Recreating Almalexia from The Elder Scrolls as a Cinematic Character

Introduction

I'm Margarida Coelho, a Junior 3D Character Artist from Portugal. I have a degree in Game Design, where I developed a strong interest in character creation. Throughout my studies, I spent a lot of my free time practicing 3D art and trying out new techniques and workflows. Learning ZBrush on my own outside of classes was a big turning point for me and is what really made me passionate about creating characters in 3D.

I've always been fascinated by how a character's appearance can tell a story without words, and how each detail can enhance that narrative. My biggest sources of inspiration are fantasy settings and historical clothing.

Almalexia

With The Elder Scrolls being my favorite game series and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind being my favorite entry, Almalexia has always been a character whose design stood out to me, and I've always wanted to create my own interpretation while remaining faithful to the original character. My goal was to create a more realistic interpretation that preserved the iconic elements of her appearance, such as her mask, armor, and tattoos.

This project also became an opportunity to challenge myself technically. One of my main objectives was to learn a completely new workflow by transitioning from Blender to Maya, while also learning XGen for creating the hair and Arnold for rendering.

Moodboard & Initial Blockout

Before starting this project, I spent a lot of time analyzing Almalexia's original model and texture sheet, figuring out the real-world counterparts for each material and piece. I'd say the smaller details were the hardest to interpret since the original textures are quite blurry due to the game's age.

I also analyzed a lot of official artwork and depictions of the character, especially her appearance in "The Elder Scrolls Online". Once I had gathered enough references, I organized everything into a moodboard that I used throughout the project.

In ZBrush, I started the blockout using a base mesh that I had previously created and adjusted it to match Almalexia's features. I wanted her face to appear mostly human while introducing subtle changes that would remind the viewer she's not. Once I was happy with the proportions, I posed the character using the Gizmo tool in ZBrush.

From there, I refined the anatomy and gradually sculpted the muscles before moving on to the finer details. For the skin and finer details, I mainly used a collection of skin pore brushes that I've gathered over time, combined with hand sculpting to better adapt the details to her facial structure.

Eyes

I wanted the eyes to be one of the main focal points of the character. To achieve this, I decided to sculpt the iris myself in ZBrush and later export the details as a Displacement map. I followed this YouTube tutorial, which was really helpful: 

Mask & Armor

Both the armor and the mask were some of the most exciting parts of the project because of the amount of detail they contained. From the beginning, I wanted these elements to stay as faithful as possible to Almalexia's original Morrowind design. The initial blockout for these pieces was fairly simple, as I started by masking the shapes directly onto the body and extruding them to establish the base forms before adding details. 

For the mask, most of the ornamental details were inspired by a Creation from Skyrim Anniversary Edition, which helped me reinterpret some of the ornaments while staying true to the original.

At this stage, I also recreated the symbols from the original design as Alpha maps in Photoshop, which I then used in ZBrush to sculpt the details onto the armor.

Clothing & Accessories

Most of her armor and cloth pieces were secured with leather belts. For these, I once again masked the shapes directly on the body, extracted them, and used ZRemesher to create cleaner geometry before sculpting further details.

For her right arm, which is covered in chainmail, I followed a similar process by extracting the geometry from the body. I then used ZBrush's Dynamic Subdivision with Micropoly to generate the chainmail mesh.

The jewelry, especially the silver belt and necklace, gave me the opportunity to expand on the original design. I added a few new elements and hand-sculpted decorative patterns that I felt suited Almalexia's character while staying true to the overall aesthetic.

Lastly, I sculpted the cloth pieces hanging from her belt starting from a sphere, refining them until I was happy with how they looked.

Sword

I wanted her sword to resemble the original model, which is one of my favorite parts of the character. I started by modeling the basic shape in Maya and then moved it into ZBrush to add the ornaments using alpha maps that I had previously collected and felt fit the sword's design.

UVs

Most of the character's UVs were laid out using UDIMs since the character was created for a cinematic rather than a real-time engine. Because of that, keeping a low poly count wasn't my main priority. Instead, I focused on achieving as much detail as possible while maintaining clean and well-optimized topology.

Texturing

Texturing is always my favorite part of any character project, and for this one I used Substance 3D Painter. I also worked with the ACES LUT to match the same color space I had set up in Arnold. 

I really enjoy hand-painting my textures, and I think the key to making them feel believable is working from good references, building them up layer by layer, being patient with the process, and using masks whenever possible.

I'd say the biggest challenge during this stage was her skin. This included drawing Alpha maps for each of her tattoos, importing them into Substance 3D Painter, and making them look both realistic and naturally aged.

Shading & Lighting

The face and the bronze armor, especially the patina, were the most complex parts to achieve the right look. Since I was used to creating real-time characters, this project pushed me to try a different approach. For the first time, I created layered materials for the bronze and patina on the armor and mask, as well as for the skin, where I combined the base skin with makeup and dirt for a more realistic result.

The lighting setup was kept fairly simple, as I wanted all the attention to be on the character. I used a studio HDRI together with two key lights that focused on the details of the model and textures.

For the sword's fire effect, I followed a YouTube tutorial that demonstrated how to create a simple fire effect in Maya. From there, I tweaked it slightly to better match the shape of the sword.

Hair

Learning XGen was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and fortunately there are many great online resources that explain the workflow. I ended up moving away from the original hair blockout that I had sculpted because I really liked the idea of giving Almalexia loose hair flowing in the wind.

I spent some time experimenting with XGen's settings to achieve the look I had in mind, and for a first attempt, I was really happy with the final result. I then moved on to the eyebrows, peach fuzz, and eyelashes, which proved to be a much simpler process compared to the previous one.

It's definitely a workflow I'd like to keep exploring in future projects.

Conclusion

This has been the most challenging character I've created so far. What started as a desire to learn a new workflow gradually evolved into the project I'm most proud of to date. One of my favorite parts of the process was sculpting and texturing the armor and mask. I really enjoyed working on all of the small details and detailing them as much as possible.

Learning Maya was definitely challenging at first, especially after being used to a different workflow. However, with patience and consistency, I became comfortable enough with the software to continue bringing this character to life. I'm excited to bring everything I learned from this project into future work and see how much of this workflow and level of detail I can apply to my future real-time characters as well.

Finally, I'd like to thank 80 Level for featuring my work, and thank you for taking the time to read to the end!

Margarida Coelho, 3D Character Artist