Antone Magdy explained how he created the Frankie project, telling us how he proportioned the body and how he balanced the colors to make an expressive scene.
Introduction
My name is Antone Magdy. I'm currently a Lead Facial Modeler at Framestore London. Before that, I was part of the Snappers team in Egypt. I've been focused on facial modeling for over ten years now, and before that, I worked as a character modeler for animated TV series in Egypt.
Over the years, I've contributed to a range of films and games, including How to Train Your Dragon, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Little Mermaid, Moon Knight, and games like Injustice 2, Mafia III, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect.
The Frankie Project
I came across the original concept by Max Grecke a long time ago and saved it as something I knew I wanted to explore one day. Eventually, I started blocking it out slowly in my spare time and kept refining it piece by piece, pushing it toward a full-body sculpt with more detail and personality.
A lot of my production work involves realism, creatures, or digi-doubles, so in my personal time, I really enjoy stylized characters. I like taking a concept that has a strong attitude and interpreting it in my own way, while keeping the original charm.
When matching a concept, I try to capture the overall feeling and main forms as early as possible before I get distracted by small details. Once the head and proportions felt right, I explored how to make the character more interesting within the same idea, without drifting away from the concept.
The details, skin texture, wrinkles, stitching, and veins were added gradually and were honestly the most fun part. For the outfit, I experimented with a few variations, like worn-out shoes or different kinds of shorts, but eventually returned to something simple that supported the silhouette.
I used Marvelous Designer to simulate the clothing while the character was standing, then did a light rig and posed him to get the folds to sit correctly.
Topology
After the initial sculpt, I wrapped a base mesh I use regularly and adjusted the topology, especially around the neck area, to accommodate the bolts. I also adjusted the head shape to properly fit the brain and the metallic head border, so everything felt integrated and functional, not just placed on top. I used Wrap for transferring topology and TopoGun for cleanup where needed.
I started with a quick polypaint pass in ZBrush to explore color direction. After that, I moved into Substance 3D Painter and alternated between both applications quite a lot. The main challenge was balancing color so it felt stylized and expressive without becoming overly saturated, and ensuring the outfit had enough texture but didn't pull attention away from the face and the flower, which I wanted to be the focal point.
I rendered the final piece in Arnold inside Maya. I focused on building the lighting to achieve the desired mood, rather than relying heavily on post-processing. The final adjustments were done in Photoshop to push contrast and color balance.
Conclusion
The main challenge was finding the right balance between stylization, proportion, and detail so the character feels appealing rather than awkward. Every stylized character has a "tipping point," and learning to sense where that is comes with practice.
For beginners, I'd say: start with strong shapes and silhouette before diving into details. Don't rush to the pores and wrinkles. Get the personality first, everything else builds on that, and just keep practicing, there is no magic solution or shortcuts.