Creating 3D Portrait of a Post-Apocalyptic Girl in ZBrush & UE5

Introduction

Hello! My name is Yuri, and I am a 3D Character Artist at 1518, an outsourcing studio. Working in such a studio provides a wealth of experience and the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects, from mobile and stylized games to PC and realistic ones. The downside is that most of the projects I've worked on are under NDA. However, you can find me in the credits of Amazon Games New World. You can see the full list of clients of the studio where I work here.

I used to be a classical musician and worked in an orchestra playing the horn, but I always felt drawn to creative pursuits like sculpting or painting. I used to draw in my free time, and it was truly awful. I had no knowledge of anatomy, composition, or anything else. That's when 3D captivated me, and I realized that there was immense creative potential there. I took some introductory 3D courses, but it wasn't enough. I then started working with a mentor who helped me reach the level I needed to get a job.

Since I started working in outsourcing studios, I've learned a lot of my skills directly while creating characters for various commercial projects.

Inspiration & References

I started working on the Post Apocalypse Girl project quite spontaneously. I remember I was about to go to sleep and was browsing Pinterest for different images I could use as references. I stumbled upon a doll and thought, why not make it in 3D?

I decided to make it not as a doll but as a real post-apocalyptic girl. I changed the concept slightly as I went along, adjusting proportions to be more human. I removed much of what you can see on the doll's belt. In my vision, there was too much clutter there.

I selected references based on two criteria:

1. General, so as to understand minor damages and textures, and to create the body and head type (I didn't want to create a specific person. However, sculpting a head without references is a bad idea). 
2. Specific, for each individual element.

Modeling

The process of creating this work was standard for game projects. I started with a lockout and roughly sketched the main body silhouette using DynaMesh in ZBrush. Then I did a blockout of the major clothing shapes, like the jacket, boots, hat, skirt, and some items hanging on the belt.

Once I had a good understanding of the form and was happy with it at this stage, I moved on to more detailed and high-quality blocking. I also modeled the jacket, shirt, skirt, and boots during the blocking stage in Marvelous Designer.

Next came the detailed sculpting and finalization of the high poly model. Then, I did retopology, UV unwrapping, baked maps, and completed texturing and posing.

I enjoyed the jacket creation stage in Marvelous Designer. Instead of trying to adjust clothing patterns to the body visually, there's a trick where you create a flat, smooth sculpture of the jacket in ZBrush without folds. Then, you retopologize it and cut the UVs in the areas where the fabric will have seams. The resulting UVs will become the patterns that will fit the character perfectly.

Retopology & Unwrapping

I did the retopology and UV unwrapping in Maya. I followed two main principles. The first was to allow for changing clothing sets, like in RPG games, which are the kind of games I was creating characters for. This means separate gloves, boots, lower body (including skirt and legs), upper body (including jacket and shirt), head, and hat.

Second, I didn't economize on polygons. I wanted to make the model as accurate as possible to avoid seeing any angularity or polygons in the silhouette. However, I also wanted the model to remain game-ready and not go beyond the limits of existing game projects. I ended up with around 100,000 triangles (without weapon and hair), which meets the requirements of modern PC games.

I baked the model in Marmoset Toolbag with a Y flip normal to view the character in Unreal Engine 5. At the time of baking, I didn't think I would create any kind of environment. I wanted to make a standard render on a dark background.

Texturing

Textures are one of my favorite stages. Of course, I could have added realism to the skin by using Warp and applying real texture scans from XYZ, but I wanted a creative process. It might not have turned out super realistic, but I found it interesting to create it myself. 

For the head, I used three main skin tones on top of the base, which was a light color between pink and orange. The first was a slightly bluish one for the chin and jawline, the second was red for the cheeks and nose, and the third was yellow for the forehead – you can't see the last one under the hat. I blended them using various blending modes so that they didn't completely cover the base layer.

I used this scheme:

Next, I highlighted the sculpted wrinkles, pores, and other fine details using pre-baked Cavity, Convexity, and Curvature maps. Finding the balance between color and glossiness is crucial here.

The contrast between glossy and non-glossy (I used Roughness Maps) areas often creates the desired effect in textures. 

I also blended in a lot of grunge to create color variation in the skin and added freckles and some minor skin imperfections with brushes.

To add expressiveness to the look, I added eye makeup. However, I decided that wasn't enough, as I remembered which universe my character came from. I then drew oily dark spots with a higher gloss than everything else. I was inspired by the recent movie Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Eyes have been depicted using two objects in such works for quite some time now. One is completely transparent, has a high gloss value, and doesn't have any color maps. It has a convex part where the iris is. The second is opaque with color information. Its iris has a concave shape inwards.

The task with the remaining materials, like metal, a leather jacket, and a denim skirt, was to make them contrast with each other. Each detail should differ in gloss and refinement. The fabric is worn out, rubbed, has dirty areas, and is almost without gloss. 

Leather is a rougher material, and scratches and abrasions were made in three different levels. The first affected only the gloss and slightly changed the color. The second noticeably changed the color. The third added negative height. 

Metal, in this context, should be rusty, oxidized, and dirty. So, I played with the contrasts of Roughness and Metallic Maps for this material. Dirt almost completely removes all highlights from those maps, and rust removes them entirely.

Composition

I got help with the environment from Megascans in UE5, which you can use completely free of charge under a license for non-commercial purposes. Without them, I wouldn't have put my character in any environment. Creating each individual asset would have taken a lot of time. And since I work and there are always urgent deadlines, I would never have modeled everything myself. So, I uploaded my work with all the textures into UE5 and started thinking about what kind of environment I could create. 

I looked at many photoshoots of abandoned houses. I paid attention to the light, composition, and perspective of the photos taken. 

My knowledge of composition, which is built on points of interest and points of rest, helped me arrange different objects in the background. So, it is important that the perception is not overloaded by the number of details, and at the same time, it is interesting to observe that there are many environmental objects in the scene.

Lighting & Rendering

Rendering in Unreal Engine 5 is much more interesting than in Marmoset. It's also more complex in its settings. For example, while Marmoset has a global ray tracing function, in UE5, you can enable this function separately for each light source. 

I used two rendering techniques. The first is the following. If you want to add realism to your work, you don't need to try to build lighting like on a bright sunny day. The shadows cast by direct light are quite sharp, and the colors of objects change. You need to do much more work on the model for it to look realistic in such lighting. Besides, modern rendering isn't so great yet to create a sense of complete realism on a bright sunny day. 

This screenshot is from Cyberpunk 2077 with ultra settings from users, with ray tracing (cloudy day):

On the other hand, on a cloudy day, when the shadows are slightly blurred, almost all colors have a bluish hue. Our perception more easily understands such a picture as more realistic. And modern game engines better process light in such weather. 

The second technique involves the following steps. I used it in another room, which I created more to show the details of the model more accurately. It's closer to studio lighting. There is a directed, slightly warm light from the front. Backlight, as if from a window, from behind. There's also a backlight to highlight the background environmental objects. To separate the model from the background so that they don't blend into something dark and unclear. And there's also a general fill, like daylight.

Conclusion

I worked on this piece for a long time because I always have deadlines for projects at my main job, and sometimes they are super urgent. So, I started after the New Year, when I had some free time, and then for two months, I couldn't continue my project at all. Then I had some time again, and again for a month, I couldn't work on this project. However, I can say for sure that if I had to create this kind of work for a real project (without the environment and weapons), I would have managed it in 1.5 months.

The main difficulties for me were with the rendering and environment in UE5 because it's not my specialty. Ideally, a Level Designer is a separate profession that requires a lot of time. The main lesson I learned from this job is of course a deeper dive into the Unreal Engine than before.

I advise beginner artists to include only what they enjoy in their portfolio. This will give them the strength to learn new things and complete the project. Don't be afraid to experiment, even if your idea seems absurd. Most importantly, remember that with enough perseverance and dedication, you can do absolutely anything. 

Thank you for your attention, and good luck!

Yury Taran, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine