All in all, this project took 3 weeks, so to avoid creating a breakdown with 500 steps, I focused on all the key setups and recipes.

Every time I start a new project I like to make some little sketches to have more than just a mental image. This step is more a visual list of every idea I have than a professional illustration. I keep making this kind of doodles all along the process.

I know that this piece is going to be complex, so I break down my character into separate sub-graphs for each element. That way, I can focus on each part and tackle every setup without losing my mind.

Separate graphs are a great way to gain time but the risk is to lose sight of the big picture. That's why the first graph I create is the Master Graph where I store all the pieces that will become the final picture. Every time I create a new part/graph, I put an instance of it in the Master Graph. That way, I can keep an eye on my character building.

In order to keep everything light in the master Graph but efficient in the sub-graphs, I put all the sub-graph inputs values at 0 -- except for the height map. That way I can work on every sub-graph with a good preview and have only the height map exposed in my master graph.

I start with the face because it's the more challenging part. I mostly create my shapes like in a drawing, starting from the big shapes to the smaller ones. Here, I build the silhouette first by manipulating simple shapes and blending them together with the Blends in Add mode. Don't forget to remove the tiling of your transform.

When I'm happy with the silhouette, I start building the main volume with a non-uniform blur clamped with a level. Then, I sculpt the medium shapes by adding simple shapes to it. To have a smooth result I blur my shapes before adding it on the head and play with the opacity value. To avoid breaking the silhouette I limit the impact of my adds by putting the head's silhouette as a mask.

Using the same recipes combined with edge detects and bevels I start the other part of the face (nose, eyes, ears, etc..). Playing with the options of the non-uniform blur like the Asymmetry can help the creation of an interesting sculpting effect quickly.

I heavily use directional warp to manipulate, edge detect to round shapes, and mosaic grayscale to inflate my volumes. All those little setups are essential to keep control on what you are doing.

Height maps don't place themselves in the proper place or with the right black and white range. Do not hesitate to manipulate them to control placement and height balance. We don't want to end up with non-accurate height values. Levels are really convenient if you want to check the placement of your element and the real range of your height map.

To enhance the sculpted feeling, intersections are essential. You need to work it as if you were sculpting it. I often smooth the intersection of two volumes when it‘s helpful. In order to do that, I first isolate the volume I want the borders to be smooth, edge detect it, blur the result and use It as a mask to blur my volume. This setup allows me to pinpoint the area I want to blur.

Perspective Node :

For this project, I was aiming to push the 3D feeling of my volumes. Sculpting shapes was not simple or efficient enough on some parts so I built a perspective node. It's basically a non-uniform blur chain that pushes the shape you input in it.

I create complex shapes separately and blend them together to obtain my final design.

This Perspective Node allowed me to create mechanical but organic shapes as well, like the collar, octopus suckers, scales or the fingers. This setup definitely helped me gain a lot of time.

All along this character creation, I keep my Master Graph up to date, balancing all the height map parts to synchronize everything and use the full range from black to white of my height map.

I separate the metallic and non-metallic parts to sculpt them separately. This way I can better control the surfacing.

This setup also allows me to obtain a clean Mask I will need later on.

When I'm happy with the height, I can start working the Albedo and Roughness. In order to go faster, I import some materials I previously made and blend them according to mask extracts from my height.

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Vincent Dérozier told us more about his working process and experience as an Environment Texture Artist in Ubisoft. Read ithere .