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Realistic Character Workflow

Realistic Character Workflow

Here we share all current research and techniques on creating realistic human characters in Blender. This is closely tied to the film production of "Project Heist".

realistic baking characters workflow sculpting

10

Chapters

21

Sections

$ 17 / month

Join today!

A live documentation

In this documentation we share all the current research and workflow techniques on creating highly realistic human characters in Blender. This section was mostly compiled from previous work and research from the Blender Studio.

Based on actual movie production

All the content is closely tied to CHARGE and will often use it as a visual reference. This documentation will remain more generalised to apply to other characters outside of that production as well.

Focus on workflow and advice

This documentation is focused on advanced techniques and general advice that was learned during production. It will not go into detail like other tutorials on this platform.

The main topic will also be on the sculpting and modeling process for animation, instead of the whole workflow of texturing, shading, grooming, rigging and animation.

The original intent was to turn this documentation into a full tutorial series similar to the Stylized Character Workflow. That tutorial course was originally born out of collected knowledge from previous Open Movies such as Spring. But since the features and workflows of realistic character creation are not as easy to follow and use, we decided to leave this in its current format until another time.


Big thanks to Daniel Bystedt, Kent Trammell & Chris Jones for feedback, inspiration & resources!


Content Overview

1: Design Blocking & Sculpting
  1. Use of Base Meshes Free
  2. Design Sculpting Free
2: Retopology & Layering
  1. Generic Retopology Free
  2. Reprojection & Sculpt Layers Free
3: Shapes and Wrinkles
  1. What are FACS? Free
  2. The 'Shapes' Approach Free
  3. Creating Facial Shapes Free
  4. Wrinkles & Aging Free
4: Clothing Shapes & Rotation
  1. Neck Shapes Free
  2. Clothing Shapes Free
  3. Struggles & Advice Free
5: Baking & Exporting
  1. The 3 Levels of Baking Free
  2. Vector Displacement & Blending Free
6: Changes and Iteration
  1. Broad Adjustments Free
  2. Updating the Sculpt Layers Free
7: Notes for the Future
  1. Wrinkle Maps vs Shapes Free
  2. The advantage of Age Free
  3. Procedural vs Hand Sculpted Free
  4. Automation Free
  5. Production Limitations Free
  6. Blender Development Free
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