Digital Artist Incorporates Character Creator to Design Toon-Shaded, Sci-Fi 3D Characters

Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Calder Moore, and I'm a Digital Artist who focuses on both 2D and 3D illustrative work. I've been in the industry for over 12 years doing everything from pre-school TV shows, numismatic coins, video games, board games, and even trading card games. I've worked for companies like Disney, Nickelodeon, Google, Royal Canadian Mint, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons.

My passion lies in crafting art for my personal project, In Search Of, a sci-fi anthology where I delve into 3D stylized scenes set in a gritty, dark universe. Initially, my focus was on creating vast, immersive landscapes and locations. However, despite the detailed environments, the world felt vacant, lacking the life that characters could bring. Last year, I decided it was time to fill this void by introducing animated characters, even though I had no experience in rigging and minimal knowledge of animation.

With this newfound determination, I sought advice from friends, one of whom introduced me to Character Creator 4. CC4's fully rigged, UV-mapped, and highly customizable character bases immediately caught my attention. After a few weeks of experimentation, I discovered a workflow that harmonized CC4's realistic characters with my stylized rendering approach. Now, with about ten stylized characters under my belt, I'm eager to share the workflow I've developed and refined along the way.

Throughout this breakdown, I will cover my workflow for creating these stylized animated characters using Character Creator 4, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance 3D Painter, Cinema 4D, and finally rendering using Arnold Render.

Reference Images for Stylized Characters

I begin every character and scene by gathering reference images and inspiration to shape the overall concept. I explore Pinterest and ArtStation, using PureRef to compile images into a cohesive mood board. Instead of searching for a similar character, I look for individual elements like jackets, sci-fi gadgets, color schemes, fabrics, and face sketches.

Sketching the Design

After gathering reference images and solidifying the concept, I sketch the character design to further develop the idea. I use Photoshop or pen and paper for this step, focusing on creating a clear direction rather than a finished piece. Without this direction, it's easy to waste time aimlessly creating in 3D, which often takes much longer than a simple sketch would.

Character Creator 4 and ZBrush

When I dive into creating the character in 3D, I start by building the base model using Character Creator 4. This amazing tool provides great character bases that are already rigged, UV-mapped, and fully customizable in a non-destructive way.

I'll load up the CC4 Neutral male or female base model and then go into the morphs tab and play with the sliders to adjust the face to what I want to have for the character. With these characters being a bit stylized, I'll push some of the features more extreme than they would normally be to help give them more of that character I'm looking for. Things like a bigger nose, sunken eyes, and prominent cheekbones. Stuff where the shader can interact with as well as push the silhouette.

Sometimes though I'm not able to push the forms into where I wanna take them, and that's where the GoZ function comes in handy. I'll send the character over into ZBrush where I can sculpt the forms a bit more into exactly how I want them and then click the GoZ button in ZBrush to send the adjusted model back into CC4 where it updates to reflect those changes. This workflow is so good for not having to worry about reweighting the geometry as everything still works perfectly.

Once I'm done adjusting the model, I'll then export it as an FBX checking on 'current pose' and 'first frame in bind pose' to have a nice default state to attach assets onto with.

Marvelous Designer

Next, I import the exported model into Marvelous Designer, a fantastic tool for creating character clothing. This physics-based software allows for the creation of garments with realistic folds, wrinkles, and all the details needed for lifelike attire. Depending on the character concept, I either start from scratch or use a template from 3D marketplaces or their website.

For this character, I had a clear direction based on the sketch. I began by creating a simple turtleneck shirt, focusing on the branding logo and fabric sheen to ensure a clean, understated look. For the jacket, I envisioned a blend of a ski jacket and a classic pilot's jacket with a wool collar. I started with a basic jacket template, tweaking the shape until I was satisfied. Then, I added details and cutlines to guide the viewer's eye toward the character’s face, the final focal point. 

Substance 3D Painter

Given the stylized nature of this character and the toon shaders I used, achieving an interesting face was challenging. To overcome this, I imported the head into Substance 3D Painter to hand-paint the facial details. One benefit of using CC4 models is their pre-UV-mapped faces, which saves time.

In Substance 3D Painter, I simplify the scene by enabling the wireframe with reduced opacity to better understand the contours while painting in diffuse mode. I block out shadows and define key features like eyes and forehead wrinkles using hatching rather than solid lines, avoiding a "Borderlands" look. Since this character is older and battle-worn, I enhanced the bags under his eyes, added moles and small deformations for asymmetry, and incorporated prominent scars across his face. To make the scars more pronounced, I used a pinkish color that contrasts with the skin tone, adding depth and realism to the character's appearance.

Lastly, I export out the texture to apply to the character in the Arnold shader.

Cinema 4D

Now that I have all my externally created assets done, I can import everything into Cinema 4D, My main software of choice for all my modeling, scene creation, and rendering. I import the CC4 character, Marvelous Designer clothes, and will import the face texture later when I have the material ready for it.

With the jacket imported I'll then work on the finishing details for that, adding the hardware bits and pieces, the comms unit, the text on both the shirt and the jacket, and the wool collar using C4D hair generating thick and short strands of hair that look like wool once rendered with the shaders. Next, I added the face hardware, modeling the face piece that wraps around the head and acted as a bit of a cybernetically repaired eye and the receiver side of the comms unit.

Next, I focused on the face by importing the texture into my Arnold toon shader setup. This served as a guide for shaping the beard, which I created using Cinema 4D's hair system. After molding the beard to the desired form, I disabled gravity and other forces in the scene to keep the hair "live" so it would respond to the CC4 Pose Morphs on the face.

With all elements modeled and set up, I attached them to the imported CC4 rig. I skinned and weighted the jacket, shirt, and smaller hardware pieces on the jacket. For the headwear and communication unit, I created constraint nulls that referenced the relevant bones, attaching each accessory to the corresponding null. I repeated this process until all accessories were securely attached and ready for animation. Additionally, I sculpted his pet in ZBrush, imported it into C4D, and rigged it for animation.

To animate, I used the CC4 rig and pose morphs. I began by creating the base pose, keyframing the start and end points, and blocking out the middle poses. Finally, I refined the in-between animations, adding details like blinking, eye movements, and interactions with the pet.

Arnold Render

During the creation and assembly of the character in Cinema 4D, I work closely with Arnold, frequently rendering WIPs to check how the shader interacts with the geometry and how the face texture appears in the final render. I typically use direct light to simulate sunlight and render the scene with a parallel or isometric camera for these characters.

The shader I use is a custom toon shader, carefully crafted with a series of nodes to achieve a stylized look. This setup allows me to adjust various aspects for each surface it’s applied to. The shader is organized into three main sections: the inner line details, which include hatching lines, speckles, and stains; the light and color area, where I control the colors of the lit and unlit regions; and the masks that dictate where these elements appear on the model, based on scene lighting, facing ratio, and procedural noises. While the shader might seem complex, it's essentially layers of blended elements, much like working with layers in Photoshop.

I'll find a good camera position and light angle for the character and lock it in place fairly early into the workflow, as I find it helps to have a good direction to tune the shaders too, and be able to refine them throughout the workflow.

I'll create a bunch of duplicates of the main shader where I'll then change the colors for them, or in some cases, add the face texture or adjust how much of the lit area shows up to change the material from looking like fabric to metal. I'll then apply these shaders to the character and refine them until I'm happy with the result.

When rendering using Arnold, you can add a bloom effect to the render which I love to do. I'll adjust it so the light on the character gives off a nice glow, adding that little bit of extra detail to him.

Lastly, I render out all the frames and composite them together using After Effects.

Conclusion

Even though the character is complete visually, they are still not quite fully finished. I'll send these over to my buddy Duskosound to create the SFX as well as a backing track for all of the characters to just push them that much further and bring them to life that much more. After he works his magic, they are fully done!

After creating over 10 characters with diverse concepts, including non-humans, I continue to rely on the CC4 rig and this workflow. For fully cyborg characters, I use the rig and body geometry as a guide for adding metal details while preserving a sense of humanity.

My process and style are always evolving, and with each character, I explore something new. What I love about CC4 is its versatility – it remains a powerful tool even when I replace everything but the rig. It speeds up my workflow and consistently delivers great results with ease. Thank you for joining me on this journey, please see the full article here if you are interested in learning more details.

Calder Moore, Freelance Artist