Modeling & Grooming a Realistic Goat Head in ZBrush & XGen

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Vinay Gupta, and I am a 3D Character Artist. After completing my degree in Mechanical Engineering, I spent five years in the corporate world, and during that time, I felt something was missing. My younger brother, Vaibhav Gupta, had just started his career as a Character Artist, and his work fascinated me. Since I had experience with CAD/CAM for machine design, I found myself naturally drawn to the technical and creative aspects of 3D art.

I began learning after office hours, and soon realized that even on the most exhausting days, working on 3D revived me. Within a year, I understood where my true passion lay. I quit my job and fully dedicated myself to the world of 3D art. My brother, an excellent artist and mentor, guided me throughout the journey, and I'm deeply grateful to him.

Since then, I've been fortunate to contribute to titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Alan Wake II, XDefiant, Crime Boss: Rockay City, and more.

Getting Started

I have always loved animals, and modeling them allows me to connect with them. The Goat project was my personal study aimed at refining my XGen grooming skills and taking them a step closer to realism.

The most important part of starting this project was collecting references. For me, references are more than just images because they act as maps that guide me from start to finish. They help me self-correct whenever I get stuck, whether it's maintaining the right fur density, creating breakup in strands, or keeping natural flow. In this process, references are my most reliable teachers.

Creating the Fur, Head, Horn & Eyes

For the goat's fur, I used XGen, as it provides precise control and is widely used in the industry. I created separate descriptions for different areas like eyelashes, ears, head, neck, and whiskers, and blended them naturally using maps. Setting up modifiers and tweaking values was an interesting part of the process.

Shader work was equally important, as even a small change in values affected the way strands interacted with light. The head was sculpted in ZBrush, while retopology and UV unwrapping were done in Maya.

For the horns, I first created a single scale and placed them manually on a rough blockout instead of relying on curve functions. After shaping them, I added variations and surface noise in ZBrush, keeping the changes on layers for better control. The eyes were kept simple, a sphere on which textures were painted later.

Guides & Modifiers

I began by placing guides according to a Flow Map I painted in Photoshop based on my references. From there, I applied basic Clump modifiers and gradually tweaked guides to achieve the desired shape. Once the base shape was ready, I layered in additional Clump, Noise, and other modifiers, much like moving from low to high subdivision. This incremental approach gave me the required variation and realism.

Topology, UVs, and Texturing

While building topology, I kept animation-friendly loops and flow in mind, even though this project wasn't intended for animation. I always try to maintain clean UVs as a habit. The goat's UV unwrapping was done in Maya.

For the visible areas, I relied on Substance 3D Painter. Its layered workflow gave me the freedom to experiment and refine details until they felt right. Beyond just color, my focus was on capturing authentic material qualities, like the coarse roughness of the horns, the lifelike specular response in the eyes, and the subtle subsurface variations within the skin. It was these small yet crucial physical nuances that pushed the goat closer to realism.

Lighting & Rendering

Lighting is as crucial as modeling or texturing. I experimented with different setups beyond the classic three-point lighting to ensure the renders had depth without overexposure.

All renders were done in Arnold. Shader work was particularly interesting, as even slight tweaks in values completely changed how fur interacted with the light. This taught me the importance of subtlety and precision in shader development.

Conclusion

Every project teaches me something new, and I carry those lessons forward. From the Goat project, I improved my shader building, gained more control in XGen, achieved smoother transitions, and refined my lighting for better renders.

To beginners, my advice is simple: be patient with yourself. Compete only with your past self. Make mistakes, learn from them, give yourself constructive feedback, and keep practicing. With consistency, progress will come naturally.

Vinay Gupta, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine