Toolkit 3D - In-Engine 3D Character - The Proposal
In-Engine 3D Character - The Proposal
For this project, the aim was to create an original character with diverse design traits. For this part of the project, we started by conceptualizing the characters from thumbnails to orthographic drawings.
Before starting with the initial ideation, I wanted to look at jobs and roles within different creative industries, looking at what makes them different as well comparing them. I also more specifically look at artists within the games industry and their specific approaches to how they deal with digital and traditional processes and workflows to further my understanding and efficiency of how to manage my own.
Jobs in the Creative Industry
In the creative industry, there are many different areas for jobs and roles, such as manufacturing, VFX, game artists, graphic designers and animation just to name a few. I will go through a few industries explaining what they do as well as comparing/contrasting them to the games industry.
In terms of manufacturing, infor describes the industries within it as "those that produce goods of some sort through a combination of human labour, automated equipment, chemical processing, tooling, and similar systems." From this we can understand that something like an assembly line will use a combination of automated equipment and human labour to complete the work. This is because it is more efficient for the workflow to use whatever the fastest and most proficient method of working is, with a specific method to accomplish specific tasks. This is similar to how it is for a games artist, especially within the 3D space, since they create their own workflows to be as efficient as possible for themselves. A difference here is that in manufacturing, people have to adapt to the workflows setup for them, rather than games artist which adapt the program or whatever they are using to their own preferences. Manufacturing is different in different parts of the world - Somewhere like America will be mostly dependent on automation, whereas somewhere like the UK doesn't invest as much in automation, and instead relies on human labour.
On the other end of the creative spectrum, we have VFX or visual effects. Alyssa Maoi from studiobinder (2025) describes it as "Visual effects (VFX) is a term used to describe imagery created, manipulated, or enhanced for any film, or other moving media that doesn't take place during live-action shooting. VFX often involves the integration between actual footage and this manipulated imagery to create realistic looking environments." So as it says here, it is a process that is done post production, which is comparable to something like rendering within a 3D workflow. After finishing a 3D model, it is then rendered in a specific program, which is part of the overall workflow. Visual effects has a workflow too, regarded as the VFX pipeline.
Jim Donelly (MASV 2023) states that "The VFX pipeline breaks down the steps of a visual effects workflow for film, television, and digital media projects. It keeps the entire VFX process organized; it allows everyone to know their role and how it fits into the production timeline. From storyboarding and reference imagery, all the way through modeling, rotoscoping, composition, and lighting (just to name a few)." and goes on to say that "In smaller productions, one VFX artist may handle the entire workflow, but most productions use teams of specialized artists." This is obviously comparable to workflows in games art, but not only that. VFX is a part of a greater workflow within the games industry that involves games art too, normally the former after the latter, which is used to create the visuals for the game.
Now understanding these roles and gaining further understanding of games artist within the creative industry, I moved onto smaller scale, looking at two specific artists.
Industry Artists
The first artist I looked at was Patrick Hillstead. They are a 3D artist within the industry who currently works at Gears for Breakfast, but also does freelance work. They previously worked on Neon White (Angel Matrix 2022) which is what work I will be specifically looking at.
Within the game, the player sees the 3D model of the character, but also sees 2D sprites of the characters whilst speaking - which creates some challenges for 3D modelling. Firstly, the model needs to be as accurate as possible to the sprite to not cause confusion from the player and also to be consistent, and second the shading style must be close too for the same reasons mentioned before.
For example, here is the sprite of the character named Red. This has a distinct art style, with the minimal use of colour, and the skin being white with a cartoony shading style and heavy use of linework. This gives a reference for the 3D model, but also makes it so the 3D workflow needs to involve a lot of specific steps to get the desired result.
Red, Neon White 2022.
In terms of the 3D model, this is Hillstead's work. This is rendered with default shading. In terms of the sculpting process, we first thing we can see here that the character is very accurate to the sprite, with the hair and mask being the most impressive in terms of adapting the style.
Red, Neon White 2022.
If I were to explain how I would create a character similar to this, I would start by blocking out the general character shape whilst using the reference. I would probably do this in a modelling program rather than a sculpting program, but the only reason I would make this change to a workflow is simply preference. Regardless, after creating the overall shape, I would go into Zbrush and begin to use the Zremesher and smooth brush to create the general shape of the body underneath. to create the clothes, I would use a combination of the Extract and Zremesher tools to create the extrusions needed for the clothes, before using the standard and clothes brushes to create form in the clothes and the accessories. For the hair, I would probably use a similar process of the same brushes, whilst using the concept sheet and sprite as reference layers to be as accurate as possible. At this point with most of the clothing done, hair done and most accessories done, I would use dynamesh and dynamic subdivisions to smooth the mesh out, before moving onto the boots and mask. For these, I would start by creating their own blockouts, before using the same brushes as before to create a smooth and organic look.
In terms of the texturing, I would just use the sprite as reference to create the exact same look as I create the texture maps. This would probably require some trial and error to line things up accurately, but nothing that would disrupt the workflow.
Red, Neon White 2022.
Above is the rendered character sculpt. I think it's really well done with the toon shader, that both adds lines in the form of cell shading, and adds the cartoony effect to the textures that is seen on the sprites. I will look more into this as I texture it. It is also worth noting that as Hillstead worked on this model, he also helped creating the rig used for the animations in game.
Onto the next artist, for which I chose Matt Link. He is a principal character artist for Gearbox Software. The art I will be specifically looking at is his work on the character Amara from Borderlands 3 (Gearbox Software 2019).
Amara, Borderlands 3 (Gearbox Software 2019).
We can immediately see that this is in the same vein as the other work I was looking at, with the cell shading and the cartoonish look to the style. However, this leans more into it, with sketch marks being visible on the character as if they were in a 2D animation. Matt Link showed different parts of the character model in various steps, so that's were I looked to get an understanding of how this technique is done.
The first thing I wanted to look at was the high-poly model. Matt Link mentions in the description of this post that there was "back and forth iteration with the concept artist", which would most likely be done at this stage as he is modelling it, since it'd be easier to do that before coloured textures are applied to it or any further stage. In terms of the high poly model, we can see that the toon shader is applied here, which is consistent all the way until the model is finished and in engine. We can also see how highly detailed the character model is, with creases being visible on the clothes and the hair having a big emphasis on the cartoonish look even in the modelling stage.
Amara, Borderlands 3 (Gearbox Software 2019).
Next, the inking layer is created, which is applied above the textures. This is what adds the sketch lines to the finished model, and gives it the unique look. This would be done the same way texture maps are made, as I personally would export the UV layout, and then just add sketch lines where I think they should be.
Amara, Borderlands 3 (Gearbox Software 2019).
Overall, Matt Link's work is a big inspiration for me, with the approach to the unique cell shaded aesthetic. Going forward, I am going to try and implement the multi-layered approach to the texturing process as he does.
Initial Thumbnails
In terms of my initial thumbnailing, I didn't really know what direction to go, so I just started with the single keyword "Wizard". I began drawing thumbnails. For my first thumbnail, I was quite happy with how the sketch looked and how separate it looked from my usual art style, so I created colour variations and asked for feedback regarding it.
All the feedback I received was speaking about how they preferred colour variations 1, 3 and 5, with most liking 1. Overall, I was thinking about this character and how I would go about modelling it - I don't think there is enough detail in the character at the minute, so I iterated on my original design, whilst saving the colour palettes from the thumbnails people liked the most.
Orthographics
For my orthographic drawings, I drew an exploded view, as well as a coloured front view and uncoloured back view. For the side view, I am going to do this separately since when I bring it into 3D as a reference layer it needs to be separate.
3D Modelling Plan
My overall plan can be found here.
This is what I have done so far in the project. This multi-layered way of doing it ensures that I have multiple options and don't stop my workflow, whilst also being aware of deadlines.
In terms of the next section, I have made a plan for the next month. This is because the process of 3D modelling for me can change quickly, for example with the last character model, I changed my way of working between the programs I was using multiple times To not disrupt my workflow, I opted to create my plan for the foreseeable future, and work in sections to set deadlines for myself and my own work.
This is the plan for the block out stage. Overall, I feel I am more confident in sculpting, and aim to work in ZBrush much more than I did for the last character project.
References:
Matt Link, n.d. Portfolio (online) ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/mattlink [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Matt Link, 2019. Borderlands 3 - Amara (online) ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w8wqqg [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Gearbox Software, 2019. Borderlands 3 (Video Game). PC. 2K. Available at: https://borderlands.2k.com/en-GB/borderlands-3/ [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Patrick Hillstead, n.d. Portfolio (online) ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/hillsteadart [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Patrick Hillstead, 2022. RED - Neon White (online). ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DAWPAA [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Angel Matrix, 2022. Neon White (Video Game). PC. Annapurna Interactive. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1533420/Neon_White/ [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Alyssa Maio, 2025. What is VFX? Defining the Term and Creating Impossible Worlds (online). studiobinder. Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-vfx/ [Accessed 1st March 2025]
Jim Donelly, 2023. What is the VFX Pipeline? (online). MASV. Available at: https://massive.io/workflow/vfx-pipeline/ [Accessed 1st March 2025]
infor, n.d. What are manufacturing industries? (online). infor. Available at: https://www.infor.com/en-gb/manufacturing-industries [Accessed 1st March 2025]
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