Modeling an Assassin Using ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter & XGen

Introduction

Hi, my name is Pavel and I'm a 3D character artist. For quite some time I was curious about gamedev and character creation in particular. In April 2020, I created my first character based on an open-access 3D course. Until then, I used to work for network and regional agencies as a graphic designer where I created packaging, key visuals, and brand identity for local and global clients. Thanks to my extensive experience in graphic design, I progressed in the 3D sphere quite quickly. So far, I have two years of experience in commercial development and I continuously invest time in working on my personal projects.

Below is my latest personal project based on the creator Two B’s concept.

Modeling

As a rule, I start working on a project with a base mesh modeling purchase from the ArtStation Marketplace. It gives you a handy carcass for developing the desired image. But for the newbies in sculpting, I recommend creating images from a sphere – this helps to get into a working mode and overcome the fear of failure. With simple movements of the Move brush, we get the head shapes we need.

The head sculpting required a standard set of tools, including ClayTubes, Standard and TrimDynamic brushes, due to certain face texturing technology I apply at a later stage, I won’t go into detail at this point.

The clothes and the cloak were created in Marvelous Designer. I got to know this software not long ago and really enjoyed the high degree of control over screen tasks that it allows. So I used it in the pipeline for creating other elements of clothing besides the cloak. Later on, I imported the objects from Marvelous Designer into ZBrush for further polishing. Here I use ZRemesher and add Divide. For instance, once I add an object, I refine the silhouette if needed, use the DynaMesh tool followed by ZRemesher to manage the number of polygons, and create a more uniform mesh. Consequently, I added a Divide level for further sculpting and detailing. In order to do low poly, in my projects I often go to the bottom level of Divide and use this mesh to unwrap. This project was the case.

This option worked for me well and saved me some time. Later on, I got rid of the extra loops, which got incorrectly displayed following ZRemesher and which do not affect the geometry. I did the UVs in Maya in a standard way without any tricks. I did not apply retopology as it was not needed in this case – the output following ZRememsher in ZBrush was good enough.

XGen

I created hair in Maya with the XGen tool. I started learning about this tool at the same time as Marvelous Designer. I did not do Pre-Base Mesh in ZBrush for the hair. Instead, I improvised with the guides directly in Maya based on the existing concept. I applied Clumping, Noise, and Coil modifiers for the head hair. I played with the values of modifiers manually to find the appropriate one. I also used masks for hair density and applied modifiers.

Texturing

Texturing is among my favorite stages of character creation. I baked the texture maps in Marmoset Toolbag. I broke down the image into four texture sets – the head, the jacket, the bodysuit, and the cloak. I slightly modified the Normal map in Photoshop and cleaned it of small artifacts. And here goes the most fascinating part – texturing!

What tools were used directly in the software for face textures? I used Substance 3D Painter for texturing, as well as brushes and the Smudge effect/brush. The Smudge brush creates the smudge effect which is characteristic of paint. I found it a good-working and convincing tool. Below is an example of decorative brushes and Smudge.

Not having a drawing tablet for styling this object would be a challenge, and a bit of watercolor/oil painting experience came as a bonus. I found it useful here. The painting process on a tablet is largely similar to traditional painting.

First, I covered it with the main color and highlighted the clearly dark and light spots, followed with the addition of various colors and details to the strokes. You can make it even more comprehensive infinitely. I ended up making each color a separate layer. In the end, you have a lot, but the benefit is your effective control over each of them.

This is a screenshot from Substance 3D Painter demonstrating how it looked in the viewport and in the layers’ palette. 

The textures for the clothes and the cloak were made according to the standard pipeline, which included the base color and texture, as well as various scratches, wear, and a variety of roughness.

Rendering

This is one of the most important stages which allows you to make your character shine. Unfortunately, it is often neglected by creators despite its great importance. If presented poorly, a character, though great in itself, may be perceived as bad. The opposite may also be true.

I rendered one in Marmoset Toolbag. Lighting plays a big role in the storytelling of a character. It is critical to create such an atmosphere that highlights all the materials we made during the texturing stage, as well as matches the general theme and the character’s outlook. Normally, I create a specific background for the characters which looks in harmony with them and adds a relevant element to the story.

Before moving on to the lighting, I went back to ZBrush and posed my character using the Transpose Master. This is a reference pose.

As seen in the screenshot, I used eight sources of color of different temperatures and intensities during the rendering. On top of this, I added a fog effect, which contributed to the atmosphere. After rendering, I always finish the art in Photoshop. In this case, I used several adjustment layers to control contrast, exposure, and saturation. As a rule, I also fine-tune the background and, if needed, add details such as blur, noise, particles, and so on.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read this article! I hope you found it useful!

Pavel Marchankau, 3D Character Artist