Making an Ethereal, Moonlight-Inspired Fantasy Character in 3D

Introduction

My name is Alex Borkovskiy, and I'm a 3D Character Artist. My path into the profession was quite unconventional. I studied child psychology, later worked in the fashion industry, and then studied at the Moscow Film School.

Like many of us, I became interested in 3D during the COVID-19 pandemic and started teaching myself character creation. Quite unexpectedly, I found that my previous experience came together very naturally in character art – through my interest in people, their personalities and inner states, visual identity, and storytelling.

I'm self-taught: I studied the work of other artists, followed tutorials, and spent a lot of time learning anatomy and character design. But practice and personal projects have always been the most important part of my learning process.

About a year and a half later, I got my first job in the game industry and joined Toadman Interactive as a 3D Character Artist, where I worked for around two years. I currently work as a 3D Character Artist at Long Leap Games.

Working in game development gave me experience with the full production pipeline and an understanding of the technical requirements for game characters. At the same time, personal projects give me more freedom to explore design, visual storytelling, and cinematic presentation. Galatea became a project where I could bring these two sides of my work together.

Getting Started with Galatea

When I work on my own characters, I usually begin with small sketches in a notebook. With Galatea, however, I wanted to create a more ambitious project, so for the first time I decided to develop a full 2D concept in Photoshop.

I knew I wanted to create a fantasy character connected to the moon and magic. Early on, I defined several key associations: moonlight, darkness, magic, air, water, and transparency. I wanted Galatea to feel light and slightly ethereal, as if something in her were moonlight reflected on water. The circle became the foundation of her shape language, referencing the moon. This motif then appeared throughout the design – in her facial features, hairstyle, jewelry, and the crescent shape of her staff.

Romanticism and Gothic aesthetics are an important part of my visual language, and I wanted to express them not through literal historical stylization, but through mood, silhouette, and materials. The work of Alexander McQueen was one of the main influences on the costume. I've always been drawn to the house's combination of romanticism and Gothic elements, as well as its complex silhouettes and theatricality.

In the end, the 2D concept became a kind of map for the entire project. Before moving fully into 3D, I already had a clear understanding of the main shapes, palette, hairstyle, costume, jewelry, and the overall visual language of the character.

Sculpting

For the face and body, I used my own base meshes and then reworked them in ZBrush. I wanted to slightly move away from fully realistic proportions while keeping a believable anatomical foundation. I made the face rounder, with broad, prominent cheekbones, large eyes, and a small mouth, which also supported the key circular shape of the character.

I created the basic construction of the dress in Marvelous Designer, using it mainly as a blockout. I then brought it into ZBrush and manually refined the shapes, folds, and details to bring it closer to the original concept.

The hairstyle was one of the design's most important elements. At first glance, I wanted it to feel relatively simple and youthful, while the actual construction was much more elaborate and ceremonial. The large side buns continued the circular motif, while loose strands and flyaways broke up the hairstyle's perfection and made it feel more alive.

I first sculpted the main hair masses in ZBrush to test the volume and silhouette. For the final version, I used hair cards, but adapted the usual workflow to something that felt more natural to me. I prepared a set of cards with textures and transparency, brought them into ZBrush as a kind of palette, and assembled the final hairstyle directly around the character's head. I'm much more comfortable working with organic forms in ZBrush, so this approach felt very intuitive.

I also created most of the jewelry and the staff in ZBrush, occasionally using ZModeler for hard-surface elements. The jewelry gradually became more elaborate and decorative until it had the sense of richness and almost ceremonial quality I was looking for.

One of the main ways I avoided unnecessary work was by developing the 2D concept in detail beforehand. I also reused several repeating elements, such as braids, cords, and parts of the jewelry, and, whenever possible, created smaller accessories with relatively simple geometry from the beginning.

Retopology

I did most of the retopology for Galatea in TopoGun and made additional adjustments to the low-poly model in Blender when necessary. Even during the modeling stage, I tried to consider which elements genuinely required dedicated retopology and which could remain relatively lightweight. Small details that didn't affect the silhouette were transferred into the bake or textures whenever possible.

I created the UVs in Blender. I didn't use a UDIM workflow; instead, I divided the character into several texture sets based on materials and surface types. Some visually complex elements also remained geometrically simple. For example, the lace inserts on the dress were created using opacity/alpha textures.

Since Galatea was a personal cinematic project, I wasn't working within a specific polygon budget. My goal was to find a reasonable balance: optimize the geometry where it wouldn't affect the result, while preserving enough density for the silhouette, design, and close-up presentation.

Texturing

I baked the main maps in Marmoset Toolbag and did the texturing in Substance 3D Painter. I had a simple PolyPaint on the face in ZBrush, but it was only used as a visual aid during sculpting; the final skin textures were created in Substance 3D Painter.

I created the skin microdetail, including pores, on the high-poly model in ZBrush using alphas. In Substance 3D Painter, I then focused on color, tonal variation, and roughness, while keeping in mind how the skin would later interact with SSS in Arnold. I added warmer and slightly redder tones in areas where the skin is thinner.

The clothing was one of the more time-consuming parts of the texturing process, especially the boots. For the patterns on the dress and boots, I used tileable alpha patterns as a base and adapted them in Substance 3D Painter.

I used Height to give the ornament actual surface relief rather than leaving it as a flat graphic, while variations in roughness helped separate the different materials. With the boots in particular, I had to combine several surfaces, ornamental patterns, and lacing while keeping the fairly complex design readable.

With the very light lilac hair, it was important to avoid a plastic appearance. Roughness played an important role here, together with the final material setup in Arnold. I also used a small amount of Subsurface Scattering to make the hair respond more softly to the light.

For the eyes, I allowed myself to move slightly further away from realism. During shading, I used a mask to introduce a very subtle emissive component. I didn't want the eyes to literally glow – the intention was simply to suggest a faint sense of light coming from within.

For the metallic accessories, I used a fairly standard PBR approach. The main challenge was finding the right tone for the gold. I didn't want it to become too saturated or yellow and start competing with Galatea's cool white-and-lilac palette.

Overall, the main challenge was making a large number of different materials – skin, hair, fabrics, metal, and decorative surfaces – feel distinct while still looking like they belong to the same character.

Lighting & Rendering

I did the final lighting and rendering in Maya with Arnold. The lighting setup was based on an HDRI and a main key light, followed by several additional lights that gave me more precise control over the character's forms, materials, and individual details.

For example, I kept the purple gemstones fairly stylized rather than building a complex physically accurate gemstone shader. Since their faceting was relatively simple, I used additional lights to help them catch the light and remain visible among the other jewelry pieces.

The ears' translucency came from a combination of relatively thin geometry, an SSS material, and lighting. This allowed the light to pass softly through the thinner areas of the skin and create the characteristic warm effect.

I did the final post-processing in Photoshop, making subtle adjustments to contrast and tonal balance. I also used Photoshop to assemble the collages and breakdown pages for the final presentation.

Conclusion

The main challenge for me was the overall scale of Galatea. I started the character from my own sketches and concept and took her through the entire production cycle to the final presentation. At the same time, I created the whole project alongside my full-time job, so it taught me a lot about discipline and managing a large personal project over a long period of time.

Galatea was also my first personal ArtStation project where I worked entirely with hair cards. After finishing her, I wanted to explore hair and materials further, and today I also use XGen in my personal work. I like the idea that each new character expands the range of tools I can use as an artist.

But probably the most important lesson was about design. Creating your own character forces you to think not only about how to technically create a particular form, but also why that form exists, what it says about the character, and what role it plays in their story.

For artists who want to create their own characters, I would recommend spending enough time on the concept stage. Silhouette, shape language, clothing, materials, and an understanding of the character's world can establish a clear direction before modeling begins and help you make more deliberate decisions once you move into 3D.

For a large personal project, it's also important to choose an idea you genuinely want to return to. These projects can take months, especially when you're working on them alongside a full-time job, so being interested in the character itself helps you stay with the project. I also think personal work is a great space for experimentation and for stepping outside your usual workflow.

The name Galatea also has a symbolic meaning for me. In Greek mythology, Galatea is associated with the story of a statue brought to life. In a way, my Galatea went through a similar journey – from the first lines of a sketch to a finished 3D character.

Alex Borkovskiy, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Kseniya Serebrennikova