Model figures with personality using Blender
Diana David delivers a guide to creating characters with Blender and Substance Painter
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a cool stylized character. We will cover everything you need to know to produce a professional-looking image for your portfolio in Blender – modelling, sculpting, texturing, rigging, hair particles, lighting and rendering.
The concept art of the character, Milo, was done by the artist Rodrigo Wolff for a 3ds Max course by the Brazilian Mascoteria School. You should check them out because they have fantastic work. I decided to use their cool concept art and make a proof of concept to convince myself that Blender is a good replacement for my beloved Softimage (yes, I’m that old school!).
Bear in mind that this is quite a big project if you’ve never modelled a character like this before, so take your time. There is no deadline here. For me, this process took five full weeks of work that were spaced out along my free time, but for some people it could take less time and for others it could take more. This is not a race. All that matters is the final result.
01 INITIAL BLOCKING
Import the concept art as image references (using the Add menu on the top of the viewport). Create several UV spheres and use them to block out the main proportions of the character using only the scale, rotate and move tools, and sometimes, if needed, move the vertices around in Edit Mode. You can also use other geometric objects like cylinders for the neck and torso. This stage is very important, because if the proportions are not done correctly the model will look strange later on.
02 MERGE THE MESHES
At this point the scene must have a lot of objects lying around on the outliner. You can start joining them together. Join them in six groups: head, hair, torso, arms, hands and legs. Use Ctrl+j or go to the Object menu>join. Apply all transforms (Ctrl+a) – this will help brush deformation while sculpting.
03 REMESH
Although the objects are joined together you may notice
that they are still independent from each other, because the geometry hasn’t changed. For a change like that to happen we need to remesh it. Go to Sculpt Mode and on the right side of the screen on the Active tool settings, look for the Remesh tab.
04 SCULPTING I
If your model looks like a stickman do not worry, we are going to fix it right now!
Go to the Sculpt Mode and use the Grab brush with a large radius size. We'll be working on the overall look of the character to lock down the silhouette and proportions of the body. If you feel that you’ve achieved a point where you cannot improve the character any more, go to Object Mode and join the parts you think are ready to become one, then repeat step 03 again.
05 SCULPTING II
Go back to Sculpt Mode and give it more detail with a smaller sized brush. At this point you should be comfortable enough to start using the tools on the top of the sculpt bar (use Ctrl to invert the functionality of the tool) to add more detail.
If you need more resolution to sculpt on your geometry you can add a Multires modifier and subdivide it (but be careful, the more subdivisions, the slower your computer will get, manage it wisely).
06 HIGH-RES MODEL
When you’re done sculpting you should have your high-res character ready for retopology. Only the hair and the eyes should
be separated. If by any chance you left any separated objects that you would like to join, this is the right time to do it.
Apply the Multires modifier if you have it.
07 RETOPOLOGIZE
The model you have so far cannot be the final model because it doesn’t have the right topology flow. Having a correct topology on the models will help the mesh to deform correctly when it’s moved. Take your time to do it well. This is the most time-consuming part of the project, but be patient.
To start this process create a plane and, in Edit Mode, move it until it’s parallel to a part of the body that you would like to start the process with (usually I start with the face where a correct topology flow would be the most important in an animated character). Activate the snap tool, on the top of the screen, for easier modelling along the preexisting surface. Use the Polybuild tool or just extrude by hand (E key) the vertices and edges.
08 CLOTHES
When you’re happy with the retopology you can dress up your character. You can select some faces of geometry where the long sleeve shirt will be, for example, and select the geometry that will be covered by it. Duplicate it with Ctrl+d and separate it with P.
In Object Mode select it and go to sculpt it again to give it some nice details. Use Subdivision Surface to have everything smooth but with the same resolution. You want your model to be as simple as it can be.
There are some objects that don’t need to be sculpted, like the glasses and the snickers. They can be polygonally modelled using just the Edit Mode. Start with a Cube and Extrude, Cut, and Insert faces to achieve the form desired.
09 MODEL THE BAG
The bag is one of the accessories that can be modelled instead of sculpted. But you need to model the bag’s strap differently: model it like it’s detached off the bag and very straight, laid down on the floor. This will make it easier to add a Curve modifier later on.
10 UNITS SYSTEM
Make sure your model has a credible height. In this case a boy of his age should be at least 1.4 metres, so adjust the scale of the overall character to be similar to that; this might help later during the texturing and lighting process.
To check what kind of measure system you’re on, you need to go to the Scene Properties and look at the Units section. I’m using the metric system, but you can select the Imperial system as long as you use reality as a reference.
Multires modifier With the new 2.9 Blender version, there is no need to create a Displacement map to give more detail and personality to the clothes. You can simply give it a Multires modifier and sculpt the detail in Sculpt Mode. This will give you more freedom to change the details later on.
11 SCALE YOUR MODEL
If you need to scale all of your models, select all of the objects, press Shift+s to centre your 3D cursor to the World Origin, and on the top of the screen change the Transform Pivot point to 3D Cursor. Now everything will scale using the 3D cursor as a pivot. Don’t forget to change the Transform pivot point back to where it was before.
12 CLEAN UP THE WORK
After that, you can hide the high-res model in a different collection or delete it, because it’s no longer needed. Make sure that all the modifiers are applied to the new meshes (less the Subdivision Surface modifier), select all objects and click on Ctrl+a to apply All Transforms to them. This will make sure that there are no active transformations on your geometry that could jeopardise the rigging later on.
13 UV UNWRAP
Organise and name all your meshes on the outliner so you don't get lost. Now let's prepare the model for texture. First you need to UV unwrap the model. To do this you need to select the edges where the seams will be while you’re in Edit Mode. Place them in hidden places so we cannot spot them easily. Then go to the Edge menu>mark Seam and the selected edges will turn red. After that select all the geometry and go to the UV menu>unwrap.
14 SHADER AND UV EDITOR
Sometimes you’ll need to tweak the UVS on the UV Editor. The way to know if your UVS need tweaking is by using a checker texture. To do that select your object and add new material to it, then, on the Shader Editor add a checker texture node and connect it into the shader. You can change the overall size of the squares by changing the values of the Size on the checker texture node.
If you don’t see anything happen on the viewport it’s because you need to be on the Material Preview of the Viewport shading. After that you should see your model full of squares that should be distributed evenly and with more or less the same size between them. If you have places where the sizes are too different or stretched, you need to tweak them on the UV Editor.
15 EXPORT FBX
We’re going to do the textures outside Blender so we need to export each object with an FBX format and name them accordingly. Don’t forget to tick the Selected Object checkbox so that only the selected object is the one to be exported.
16 SUBSTANCE PAINTER
It's easier to paint textures on Substance Painter, because it does a lot of work for you when creating specular maps, bump maps, etc.
When you open it for the first time you need to set up some preferences so you can export the maps correctly later on.
Import the FBX files and paint them. After that go to File>export Textures and on the Configuration Tab duplicate the PBR_ Metalrough preset and name it BLENDER so you can remember it next time. Cycles uses Opengl instead of Directx,
so you need to drag and drop the Normal Opengl Convert Map into the RGB square box on the Normal map field. You can also delete the Emissive map, there is no need for it on this project. In the Export tab select the BLENDER Configuration you just created, choose the right folder and then click on Export.
17 MATERIALS
Back to Blender! This is a good time for you to activate the add-on Node Wrangler as we're going to work on the node view of the Shader Editor.
Select the object you just textured in Substance Painter, go to the Shader View and select the material you already created for it at the end of step 14.
Delete the Checker texture, press Ctrl+shift+t and select all the images you have just exported from Substance Painter for that texture. This shortcut will input all the images in the right place for you. You can adjust the values and add some ramp and hue nodes if you want to have more control over the image values.
18 HAIR
Although we’ve modelled the hair for this character we will not use it on the final render. This modelled
hair will just serve as a base for the hair particles.
The particle hair is built with different groups of hair portions. Step 01: Duplicate the scalp geometry and make it an independent object clicking on the P key. Name it ‘Scalp_01’. Put ‘Scalp_01’ in a new collection, and name the new collection ‘Hairmesh_01’.
Step 02: Select the ‘Scalp_01’ mesh and go to the object data properties on the right of the screen. Create a new vertex group and name it ‘Hair_vertexgrp_01’. Select that vertex group and from
Object Mode go to Weight Paint Mode. Paint the area where you want the hair to grow from.
Step 03: Go back to Object Mode and add a hair particle. On the Vertex Group section select the ‘Hair_vertexgrp_01’ you just painted for both Density and Length, and on the Field Weight section select the collection ‘Hairmesh_01’.
Step 04: To control the hair shape, create a Bezier Curve, place it inside the same collection and call it ‘Haircurve_01’. Edit the curve using the modelled hair mesh as a reference. Add a Force Field
property on the curve and change its type to Curveguide.
Step 05: Play around with the hair properties values, like the Hair length on the Emission section, uncheck the Show emitter on both Render and Viewport sections, select interpolated on the Children section and change the clumping values a little bit.
Give the scalp mesh a Principled Hair BSDF shader and repeat the process for the rest of the head.
19 RIGGING – BODY
If you want to pose your character you need to rig it, unless your model is already in the right position. To accelerate the process let's use the Rigify add-on. Press Shift+a, go to Armature and select Human Meta Rig. Never scale down a rig; instead, edit it by dragging the bones to the right position on your model. After that, go to Object Mode and select the metarig you just edited. Go to the object data properties on your left and click on Generate Rig, wait a bit and voilá!
20 ARMATURE DEFORMATION
Armature deformation, Envelope or Skinning (as it’s known in other software) is the process that will attach your model to your rig. Select the geometry you want to be affected by the rig and select the rig itself at last, then click on Ctrl+p to assign Automatic weights. An Armature modifier appears on those meshes you’d selected.
Test it in case you need to repaint the weights with the Weight Paint Mode.
21 RIGGING – BAG’S STRAP
For the bag create a Separate Armature with one bone and paint the weight on it. For the strap create a Bezier curve and put one of the points on one of the strap extremities and the other point on the other extremity. On its properties select the Stretch and Bounds Clamp checkboxes. On the Strap mesh add a Curve modifier, on the object field select that Bezier curve and choose the correct axis deformation for you. Parent the Strap mesh and the curve to the new armature.
22 RIGGING – HAIR
For the hair, the scalp geometry will have the Armature modifier (this needs to come on top of the other modifiers), but for the curves you need to create a constraint called Armature and select the bone of the head. Create a camera and then pose your character accordingly.
23 ACTIVATE RENDER ENGINE
This character was rendered with Cycles. To activate it you need to go to Render Properties on the right of the screen and activate the correct render engine. Also, don't forget to be on the Rendered option of the viewport shading to see a preview of the final result.
24 LIGHTING ADD-ON
Now is the time to activate the Tri-lighting add-on. This will create a standard three-light
Hide the geometry For the first light test, hide all the geometry except the head. Rendering could take too long, especially with hair particles! So, when testing, the less geometry we have on the viewport the better.
Cryptomatte node
If there is a specific object you would like to change colours, and quickly so that you can test it without having to render everything again, you can use the Cryptomatte node. This will mask just the object or material you assigned to it before rendering on the View Layer Properties tab > Cryptomatte section.
Rendering
If your computer is taking more than one hour to render one image, lower the samples and the image resolution. If in the end you have too much noise, don’t worry, step 26 will help you with that!
setup. Turn off the World lighting on the World Properties on the right of the screen, so you can properly see what each light is doing. The values of the light intensity are usually too low, so increase the power according to your taste. For this character I decided that three lights were not enough, so I added one more light and adjusted their position according to the image on the right.
For the Fill light 01 I gave 88W of power and 2.44m for the size; for the Fill light 2 I gave 60W of power and 1m for the size; Key light 20W and 1.52m; and finally for the Rim light, 10W and 0.63m.
25 RENDER
You can render with CPU, GPU or even with both at the same time depending on your computer configurations. You can choose which one to use from the render properties. Test them, and use the one that seems faster.
On the Render Properties tab we need to activate the Transparent option on the Film section, and activate Hair.
26 COMPOSITING
After rendering, save one image as EXR format. Open a new scene in Blender and create two viewports: one for the Image Editor and the other for the compositor view, and then activate the Use Nodes checkbox.
Drag and drop the EXR image you just rendered and then connect it to the compositor node and the viewer node.
Let's add a denoise node to get rid of all that noise on your image by clicking on Shift+a and Search to look for the denoise node. Connect the Combined output to the image input, the Denoising Normal output into the Normal input and the Denoising Albedo output into the Albedo input of the denoise node. You can also play around with some colour nodes. After that, you just need to render the image again and you're done! •