The Story Behind Vammatar: Crafting Goddess of Pain, Disease & Suffering

Introduction

Hello! I’m Aitziber Azkue, a 3D Character Artist originally from Caracas, Venezuela. About a decade ago, I moved to Sweden with my cat, seeking new adventures and opportunities. Before diving into 3D art, I spent years working as a Technical Writer across different industries. While I appreciated the structure and challenges of technical writing, I was always drawn to something more creative – something related to storytelling and expression.

In October 2023, I quit my job as a Technical Writer, determined to pursue my passion for CRPGs. Within weeks, I found myself sculpting my first faces as part of my Think Tank Training Centre application. Since then, I’ve been fully dedicated to 3D art; everything I know comes from Think Tank, invaluable online resources, and my constant drive to improve. Creating has become both a skill-building exercise and a source of comfort, helping me express myself and cope through difficult times.

I’m currently in the Advanced term – the third of a 4-term program at Think Tank. My Intermediate final project, Vammatar, became more than just an exercise in character art; it was a way to express something deeply personal while pushing my technical skills. Today I’m excited to write this retrospective piece and tell you about my journey with Vammatar.

Vammatar

During the break between Foundations and Intermediate, I discovered Ellina Akhiamova’s Vammatar. While I had other ideas, this one felt impossible to ignore. I was in a transition period, searching for a new place to live after the end of a long-term relationship, and something about the character’s intensity resonated deeply with me. I wanted Vammatar to reflect both my skills and personality, focusing on anatomy, emotional expression, and technical problem-solving. Luckily, Ellina was happy to allow me to recreate her work in 3D, and was available during the process when I needed a second opinion.

From the start, I knew Vammatar would require meticulous attention to detail and planning. My goal was to create a character that was not only visually striking but also conveyed a story. With a five-week deadline, I dedicated every available moment to this project, ultimately spending around 500 hours on it from start to finish.

Modeling

Using a base mesh from 3D Scan Store, I began by blocking out Vammatar’s primary shapes, including the chest piece, skirt, and horns. In my view, capturing the character’s essence and personality is key to any character project. Even if I’m not aiming for a perfect likeness, choosing a facial reference that suits the concept is essential. For Vammatar, I loosely based the face on actress Margaret Qualley, whose features fit well with the concept’s aesthetic and mood.

Posing was another complex aspect of the project. Initially, I wanted to show Vammatar in both an A-pose and her final pose. However, I realized that the complex, layered details would require dedicated sculpting in each pose, so I ultimately focused on the concept’s pose since I was on borrowed time. I rigged the base mesh twice using ActorCore AccuRIG – once for the body and head and again for the additional arms – then wrapped my sculpted mesh to preserve clean edge flow. This setup ensured that my topology and UVs remained intact in high-flex areas like the elbows, allowing me to make the most out of the scan’s textures. I modelled everything else in ZBrush, and simulated the skirt in Marvelous Designer before sculpting over it to try and get closer to the reference.

Throughout this project, I relied on my ability to iterate quickly, experimenting with different approaches and refining them until everything felt cohesive. The skirt was one of the most challenging parts, as I couldn’t find any references that matched the look I wanted.

For pieces like the chains and ropes, I needed to maintain visual complexity without overloading the design. I created a custom IMM curve brush for the chain links, designed seven different “skirt dangles” placed similarly to hair cards, and iterated on the overall construction until I was happy with the outcome. The ropes saw a similar process, where I aimed for them to feel tightly bound around her body while flowing naturally at the loose ends. This iterative approach was both challenging and rewarding, as it simplified the retopology stage and helped me stay on schedule. I also hand sculpted a cowl for her head, but this one didn’t make it to the final version.

I’ve always enjoyed sculpting bodies, especially in dynamic poses. Sculpting four hands for this project was a fun challenge, and I heavily relied on both references and my own hands to make sure I got the pose right.

Retopology & Texturing

Retopology was an exciting challenge made easier by repeating assets. Duplicate assets meant stacking UVs, which simplified retopo immensely (particularly for the chain links!) However, the ropes were, well, ropes. After a few rounds of failed bakes, I created a low-poly version of the ropes by deleting and scaling select edge loops to create a clean edge flow, preserving their twisted silhouette and high-poly details in the bake.

For texturing, I wanted to tell a story through subtle details. I focused on areas where Vammatar was bound and scarred, painting color variations across her body, and adding blood and scratches on her wrists. My favorite part of texturing was definitely the makeup, tears, and blood. I thought carefully about the tear paths and how they would dry. I also considered the damage from the handcuffs and how to incorporate realism while staying true to the concept art.

The textures that came with the base mesh were very useful, and I built on top of them to reach the right values in my roughness and specular level maps.

To texture the skin, I made a lot of adjustments to the base albedo. I hand-painted colour zones and veins on the face, hands, and body, and later emphasized pore and skin details with secondary map bakes. The ropes were textured with custom layers using directional noise masks for both height and color variation. For the metals, I used a shared base albedo with unique variations achieved through faintly masked fill layers (and they all passed the PBR validator!)

Creating her hair in XGen added another layer of realism. The slightly hidden groom, along with the eyebrows and peach fuzz, had a major impact on her overall appearance, making her feel more believable.

Rendering in Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine was a key part of this project, and since it was my first time rendering there, I leaned on Jared Chavez’s shader as a foundation. I experimented with lighting and the Post Process Volume to create the right mood. The most important settings were each light’s Samples per pixel, and my Lumen settings (lighting quality, final gather quality, max reflection, and refraction bounces) – fine-tuning these settings was key, not only for performance but to ensure I had the best final quality on my renders.

A friend helped me fine-tune the lighting setup, and we ultimately settled on a combination of low-intensity lights with different colours, along with effects like chromatic aberration and bokeh. The goal was to keep Vammatar the focal point of the scene, creating a powerful, clean image that matched the concept’s atmosphere.

I’m not big on post-processing, and I wanted to show Vammatar as she was. I rendered her as PNG files, added a subtle back glow, a Gaussian blur, and a few brightness and contrast adjustments, but I aimed for my static renders to match my unedited turntable as closely as possible.

Looking Back

Creating Vammatar was a journey of technical growth and personal expression. This project allowed me to develop my skills in real-time rendering, complex character modeling, and realistic texturing, while building a character with deep personal significance. I had never challenged myself as much as I did with this project, and I’m very glad I did – I learned a lot, both about the pipeline and about myself.

To any beginner artists out there, my biggest advice is to stay curious, compassionate, and patient with yourself. Focus on the basics, take time with references, and don’t be afraid to iterate – each version gets you closer to the goal. Fail fast and embrace both successes and challenges; they’re equally valuable to your growth. Most importantly, make each project personal in some way, it will keep you motivated and help you make your art truly yours.

Through this experience, I’ve seen how technical skill and storytelling can come together in character art. I’m excited to bring this dedication to my next project, Camilla, which I’m working on as I write this piece. My future goal is to contribute to immersive experiences by creating characters that are impactful, intricate, and expressive.

Thank you so much for reading this far, and a huge thank you to Gloria Levine and the team at 80 Level for reaching out asking me to write this piece!

Aitziber Azkue, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine