INTRODUCTION
Hey there! My title is Steve Miller. I am a 3D generalist and I’ve labored my approach as much as the place of Artistic Director at Secret Location in Toronto, Canada. I’ve had the chance to work on a wide range of initiatives for TV, movie, and immersive media like digital actuality. One factor that is been lucky for me is that I have been ready to make use of Blender in all of my work over time.
INSPIRATION
I’ve had the privilege of working with some extraordinarily gifted character artists over time, so with some current spare time, I needed to see if I may develop my very own abilities in that space a bit. Right here, you possibly can see the primary steps of that journey, warts and all!
As an 80s youngster, I really like the analog really feel of media from that point interval, so I made a decision to strive my hand at a portrait of a personality from that period. Anne of Inexperienced Gables is a Canadian establishment and a sequence I keep in mind watching rising up; though, I’ve received a nostalgia-fueled checklist of characters I would wish to strive subsequent!
I began with a fast reference board, together with photograph references of Anne, together with just a few CG characters from Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sony for just a few stylistic approaches.
HEAD SCULPT
I am undecided if everybody’s sculpt goes by way of an unpleasant stage, however mine actually did. At first, it was simply to get the primary concepts roughed in. I added placeholder meshes for eyeballs, eyelashes, and eyebrows fairly early on. I discover it is exhausting to guage enchantment (or lack thereof!) with out these issues. I attempted to maintain the kinds comparatively comfortable as I am no anatomy skilled, and the extra hyper-detailed I went, the extra uncanny I figured it will change into.
I additionally threw on the beginning of a vertex painted pores and skin texture and a few Voronoi procedural freckles. I even added in some fundamental lighting to approximate the primary reference. I’ve heard others say this too, however I discover it useful to leap round a bit when creating, so you aren’t getting annoyed or caught overworking any single factor.
EYES
Subsequent, I dove a bit additional into the eyes, hoping that may assist seize the ‘soul’ of the character. The fabric is absolutely procedural, and I once more targeted on the weather I felt added enchantment moderately than harsh realism. The best way they approached eyes in Spider-Verse was a particular inspiration. I additionally made certain so as to add a watch gentle for that little glint!
OUTFIT
I moved onto the seen components of the outfit subsequent. This was comparatively easy subdivision modeling. I made use of face snapping and shrinkwrap to adapt to the underlying torso sculpt, after which used the solidify modifier to copy the heavy material.
Lastly, I added some imperfections through a noise texture displacement. The supplies are principally procedural, utilizing the ‘magic’ texture to roughly suggest a material weave, and the ‘wave’ texture to create the blue stripes.
I initially used a placeholder texture for the floral sample, figuring I would simply paint my very own model in Procreate at a later level.
Nonetheless, what I finally did was use the Dream Textures add-on to copy one thing shut sufficient. AI stuff may be contentious, however I figured I’d make use of it for this small facet simply so I used to be conserving accustomed to how the instruments could possibly be integrated into workflows. Some instance outputs I received utilizing a mixture of a textual content immediate and the reference texture as enter:
HAIR
Initially, I assumed I’d take the chance to check out Blender’s lately revamped hair system.
Nonetheless, making braids utilizing the previous particle hair system with its ‘kink’ choices was too tempting. I extracted a haircap from the pinnacle sculpt and made particular person particle hair methods for each side of the half and the braids.
I additionally transformed the mesh lashes and eyebrows to particle methods.
Paradoxically, the braids nonetheless proved difficult to artwork direct the orientation of their weaving sample. To my information, there is not a option to set the ’tilt’ of a particle hair curve the way in which you’d a daily curve. Possibly braids will finally change into simpler with geometry node hair, the place you’ve extra ‘underneath the hood’ management of issues!
I made certain to totally make the most of the varied particle hair roughness choices to maintain issues from being too CG-perfect and so as to add flyaways.
The hair materials is simply the principled hair shader with curve intercept used to manage the melanin worth to be extra blonde close to the roots, serving to ease the transition to the scalp.
FINALIZING
After a fast mannequin and materials for her hat (which most likely may have been significantly better, however I needed to wrap issues up), I felt like I had sufficient that I may step again and consider the piece as an entire.
One thing felt off concerning the face proportions, so I went again into sculpt mode and nudged issues round to attempt to enhance it. It is price noting at this level that I would considerably deserted the concept of getting an incredible likeness; I simply needed it to really feel good in its personal proper. That is an space I would actually wish to progress extra in future initiatives.
Ending touches to the character included the curve-based bows on the finish of the braids, and making a easy armature for a much less stiff posture.
The ultimate steps had been including a white fence to recommend the Inexperienced Gables property, some remaining lighting tweaks, and compositing in a touch of grain and dispersion to recommend older movie inventory.
And with that, I figured I’d name it achieved.
ANNE CHARACTER-STUDY
Thanks for the chance to share! I hope this breakdown was of some curiosity!
In regards to the Artist
Steve Miller, a 3D generalist and artistic director from Toronto, Canada.
