Process of Sculpting Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey Using ZBrush & Blender

Introduction 

My name is Vittor, and I am a 3D Digital Sculptor from Brazil. My path until I got into 3D art was kind of unconventional. I started in the “art world” wanting to be a traditional academic painter, and back in 2019- 2020, I started studying online with an atelier called Watts Atelier, where I was under the guidance of masters like Jeffrey Watts and Erik Gist.

I learned a lot about anatomy, gesture, composition, and craftsmanship. After some time there, I went full academic mode and deepened my studies at Florence Academy of Art and Porto Atelier, taking classes in person and learning directly from the correct sources.

Then, in 2022, I had the opportunity to do an intensive workshop with Alex Oliver in person, and we worked day and night on traditional sculpture. I was already learning ZBrush by that time, but it was just for fun and giggles; my main focus was definitely on the traditional realm. By the time I ended my studies with Alex, I understood that conveying things in 3D (rather than 2D on a blank page) was way more interesting and fun. 

After some time, I migrated completely to ZBrush, and since then, it is the only thing I do on a daily basis. I did a lot of courses and workshops on the software, and for more than 2 years, I had no Netflix, so my time was all invested in either doing practical exercises on ZBrush or watching/reading tutorials. 

I have worked mainly as a freelance sculptor for Patreon, such as CA3D, Bulkamancer, Kuton Sculpts, Blackforge Games, and also some NDA projects that unfortunately I can’t reveal yet. 

Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey

Unfortunately, I don’t have the early WIPs and files. But I have this image of progress that I can share with you. 

Overall, I always start with the ZBrush mannequin or a sphere and just start pulling things out with a brush called SnakeHook and using masks and DynaMesh. My main inspiration for this work is Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey (although many people said she looks like Carmen Sandiego, and she really does), and I tried to translate and redesign a concept of her to a more realistic look. Some things worked out, others were tricky to deal with, such as her dress and her portrait. 

The difficulty of the dress was translating the stylized folds and wrinkles from the Nintendo character to a realistic dress without losing the silhouette and the overall flow of it; the portrait trickiness was to convey somewhat the same vibe and expression of Pauline into a more realistic face. So I had to make choices, some went in the same way as the concept, others were products of a redesign from my imagination, and what I thought would work or not. 

Modeling

For the sculpting part, I always tend to go the easy way. Honestly, I use around 4-5 brushes max during 95% of the sculpting phase, which are: Clay, DamStandard, Move, Standard, and Pinch. Also, I use a lot of masking along the way because it allows me to fix and move areas without affecting the other areas. Moreover, I always sculpt on pose, which means that I work asymmetrically throughout the entire project, using symmetry only when sculpting accessories or props. 

Honestly, there are not many tricks here; the trick is to maintain your calm and willpower and do what you need to do, that’s all. Don’t look for shortcuts because there is rarely one. However, if I could advise on something to speed up the process, mainly in a time-demanding environment, it would be to sculpt only what is going to be seen. For example, in my Pauline project, I didn’t sculpt her whole body; I just worked on what is visible. Seems obvious, right? But many people lose a lot of time sculpting everything and then just realize later that it won’t even show on the final product. 

For the body, as I mentioned, I sculpted it 100% asymmetrical. The workflow is simple: pose the ZBrush mannequin carefully because it is the “soul” of your project, then refine it using the brushes available, analyzing references mindfully and making good artistic decisions along the way.

Now, for the head, I sculpt 90% of it on a symmetrical pose; there is absolutely no need to do it asymmetrically. It only makes sense to do this if you are studying or practicing on your own. Then, after the main forms of the portrait are sculpted, I switch to sculpting some parts of it asymmetrically, mainly eye positioning, mouth, and nose. 

Regarding the hair, it is mostly repetitive work. First, I do a rough blockout of the hair, in which I identify the main flow of the hair and strands. This part does not need to be detailed at all. Then, I use the CurveTube brush and start defining the main strands very patiently. After that, I detail it using the Standard brush (with high intensity and high LazyRadius so you can get a clean stroke) and the final part is adding some extra strands to break the main mass and add some variety and interest.

Making a dress and folds in general is always challenging because it can improve or destroy your project quite easily. The workflow is based on understanding where the tension points are located in your fabric and also adding to that the tension points that the pose you are doing is generating. After taking all that into consideration, you can start blocking out the main spots of folds and wrinkles.

Generally, if you have a trained eye, you will easily be able to see if the folds are making sense or not. Folds and fabric, as well as faces, are something that we humans see every day, so our eyes are used to them in one way or another. 

The microphone and speakers were done basically with the ZModeler brush and also the Boolean function inside ZBrush. These are the main brushes I use for hard surface objects. One good recommendation here is to also bevel your edges. If you can’t bevel with ZModeler (because it usually does not work properly), you can bevel the edges by doing a simple Polish (which is inside the Deformation menu), and it will look beveled. 

Texturing

I did all the textures of this model. For collectibles, it’s normal to keep all the workflow (or at least most of it) inside ZBrush, so that’s what I did. For the details, I usually use the common brushes inside the software, such as Clay, Standard (with Spray on), TrimDynamic, TrimAdaptive, and others that are available on the internet.

Regarding the texturing, I use all the Masking sectors inside ZBrush and do many masks to apply some color variety and complexity. A big tip that I found super useful is using the Adjust Color button, which is located inside the PolyPaint slider. It allows adjusting the saturation, intensity, and hue of the colors pretty easily and intuitively. 

What I found most challenging in detailing and texturing is having the patience to understand the material that you are working on: metal, leather, fabric, or rock, each has its own complexity and texturing route. Within all that, it’s important to make each material unique, so adding uniqueness and a history to each piece of your project is also very crucial. 

Conclusion

As I said, the main challenge for this one was fine-tuning the redesign to resemble the stylized version of Pauline and bring some originality to the design. What worked for me in this process was to stay loose and detach from the abusive use of references. Don’t get me wrong, references are great and necessary, but when you are in search of something “new”, you need to detach a little from what is already out there. 

Along these lines, my main advice for beginners is to train as hard as possible so you can detach from the intensive use of references. That is counterintuitive, I know, but when you are trying to level up your art, you need to do things as intuitively as possible because that enables the creativity area of your brain, which is what will differentiate you from the others. Get your references, yes, but as the mileage goes by, you will naturally notice that you will be using fewer references; everything is already in your brain, and you will only use references for specifics or things that are not yet absorbed by your brain. 

Vittor, Digital Sculptor

Interview conducted by Emma Collins