender, but I was satisfied since I didn't want to move to other programs. I used RizomUV and an add-on for Blender with UVPackmaster, which is sufficient for me. Now, the bridge works better than it did when I just started using it in 2020.

Texturing Hair & Clothes

Recently, I've started making scenes with light and textures together. It helps with the right color in the textures. If you see how your textures look with good light, you can adjust the color and roughness, etc., with better understanding and clearer vision.

I am delighted that this method gives me more flexibility than making color variations with Normal. I can change only the base color, and the other layers can change the following.  
I have a channel for my friends where I post-process my projects. These are screenshots from there:

Rendering

I use Marmoset Toolbag for rendering and Adobe Photoshop for post-processing. Here, I added a lot of paint in Photoshop, as I was tired of making this character. For rim light, I use a long rectangle for a thin outline, but I don't find this render good.

Conclusion

I started in December 2023, but I had three mounts when I didn't have anything for this character (I had/needed a break). I have a full-time job, so I can devote only one hour a day to personal projects.

My advice is to choose a good concept for your first artwork. And just don't give up. You should also go through all the steps of creating a character, and in the future, you will understand what was not good and change it.

Yura Karpenko, Senior Artist

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie