Talking about Stylized Character Art

Vinicius Fronza Valle shared his character workflow a talked about modeling, retopology, UVs, texturing, and presentation.

Vinicius Fronza Valle shared his character workflow a talked about modeling, retopology, UVs, texturing, and presentation.

Introduction

Hi, My name is Vinicius Fronza Valle, I’m a 3D artist from Brazil. I have been working with 3D for the last 6 years now, since then I have worked on a lot of different projects, from games, advertisement, and architecture. Most recently I have worked in some VR games and got an opportunity to work for 2W Studio doing some characters for Netmarble upcoming game A3: Still alive.

Choosing a Character

When I am starting a new project I always try to find that next concept that I would look and think “This is the one”. I found it very important when doing personal work since I will spend a lot of time working on it.

Another thing that I keep in mind while looking for a new project is what I’m trying to achieve: is it to learn a new tool, improve my texture, what type of game it is for, top-down, third person or just a pretty image, makes my approach different for each work.

Modeling & Retopology

When doing the modeling part, I normally start with a base mesh, do some quick changes to better fit the concept, then I start modeling everything on 3ds Max, all the base clothing/armor/accessories, after that, I jump back into ZBrush and start fixing some proportions and adding some more details. One thing that I try to keep in mind while doing the modeling/sculpting is if it worth spending time modeling that or if it is better for me to paint later on Photoshop or 3D Coat.

For the Topology, I normally use 3D Coat, is pretty simple and straight forward, but I try to keep something in mind while doing it.

  • If it is possible I try to use some of the base modeling that I already did back in 3ds Max to speed things up.
  • I make sure that the loops are right and the silhouette is still working.
  • I also start to think about the UV, because depending on how my topology is, I can hide some of the seams later on.

Texturing

The process of texturing is a very important part, so try to take your time, look for references, think about the style you are going for, also remember that it’s part of a larger world, it needs to have consistency with the other characters and environment.

After I gather everything that I need, I start by baking, using xNormal, then on Photoshop I starting doing some value changes and adding some detailing that I didn’t do on the modeling part, I use some gradient map to get that basic color and start the refining process using 3D Coat and Photoshop.

I recommend the cube brush tutorial from Marc Brunet for hand-painted characters, it really helped me when I was starting out.

UVs

When it comes to the UVs, it can be a little boring at first but I ended up founding it to be a very rewarding process when you see everything tight and clean

I always try to make the UVs straight whenever I can, that helps a lot when organizing the UV, but I try to keep in mind when doing it to not stretch too much. After I open all the pieces, I take my time putting everything in the right place to optimize most of my UV.

Presentation

The presentation is my favorite part since I can see everything that I spend so much time on. My first step after completing the character is to create a small base, following by posing it on ZBrush, even if is a simple pose, is better than T-pose.

I used to use the Marmoset Toolbag to showcase my work, but recently I’ve been using Sketchfab more when doing hand-painted, mostly because there’s a large community there that also likes this kind of work. In regard to the settings or lighting, I don’t do anything special when it is hand-painted, maybe a vignette, some contrast or some saturation.

When it’s come for the final presentation I like to create something easy to grasp, so that the person can quickly look and see the model, UV, texture, topology and high poly without much trouble.

Vinicius Fronza Valle, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev

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Comments 1

  • Anonymous user

    Nice!

    0

    Anonymous user

    ·5 years ago·

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