Reimagining Chanisaw Man's Reze in Animal Crossing-Style
Nupsu talked about how she turned Reze from Chainsaw Man into a low-poly Animal Crossing villager, explained how the character was modeled, and showed how she used the emission shader for the materials.
Introduction
Hey, this is Nupsu! I've been working as a 2D Game Artist on various projects for about 10 years. In 2024, I decided to learn Blender so I could make 3D games together with my husband. To stay motivated, I started social media accounts and began sharing my progress online.
Like most people getting into 3D, I went through the classic donut tutorial. Then I realized that if I focused on low-poly modeling, I could create simple, stylized objects much faster. So I started exploring that style and tried recreating my favorite anime and game characters with the lowest possible poly count.
Later, I saw the Mario enemies trend by Alex Strook and decided to make a Piranha Plant using his template. That post brought a lot of attention to my work. Piranha Plant low-poly model for the Mario enemies challenge:
I continued making similar studies and ended up creating around 20 character fan-arts in this style:
PAGER is our first 3D game, and it's also the first time I've ever worked as a 3D Artist on a game project.
The Reze Project
I had watched the Chainsaw Man anime series before, and when The Movie: Reze Arc was released, I went to see it. That's when I thought, "Reze would look really cute as an Animal Crossing villager." I wanted to use the same Animal Crossing-style scene setup that I've used in my earlier projects.
With each piece, I keep the model and textures as simple as possible. To make characters recognizable in low-poly form, I focus on capturing the critical details and nothing extra.
My workflow relies on several shortcuts and stylistic tricks to stay fast and consistent. I always start with a rounded cube for the head, as shown in my time-lapse videos. For the body, I continue with simple geometric shapes like cubes, cylinders, and panels.
I use the mirror modifier and delete half of the symmetrical parts. Since my models have a relatively low-poly count, it's very easy to adjust the vertices. These methods help me model and present characters quickly without sacrificing style.
I don't unwrap the whole model or do any full texture painting. Instead, I manually adjust the UV parts on a single image texture. With this method, your texture image can stay extremely small. I also use the emission shader for the materials, and there are no lights in the scene.
I learned this approach from Imphenzia, and it made texturing so much fun. Drawing textures feels like solving little puzzles, and I can keep them very aesthetic.
I usually know how much space each detail should take on the texture relative to the model. I draw the texture image as either a vector or a raster outside of Blender. If needed, I edit the texture multiple times during the process.
For facial expressions or texture changes during animation, I use the AnimAll add-on, which lets me keyframe the UV parts' positions directly on the texture.
Signature Look
Using a chunky chibi topology and rendering the animation in a pixelated style naturally gives the model my signature look. I keep the color palette limited, and since I don't use any scene lighting, I add the shadows directly onto the texture. I also like using the Animal Crossing–style scene template. Adding a speech bubble instantly makes the character feel like a little villager.
The pixelated look combined with the turning animation gives a nostalgic N64/PS1 vibe, which is exactly the aesthetic I enjoy. You can check the video to create this look. All of this helps create a "fake game scene" feeling:
Conclusion
There are so many Blender users, and if you search using the right keywords, you can almost always find answers in forums or tutorials. I often discover that the complicated methods I used for a long time actually have much simpler solutions.
It helps to keep your workflow updated with new features and add-ons. There is always a faster and easier way. You don't have to start with the donut tutorial. Instead, focus on tutorials in the style you actually enjoy, so you don't waste time.
This list by 3D Artist madebyabra is perfect for beginners.
