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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

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Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar Author
License CC-BY
Report Problem
1: Head Sculpting

Blender Setup

In this lesson I will explain how to optimise Blender 2.8 for your sculpting workflow, how to add, remove and change shortcuts, making use of new features like the overhauled workspaces, templates, quick favourites and auto-save preferences and more.

Links mentioned in the video:
  • 04:27 - Course Addons: A small collection of free additional addons that are used in some lessons
  • 06:50 - My Sculpting Template: I discontinued the file since i got heavily outdated and the default sculpting template in Blender is already as good nowadays.
Other helpful links:
  • docs.blender.org: Blender 2.80 user manual on the interface. All the information you need.
General Links
  • Short version of the creation of Rain
  • Recap video of the creation of Snow
  • Rain .blend files
  • Snow .blend files
  • Course Resources

Join to leave a comment.

67 comments
yasser_redjeb
yasser_redjeb
Jan. 3rd, 2025

I did not understand how to create a face from a point using f2 !

romeo
romeo
May 1st, 2024

hi im using blender 4.1 on my Mac but everything is don't work like in the tutorial

张虎祥
张虎祥
July 15th, 2024

@罗密欧 me too

Show more replies
wbigger
wbigger
Aug. 27th, 2024

The hamburger menu with "Save Preferences" is now on the bottom-left corner.

wbigger
wbigger
Aug. 27th, 2024

Hi @romeo, in the latest versions of Blender there is the new Extension System. You have to go to Preferences->Get Extensions and download the add-ons (Screencast Keys and Magic UV). Then you'll find the add-on in the Add-ons section as in the tutorial. Hope this help.

Ronald Liao
Ronald Liao
Sept. 15th, 2023

Hi Julien! Great tutorial I really learned a lot. I have a out-of-context question: Do you think it would be a good idea to use bforartist(a Blender fork that focus to CG artists, which supports all plugin of blender) instead of stock blender for 3D animation? I was thinking that the UI and workflow is close enough it might come in handy.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 18th, 2023

@Ronald Liao Not sure since I've never used the fork so far. But in theory yes. You should be able to do anything you like with the fork. The workflows in this course don't rely much on external addons so it should be all good.

0022
0022
Jan. 2nd, 2023

Hi, the trackball navigation does not rotate as smoothly as you did in the video. How do I properly rotate the way you rotated the monkey? I click MMB and it rotates, but it can’t rotate the same way you did

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Jan. 2nd, 2023

@0022 If the orbiting is too fast, there is a slider directly under Trackball for "Orbit Sensibility". See if that helps.

Leda Lehas
Leda Lehas
March 15th, 2022

Hi Julien- Quick question, is there a way to toggle between trackball and turntable view without going to preferences? I tried to assign a hotkey but I don't think you are able too.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
March 15th, 2022

@Leda Lehas Sorry I don't think there is an option for that.

Leda Lehas
Leda Lehas
March 15th, 2022

@Julien Kaspar got ya, thanks for letting me know. Great series!

cherif hemissi
cherif hemissi
Dec. 25th, 2021

السلام اعجبني الشرح

Jiro
Jiro
Dec. 23rd, 2021

Hello, Where can I find your Brushes? the download link? Tried to press the link here but it takes me to Course overview, Can't find it. Great videos by the way excited to start :)

Jiro
Jiro
Dec. 23rd, 2021

@Jiro Oh.. saw your answer on the same topic.  Do you have a tutorial how to create this brushes you have?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Jan. 3rd, 2022

@Jiro No need really. The brushes I've used are very similar to the default brushes in Blender now. Or at least you can easily achieve the same effects with them now.

Majik Hudson
Majik Hudson
Sept. 15th, 2021

The "my sculpting template/Using my using template" videos seen to be unavailable.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 16th, 2021

@Majik Hudson I removed it from the course since it's heavily outdated. The default Blender template is now just as good with recent updates.

Majik Hudson
Majik Hudson
Dec. 6th, 2021

@Julien Kaspar thank you so much!

Aly
Aly
May 19th, 2021

Hi there! I'm sorry if this sounds ignorant, but I'm still using Blender 2.82a. What addons would you recommend for that? I can't find mask tools anywhere in my preferences, so when you say it's updated to the latest, do you mean 2.8? Thank you :)

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
May 20th, 2021

@Aly Blender 2.82 should be fine for the first 2 chapters and the 4th one. Only for the 3rd chapter do I recommend to at least use 2.90 or higher. But I removed the Mask Tools addon since it is only really useful for 2.80 and 2.81.

Aly
Aly
May 20th, 2021

@Julien Kaspar Understood! Thank you for explaining that to me. I'll upgrade eventually, but am still working on projects in 2.8, so once those are completed, I'll move up. Thank you for the response!

shirtsdesignpro
shirtsdesignpro
April 11th, 2021

Hi i can't find the mask tool add-on, i kinda the other one but...overcomplicated for getting add-ons.

shirtsdesignpro
shirtsdesignpro
April 11th, 2021

@shirtsdesignpro i kinda find the other one so far... oh and i can't correct my porevious comment? theres so options for that?

shirtsdesignpro
shirtsdesignpro
April 11th, 2021

@shirtsdesignpro Nop, no options for that to...

shirtsdesignpro
shirtsdesignpro
April 11th, 2021

@shirtsdesignpro loll

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
April 12th, 2021

@shirtsdesignpro I removed the addon from the course. All the functionality is now officially in Blender. You can find them in the masking pie menu on A or in the mask menu.

Quix
Quix
March 9th, 2021

Please implement 'autoplay entire playlist/course' for these videos.

dimaddox95
dimaddox95
Feb. 1st, 2021

Where do I find the bisect tool in Edit mode on Blender 2.91

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Feb. 2nd, 2021

@dimaddox95 Click and hold on the knife tool

diego.lazevedo0408
diego.lazevedo0408
Jan. 28th, 2021

Hello Julien, Mask Tools is not available on version 2.91.2,  Could you suggest an alternative Addon?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Jan. 28th, 2021

@diego.lazevedo0408 Use the new masking features of Blender ;) Shift A to expand a mask, the A pie menu for masking functionality, mask extract, face sets and more. I have it on my to do list to make a video on that

chhristJunia
chhristJunia
Aug. 4th, 2022

@Julien Kaspar hi Julien, have you made this video? I am confused on this mask problem while following your tutorial. Thanks!

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 4th, 2022

@chhristJunia There are plans. But the tutorials might not be tied to this course anymore.

chhristJunia
chhristJunia
Aug. 8th, 2022

@Julien Kaspar looking forward to that, if these new tutorials come out,  how can i find them?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 8th, 2022

@chhristJunia We would make an announcement. A blog post would be dedicated to this to make it visible. If it's a new course then it will show up at the front page for the training section.

chhristJunia
chhristJunia
Aug. 9th, 2022

@Julien Kaspar  Thanks for your reply, I cannot wait for that.

Malik Martin
Malik Martin
Jan. 3rd, 2021

Does the trackball mouse add-on require a trackball mouse? If not, how do you recommend using it without one?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Jan. 4th, 2021

@Malik Martin No you don't need a trackball mouse. It works with any input device (mouse/pen/etc) and just changes the behavior of the viewport rotation ;) It's also not an addon but an official feature.

garyyang4019
garyyang4019
Dec. 29th, 2020

Why I prsee ctrl+X and nothing happen?

Jane Medvedieva
Jane Medvedieva
Sept. 6th, 2021

@garyyang4019 use X instead=)

garyyang4019
garyyang4019
Dec. 29th, 2020

In 07:27 How did you swutch different modes?

Malik Martin
Malik Martin
Sept. 28th, 2020

Hi Julien, Hopefully everything works in 2.90.1 :)

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 28th, 2020

*@Malik Martin* Generally everything should be almost the same definitely working. Chapter 3 has a small issue when sculpting on shapkeys while using the multires modifier. In the description of the chapter there is a workaround but I'll make an update to the chapter hopefully soon.

Malik Martin
Malik Martin
Sept. 28th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* Thank you! I'll be sure to check the notes from every lesson!

Omar Gonzales Diaz
Omar Gonzales Diaz
July 18th, 2020

Hi Julien, in the Github link provided, I see 5 py files but not option to download a Zip file. This is what I regularly do: download the zip and install from preferences. Is it ok to download each individual file and zip them together? then install from preferences?

Aryan Menon
Aryan Menon
Dec. 5th, 2020

@Omar Gonzales Diaz use this link -Blender-/maskTools_2-8.zip at master · bookyakuno/-Blender- · GitHub

Aryan Menon
Aryan Menon
Dec. 5th, 2020

@Aryan Menon -Blender-/maskTools_2-8.zip at master · bookyakuno/-Blender- · GitHub

Elizabeth Barstatis
Elizabeth Barstatis
April 26th, 2020

oh my gosh thank you for updated this. It's been 2 years since I've been able to use Blender so this new UI is terrifying

Artyom Sobolev
Artyom Sobolev
April 21st, 2020

Julien, thanks for very interesting course! Please tell me that the brush templates only for B2.8-2.81 means that in 2.82 these brushes are already adjusted to your templates?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
April 22nd, 2020

*@Artyom Sobolev* Yes, all of the default brushes got a major update and are working much better in 2.82 and especially 2.83.
My custom brushes are not included in the new versions so I can still recommend to create them if you want. But importing them from my template will not be ideal because brush settings got added & changed, so the brushes could be broken.

Sergio Andrade Figueroa
Sergio Andrade Figueroa
April 4th, 2020

Julien HI. I tried to install the Addons in Blender 2.8, 2.81, 2.82. and doesnt work. i pick up one by one the PY files and click on install. but nothing works. do not appears in the addon menu, and even in the hidden menus are not appear. what is wrong? thanks a lot with your help.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
April 5th, 2020

*@Sergio Andrade Figueroa* You need to choose the entire zipped folder if it's more than just one py file.

Sergio Andrade Figueroa
Sergio Andrade Figueroa
April 6th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* Thanks im going to try

jehd.jehzer
jehd.jehzer
Dec. 29th, 2019

good afternoon sir, there are missing add-ons in my blender 2.81: 3d View: SpeedSculp Sculp: Mask Tools System: ScreenCast Keys User Interface: Pie Menu Editor

  • where can I get this?
Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Dec. 29th, 2019

*@jehd.jehzer* The SpeedSculpt Addon can be bought but is pretty outdated since the release of Blender 2.81.

ScreenCast Keys and Mask Tools can be found in the Asstes folder of the course.

The Pie Menu Editor is an additional addon I bought to customize the user interface and menus even further but it's not necessary for this course :)

jehd.jehzer
jehd.jehzer
Dec. 29th, 2019

*@Julien Kaspar* but is it okay if I'm not going to install the SpeedSculp Addon for this tutorial?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Dec. 29th, 2019

*@jehd.jehzer* Yes. I am not going to include any paid addons for these tutorials :)

jehd.jehzer
jehd.jehzer
Jan. 3rd, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* well, thankyou sir. :)

Salvador Núñez
Salvador Núñez
Sept. 3rd, 2019

Hello, the add-on 'UV-Magic' is not working in Mac Os x

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 3rd, 2019

*@Salvador Núñez* Have you tried the latest version of the addon? https://github.com/nutti/Magic-UV

Salvador Núñez
Salvador Núñez
Sept. 23rd, 2019

*@Julien Kaspar* Dear Julien: I reinstalled Blender 2.8 and now everything works. Thanks for your knowledge. I'm also experimenting with 2.81

Michael
Michael
Aug. 28th, 2019

Hello Julien , I have tried setting up shortcuts like you did , I was only able to get the x symmetry and the toggle overlays to work, toggling wireframe on all and on per selected object doesn't work, at best I get the wireframe alone but not on shaded,maybe I'm missing something

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 28th, 2019

*@Michael* I think this is because there are multiple toggles assigned to that shortcut. Shift + Z is used by default for toggling between Wireframe & Solid Shading Mode. Alt + Z is used to toggle Xray shading. You can look these default shortcuts up in the keymap section of the preferences and disable them with the checkmark. Then you custom shortcuts should work :)

Michael
Michael
Aug. 28th, 2019

*@Julien Kaspar* cool I will try that,thanks

Satish Goda
Satish Goda
Aug. 20th, 2019

Are you using a development version of Blender 2.80? In the official release the location of the Save Preferences/Auto Save Preferences is at the bottom left of the Preferences window.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 21st, 2019

*@Satish Goda* No I made sure to use official release of Blender 2.80 :) The older timelapses will feature the beta version though. The reason why the UI seems different is because I switched to the preferences editor instead of opening a separate preferences window. The UI seems to be slightly different between them.

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