Join senior Blizzard character artist Ben Erdt and master the art of building advanced characters for game cinematics. This comprehensive course will guide you through analyzing concept sketches, sculpting in ZBrush, creating materials in Painter, and more. By the end, you'll have a deep understanding of how to create world-class character art.
Cinematic Character Workflow
Starting in ZBrush, Ben will teach you advanced techniques for building 3D characters from scratch. You'll block in both the anatomy and hard surface mesh, then build the render mesh using clean, industry-standard topology for animation and performance. The entire render mesh is UV mapped using UDIMS.
In Painter, you'll create materials step by step, setting up basic shaders, building a color hierarchy, and focusing on storytelling through aging, wear, tear, and dirt. Finally, you'll light and render your character, producing a stunning final image for your portfolio.
Hard Surface Modeling
Learn to build character suits and armor from scratch using advanced hard surface techniques. Sculpt the entire suit in ZBrush, then clean it up using Dynamesh, regular sculpting brushes, sub-D modeling with Zremesher, and sub-D modeling in Modo. The final result is a clean model ready for texture baking.
Texturing
In Substance Painter, you'll texture the character using a blend of hand painting and procedural techniques. You'll cover both hard surface and organic skin texturing, focusing on adding wear, tear, and grime to make the character feel alive and believable.
About Your Instructor
Ben Erdt is a veteran games artist with over 9 years of experience in the AAA game industry. Currently a Senior Character and Creature Artist at Blizzard, he has worked on titles like Diablo IV, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the Netflix show Love, Death & Robots. You'll be learning from a true master in this course.
Recommended Skill Level
This course is designed for artists with advanced skills, ready to elevate their character art. It assumes ample knowledge of the pipeline and software involved in creating 3D art for games, focusing on advanced workflows and techniques.
Requirements
Proficiency in the 3D software listed below.
Advanced skills in texturing, sculpting, baking, and modeling.
