Blender Studio
  • Films
  • Projects
  • Training
  • Characters
  • Tools
  • Blog
  • Join
  • BLENDER.ORG

    • Download

      Get the latest Blender, older versions, or experimental builds.

    • What's New

      Stay up-to-date with the new features in the latest Blender releases.

    LEARNING & RESOURCES

    • Blender Studio

      Access production assets and knowledge from the open movies.

    • Manual

      Documentation on the usage and features in Blender.

    DEVELOPMENT

    • Developers Blog

      Latest development updates, by Blender developers.

    • Documentation

      Guidelines, release notes and development docs.

    • Benchmark

      A platform to collect and share results of the Blender Benchmark.

    • Blender Conference

      The yearly event that brings the community together.

    DONATE

    • Development Fund

      Support core development with a monthly contribution.

    • One-time Donations

      Perform a single donation with more payment options available.

Training Highlights
Stylized Rendering with Brushstrokes
Geometry Nodes from Scratch
Procedural Shading Fundamentals
Stylized Character Workflow

Training types
Course Documentation Production Lesson Workshop

Training categories
Animation Geometry Nodes Lighting Rendering Rigging Shading
Film Highlights
Wing It!
2023
Charge
2022
Sprite Fright
2021
Spring
2019
Project Highlights
Project DogWalk
Interactive
Gold
Showcase
BCON24 Identity
Showcase
Fighting with Grease Pencil
Article
Course
Stylized Character Workflow
Intro
  1. 01

    Introduction

    Free
  2. 02

    Introduction Update

    Free
1: Head Sculpting
  1. 01

    Defining Goals

    Free
  2. 02

    Research

  3. 03

    Blender Setup

  4. 04

    Sculpting a Primitive Head Shape

  5. 05

    Sculpting a complete Planar Head

  6. 06

    Smoothing the Planar Head

  7. 07

    Stylising the Head Sculpt

  8. 08

    Timelapse: Sculpting Rain's Head

    Free
  9. 09

    Timelapse: Vertex Painting

  10. 10

    Timelapse: Sculpting Hair

  11. 11

    Timelapse: Head Design Variations

  12. 12

    Timelapse: Finishing Rain's Head Design

2: Body & Outfit Sculpting
  1. 01

    Creating a Primitive Body

    Free
  2. 02

    Sculpting the Planar Torso

  3. 03

    Sculpting the Planar Arms & Legs

  4. 04

    Sculpting the Planar Hands & Feet

  5. 05

    Smoothing & Stylising the Body

  6. 06

    Creating Clothing Basemeshes

  7. 07

    Update: Optimal Clothing Basemesh

  8. 08

    Modelling additional Basemeshes

  9. 09

    Stretching vs Compression

  10. 10

    Sculpting Wrinkles & Folds

  11. 11

    Polishing the Surfaces

  12. 12

    Finishing the additional Elements

  13. 13

    Timelapse: Sculpting Rains Body

  14. 14

    Timelapse: Rains Autumn Outfit

  15. 15

    Timelapse: Adjusting Proportions and the Outfit

  16. 16

    Timelapse: Rains Summer Outfit

    Free
  17. 17

    Timelapse: Sculpting Rains final Outfit

3: Expression Testing
  1. 01

    Fast & rough Retopology for the Head

  2. 02

    Modelling the inner Head & transferring Details

  3. 03

    Adding the teeth, gums & tongue

  4. 04

    Basic Expression Shapekeys

    Free
  5. 05

    Sculpting an Expression

  6. 06

    Breakdown: Expression Guide Part 1

    Free
  7. 07

    Breakdown: Expression Guide Part 2

  8. 08

    Breakdown: Design Adjustments

  9. 09

    Breakdown: Adding extra Appeal

4: Clean Retopology
  1. 01

    Retopology Introduction

  2. 02

    Creating & Guiding Topology

  3. 03

    Planning the Facial Retopology

    Free
  4. 04

    Retopology Setup

  5. 05

    Facial Retopology - Edge Flow & Articulation

  6. 06

    Update: Strategic 2-Poles

  7. 07

    Facial Retopology - Patches & Poles

  8. 08

    Facial Retopology - Creases & Tweaking

  9. 09

    Timelapse: Head Retopology

  10. 10

    Timelapse: Body Retopology

    Free
  11. 11

    Timelapse: Inner Body & Transfering Volume

  12. 12

    Timelapse: Head Objects & Tweaking

  13. 13

    Timelapse: Hair Retopology

  14. 14

    Timelapse: Shirt & Pants Retopology Pt.1

  15. 15

    Timelapse: Shirt & Pants Retopology Pt.2

  16. 16

    Timelapse: Shoe modeling & additional Tweaking

  17. 17

    Timelapse: Scarf Retopology & Finishing Touches

5: Bonus Chapter: Snow
  1. 01

    Timelapse: Sculpting Snow's Head

    Free
  2. 02

    Timelapse: Sculpting Snow's Body

  3. 03

    Timelapse: Polishing Snow

  4. 04

    Timelapse: Sculpting Snow's Outfit

  5. 05

    Timelapse: Remeshing & Adjusting Snow

  6. 06

    Timelapse: Snow's Expression Tests

  7. 07

    Timelapse: Posing Snow

  8. Live: Face Retopology Free
  9. Live: Head Retopology Free
  10. Live: Hair Retopology Free
  11. Live: Upper Body Retopology Free
  12. Live: Body Retopology Free
  13. Live: Retopo tweaks & outfit Free
  14. Live: Outfit Retopology Free
  15. Live: Retopology Finale Free
  16. Live: Body UV Mapping Free
  17. Live: Outfit UV Mapping Free
  18. Live: UV Mapping Finale Free
  19. Live: Base Colors & Preparations Free
  20. Live: Tiles & Procedural Detail Free
  21. Live: Height Map Painting Free
  22. Live: Detail Extraction & Stitches Free
  23. Live: Textures & Procedural Eyes Free
  24. Live: Procedural Skin & Hair Anisotropy Free
  25. Live: Turntable & Hair Textures Free
  26. Live: Baking & Final Renders Free
Bonus Videos
  1. 01

    Youtube Version: Stylized Character Workflow in Blender 2.81

    Free
  2. 02

    Snow Character Creation Recap

    Free
  3. 03

    Sculpting Fundamentals

    Free
  4. 05

    Preventing/Fixing Boolean Errors

Cheat Sheets
  1. Topology Guides - Killing/Directing Loops
  2. Topology Guides - Poles & Edge Flow Free
  3. Topology Guides - Stretching & Pinching
  4. Topology Guides - Hiding Stretching
  5. Topology Guides - Strategic 2-Poles
  6. Topology Guides - Hard-Modeling Creases
  7. Facial Topology - Edge Flow
  8. Facial Topology - Landmarks
  9. Facial Topology - Articulation Free
  10. Facial Topology - Patches & Poles
  11. Facial Topology - Creases
  12. Facial Topology - Deformations
  13. Retopology Setup Free
  14. Body Topology - Seperate Limbs
  15. Body Topology - Joint Loops
  16. Body Topology - Finishing Touches
Course Lesson .blend files
  1. File 1: Head Sculpting Lessons
  2. File 2: Body Sculpting Lessons
  3. File 3: Topology Examples
  4. File 4: Facial Topology & Planning
Final Renders
  1. Rain - Final Render Free
  2. Rain - Turnaround Free
  3. Rain - Turnaround (Clay) Free
  4. Rain - Turnaround (Wire) Free
  5. 05

    Rain - Turntables

    Free
  6. Snow - Final Render Free
  7. Snow - Turnaround Free
  8. Snow - Turnaround (Clay) Free
  9. Snow - Turnaround (Wire) Free
  10. 10

    Snow - Turntables

    Free
  11. Rain & Snow - Final Render Free
Rain - Character Development
  1. 1 - Head Exploration Free
  2. 1 - Head Polish Free
  3. 2 - Body Iterations Free
  4. 2 - Outfit Variations Free
  5. 05

    3 - Expression Tests

    Free
  6. 4 - Retopology Free
  7. 4 - UV unwrapping Free
  8. 08

    5 - Turntable Renders

    Free
  9. 6 - Pose Exploration Free
  10. 10

    6 - Pose Polishing

    Free
Rain .blend files
  1. Rain - File 1: Head Sculpting
  2. Rain - File 2: Body & Outfit Sculpting
  3. Rain - File 3: Expression Tests
  4. Rain - File 4: Retopology & UV mapping
  5. Rain - File 5: Shading & Texturing
  6. Rain - File 6: Posing
  7. Rain - File 7: Lighting & Composition
Snow .blend files
  1. Snow - File 1: Concept
  2. Snow - File 2: Sculpting
  3. Snow - File 3: Testing
  4. Snow - File 4: Retopology
  5. Snow - File 5: UVs & Shading
  6. Snow - File 6: Rendering & Compositing
Snow - Character Development
  1. 1 - Concept Drawings Free
  2. 2 - Head Sculpting Free
  3. 3 - Full Body Sculpting Free
  4. 4 - Outfit Sculpting Free
  5. 05

    5 - Expression Tests

    Free
  6. 6 - Pose test Free
  7. 7 - Retopo (Face) Free
  8. 08

    8 - Retopo (Head)

    Free
  9. 09

    9 - Hair Retopology

    Free
  10. 10

    10 - Body Retopology

    Free
  11. 11

    11 - Outfit Retopology

    Free
  12. 12

    12 - Turntable Tests

    Free
More Resources
  1. Base Meshes Free
  2. Matcap: Default with Specular Free
  3. Matcap: Gradient Free
  4. Matcap: Ghost Free
Addons
  1. Screencast Keys Free
  2. Magic UV Free

Login to view this content

Join Blender Studio for just €11.50/month and get instant access to all of our training and film assets!

Login Join Blender Studio
Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar Author
License CC-BY
Report Problem
Rain .blend files

Rain - File 1: Head Sculpting

This file includes the very original conceptual sculpts of the head to find a general direction to develop further. In the second collection you can find the polished head design that came out of this process.

I also added a simple lighting setup in Eevee to showcase the polished sculpt better. Just switch to LookDev shading to see the lit render in the viewport.

Switching between frame 1 & 2 will move the empties that the original sculpts are parented on. This way you can either display them side by side or on top of each other to cycle through the individual collections to see the difference between them or the polished sculpt. For the 3rd frame of this file I moved the conceptual heads behind the polished one in a pyramid formation and gave them a material that is darker and less specular to highlight the end result in the front.

Join to leave a comment.

7 comments
philip.aigner
philip.aigner
March 7th, 2021

Ah right, so enter posts the comment then. I have 2 questions, first of all I was wondering if there is also a tutorial for the shading part of the character somewhere? Second, I'm doing an architectural render for some friends that will be used commercially and want to add a character for scale. Can I use Rain for this? Not sure I quite understand the creative commons license and just wanted to double check. Thanks again for all your time and effort!

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
March 8th, 2021

@philip.aigner Thanks!

  1. Eventually I will add chapters on UV mapping, shading, posing & the final render. I just couldn't get any time for it yet.
  2. Yes you can. Almost everything on the Blender Cloud is licenced as CC-By, which means you are free to use and modify the files however you want. You just need to give credit.
philip.aigner
philip.aigner
March 8th, 2021

@Julien Kaspar OK great, thanks for your reply!

philip.aigner
philip.aigner
March 7th, 2021

Hi Julien, first of all thanks so much for this character and tutorial, I'm following it step by step and it's a great way to get back into blender (it's been 10 years).

RICARDO Paiva
RICARDO Paiva
Aug. 5th, 2020

Awesome work.Thank you!

Joyce-Anne Anthony
Joyce-Anne Anthony
Aug. 2nd, 2019

Hey Julien, thank you so much for the time you are putting into this course. Will you be releasing any videos that go step-by-step of the sculpting process or is it mainly .blend files?

Thanks, JJ

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 2nd, 2019

*@Joyce-Anne Anthony* I'm currently working on finishing the first bunch of videos. I hope I can release them soon :D

Films Projects Training Blog Blender Studio for Teams
Pipeline and Tools
  • CloudRig
  • Blender Kitsu
  • Brushstroke Tools Add-on
  • Blender Studio Extensions
Characters
  • Mikassa
  • Whale
  • Ballan Wrasse
  • Snow
Studio
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Remixing Music
Blender Studio

The creators who share.

Artistic freedom starts with Blender The Free and Open Source 3D Creation Suite