See How to Create and Animate a Horse Using ZBrush and UE5

Introduction

Hello, I am Abraham Tovmasyan, a 3D Character Artist from Yerevan, Armenia. I was introduced to 3D art by my friend, who is now a Doctor. In my childhood, my friend was interested in 3ds Max and created some simple 3D models, which were then placed in a GTA game. It was a wow-effect at that time. After that, I downloaded 3ds Max on my very slow-working netbook with a 13-inch display, and this was the start of my career. I started to make everything – guns, houses, and interior details. However, I have never worked on serious commercial projects yet.

In my second year of studying at the University of Architecture and Construction, I started working for a local cartoon-making company. I enhanced my skills and knowledge in 3D and discovered Mudbox for the first time, which I instantly fell in love with. The software was truly impressive, allowing users to sculpt with millions of polygons. The brushes were exceptional. I also started to learn ZBrush with the help of my colleagues.

After a few months, I was doing all the sculpting in ZBrush. I started taking freelance sculpting tasks on 3D jewelry and decorative printing. Overall, I worked on a lot of projects. At the start of my career, I worked for local Armenian companies on cinematic projects as a 3D Environment Artist and Render Artist. I also worked as a 3D Modeling Artist for cars for 3 years.

Over these years, I acquired many skills in topology and hard-surface modeling. These years have been very valuable for me. At the same time, I completed freelance tasks on 3D characters and a significant amount of sculpting work, which helped me refine my skills. After that, I started working at Share Creators as a Senior 3D Character Artist and Real-Time Hair Artist. Currently, I have been working at Keywords Sperasoft for more than 2 years.

Inspiration & References

I created the ZBrush sculpted version of the horse back in 2018. I published it and listed it for sale in online marketplaces and then forgot about that project. However, after a few years, around 2021, I decided that this horse should have a complete look, not just the sculpted version. 

I refined sculpting, slightly modified the forms and anatomy, and then started texturing. Low-poly and UV had already been done. I worked in my spare time, so the working process was not very intensive. At the same time, I created another artwork, which is a Voldemort bust, a handmade 3D model with a cigarette.

However, at that time, I didn’t forget about the horse either. I found tons of references including real and CG horses. Many great artists had already created amazing artworks, which inspired me to improve my model and make it more realistic. I lacked experience in game engines. I was only testing minor things like exporting, rendering, and material setup in Unity and Unreal Engine. I prefer to use Unreal Engine as it provides the most realistic renders in comparison with other real-time engines at the time. I also looked up a lot of horses in marketplaces. There are many great models for cinematic renders, and I decided that realistic models should exist for real-time engine too. My goal was to get the most realistic look in real-time engine by engaging my entire potential.

Modeling

The modeling process started with sculpting in ZBrush. I utilized some custom and standard brushes. It was very important to fill the silhouettes from different views using numerous references. I also managed to capture the main features of the horse’s anatomy. The harness was created using a combination of 3D modeling and sculpting, namely hard-surface modeling.

Hair & Eyes

Many people dislike real-time hair. It is difficult to give it a realistic look. But in my case, it’s the opposite. I enjoy the hair-making process. First, when you put cards, it looks very unnatural and weird. However, after some stages, you approach the desired look of your character. After refining, it becomes better and better. It’s like meditation for me. I generate hair with XGen in Maya. After baking, I put the hair on a character.

The eyes were visualized traditionally, as they are usually created in real-time engines. I used the Base Model of an eye with PBR textures, and over that, there was an additional layer with IOR, representing the sclera.

Retopology

I usually do retopology in Maya. There is a great tool called Quad Draw which makes the retopology process more comfortable. I also utilized Maya for UV. It is important to maintain logical separation for different parts of the body, such as feet, head, belly, tail, etc. Texturing was completed in Substance 3D Painter. There is a short time-lapse video showing the process of creating some parts of the fur and Color Maps:

Texturing

The texturing process was challenging. For a long time, I considered putting micro hair cards on the body to achieve a more realistic look. However, then I gave up on that idea and started to paint micro fur on the body by hand. It took no more than a few days. It was very important to follow the correct direction of micro hair. I collected many close-up pictures of a horse coat and started to paint. In my opinion, it helped achieve a decent result. I kept black-and-white fur layer over all coat textures, and adjusted some blending options, using the Albedo, Height, and Roughness Maps.

Initially, I didn’t plan on making seven coat types. I just started creating them and ended up with seven versions. The most challenging part was painting the fur. My friend Sargis Ter Grigoryan, who is an expert in the Unreal Engine environment and shader-making processes, helped me with the setup of the latter. It was challenging to set up all the features of Sweat and Dirt Levels and Markings. In my opinion, the shader is one of the most interesting features of my product.

Rendering

The project was rendered in Unreal Engine using custom lights, custom sun, HDRIs, etc. My friend created a personal project in the field of environmental art, and we decided to make an experiment. We integrated my horse into that environment and took some shots. I was not an expert in rendering in Unreal Engine, and the result could have been better. But that was sufficient to showcase the item in different environments. There wasn’t any post-production of the pictures after rendering. I only did some video editing, which also was a very enjoyable process. 

Animation

Animation and rigging are not my specialties in the 3D world. I typically do only minor tweaks during regular tasks. However, on this project, I learned many new skills. It would have been impossible without my friends. Rigging was completed by my friend Gor Chalikyan, who is highly skilled at it. Three animations were done by Animator Dmitrii Sobolev, and the other six animations I created myself. I haven’t worked on character animation projects in the past, so I took this project more seriously. It was a very interesting part of the work. I learned a lot of tricks in character animation, for example, how animals move, how to give a natural look to muscles by tweaking controllers only a little. Many beginner problems were solved, and this helped me complete the work more easily and quickly.

Timing

I didn’t count the time spent on this project. But as I said, I’ve made the sculpting of this horse back in 2018. The intensive work to integrate it and make it real-time started 2 years ago. I worked on the project during all my free time and on weekends. My friends were already making jokes about it, as I was focused on this project for such a long time. Even after it was 99% done, I did not publish it. Many problems remained to be fixed. I was tweaking rigging and animation and further refining it, improving the final result week by week.

The main challenges included LookDev of the fur, the setup of the shaders, and integrating all these materials into Unreal Engine while ensuring that collisions and simulations worked correctly. 

Abraham Tovmasyan, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine