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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

Timelapse: Sculpting Hair

This commentated timelapse is dedicated to the sculpting of hair and the different ways of creating rough hair sculpts quickly to sketch out ideas.

Links mentioned in the video:
  • 05:30 - Speed Sculpting Workshop - Sculpting Hair: Here I go into more detail on the theory and practices I use while sculpting hair.
Other helpful links:
  • Rain - File 1: Head Sculpting: File of all the conceptual head sculpts of Rain, including the polished version.
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.

27 comments
Sky
Sky
Jan. 17th, 2025

Hi Julien, I just sculpted my character's hair, but i used a different method then you are using now, I used BezireCircle's and told the mesh to follow the pattern of the bezier circle. I would just like to know if this method is alright for the rest of this course, I've added images but please keep in mind that the hair is still a WIP and i also haven't added any individual strands yet (I'm also going to add a bow to the back of her head), i also plan to give it a more natural flow later, i just want to know if what i am doing is okay before i go to far (i'm still new to 3D art) https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n96knioszh0evcbr5mjku/Screenshot-2025-01-17-233726.png?rlkey=9lekansnltz3cruwm7xe4oq0n&st=7f01acrw&dl=0and here is an image from right around her head: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3w51mmmde3t0x7307d2a8/photo-output.jpeg?rlkey=15f34oh3dc6lumfmolmgbsdhe&st=ormzoogf&dl=0Any critique would also be appreciated Thank you :)

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Jan. 18th, 2025

@Sky That's absolutely fine! Anything that helps you give the character the look that you want should be ok for the sculpting steps.

justin Kiszegi
justin Kiszegi
June 30th, 2022

Thank you so much for these tutorials, for the first time it is beginning to make sense. Can you add images to this feed. I pasted into the box but it disappears....

Yu
Yu
May 6th, 2021

Can I learn texture painting in this course? I'm not good at English, so I'm sorry if I missed it.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
May 6th, 2021

@a.yuyus.52419211 Texture painting is not yet part of this course, sorry. So far the course is focusing on the sculpting and modelling aspects of character creation.

Sergi Aguirre
Sergi Aguirre
Nov. 28th, 2020

Wow wow wow this is way too hard, certainly it's appropiate to call this a character workflow, because a tutorial it isn't, the amount of information is so much and so isolated without any logic that I can hardly see it remembering it in the long term, I won't criticize since most certainly I'm way below the level, but it would be a nice idea to make step by step in the future about all of this (I'm talking about the skin modifier), or maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Nov. 30th, 2020

@Sergi Aguirre The timelapses are not really meant as tutorials, yes. They go faster and cover more tips & workflow examples. Do keep in mind that this course is not for Blender beginners. Check out for example this tutorial on youtube for more info.

Sergi Aguirre
Sergi Aguirre
Dec. 10th, 2020

@Julien Kaspar Thank you very much I had a mini meltdown sorry for that, right now I'm following a beginner's course with Grant Abbitt, thank you for taking the time to reply and sorry for the hassle :'( I really want to learn character creation and thought I had the level, I'll keep trying!

Spencer Price
Spencer Price
Sept. 14th, 2020

I'm using a toon shader and grease pencil for the eyes and mouth, but the hair is still bugging me. I want it to look clean and smooth like the rest of the model, but I can't seem to get the defined creases and flat surfaces I want. I can get rid of the lumpiness by smoothing it out, but then I lose definition and the sharp creases of the hair. Any suggestions?

Spencer Price
Spencer Price
Sept. 16th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* Do you have any suggestions on how I can clean up the hair and get sharper edges? It feels too lumpy. Maybe I should use the crease brush and do a bit more pinching? I dunno.

Spencer Price
Spencer Price
Sept. 16th, 2020

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 16th, 2020

*@spencerprice10* If you want truly sharp hair I can also recommend using curves. This video by Yan explains it better than I could here in the comments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqWYgrXw7Jk

With curves the hair clumps are always going to be less dynamic and instead very hard cut and rigid. If you want dynamic sculpted hair like this then try to layer the clumps more on top of each other and mix them in the flow, width & thickness.
To make the creases more sharp I can recommend the scrape or multiplane scrape brush in combination with he draw sharp or pinch brush. Even just sculpting over the surfaces with a very strong smooth brush can flatten the surfaces effectively. Keep trying with using different brushes to both achieve flat surfaces and sharp creases and you'll get the hang of it.

Spencer Price
Spencer Price
Sept. 17th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* Thank you so much for the video link. That's exactly what I was looking for. Although, I'd love to get the look of Rain's hair like you did, but I think that'll just take some time and practice experimenting with sculpting tools and brushes. Thanks again for your Tutorial. It's worth the price of subscription alone.

jadrennan2
jadrennan2
May 23rd, 2020

No references. Took me a while to even get it moderately "decent" looking. I've always been terrible with character modelling.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
May 25th, 2020

*@jadrennan2* Definitely use references. Overall it looks good but it still looks kinda lumpy.
All the human features are there but the main shapes of the head & skull are not well defined. Look at the cheekbones, which are barely visible except for that one stroke which looks like something is stuck under the skin. The jawbone and neck also is pretty undefined and the ear is floating away into the back of the head.
Look at some references or even yourself in the mirror and adjust some of the shapes.
Also an important tip: On average the eyes are the center of the head rather than the nose.

ammar mohammed
ammar mohammed
May 20th, 2020

What do you think about the head and the hair

}

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
May 20th, 2020

*@ammar mohammed* I think there are some key anatomical flaws. One of them is that we all like to have the nose as the center of the face but the eyes are actually at the center.
This way you will have a lot more space for the forehead.
The eyes are also very far apart and the surrounding bones like the eye socket, cheekbone and nose bridge are not really defined.
Also don't rely too much on the eyebrow objects. They can obscure the actual shape of the brows and it looks like they are floating on top of the face. The brow has a strange crease going into the forehead, so it all doesn't quite fit.

text

ammar mohammed
ammar mohammed
May 21st, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar*

ok so I tried to fix it I don't know if it was fixed and I don't know if the nose is now in the center or not

ammar mohammed
ammar mohammed
May 21st, 2020

*@ammar mohammed* and i tried vertex painting the eyebrows but my laptop was crying

tallaridaj
tallaridaj
March 25th, 2020

0:05 can you explain what you mean when you say remove unwanted UVs? and how you do it?

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
March 25th, 2020

*@tallaridaj* Newly created objects are automatically receiving a UV Map. Since this is causing a dyntopo warning message to pop up every time I can recommend to remove the unwanted uv maps on the properties editor on the right.
While that text appeared I removed the UVs on the side.

tallaridaj
tallaridaj
March 25th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* thank you so much for the reply, i really appreciate it! I saw what you did, i just wasn't really understanding why.

rgb_xyz
rgb_xyz
Feb. 13th, 2020

I'm missing the part where you are able to scale the thickness of the skinned vertices. Nothing happens when I try to scale a vert. (around the 3:00 minute mark).

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Feb. 13th, 2020

*@rgb_xyz* At 1:50 I am mentioning it: It's the shortcut Ctrl + A ;)

rgb_xyz
rgb_xyz
Feb. 13th, 2020

*@Julien Kaspar* thanks! Very cool workflow. That'll teach me to jump around too much. S definitely would be nice.

JessElton
JessElton
Feb. 3rd, 2020

Hi! Someone has uploaded this video on YouTube, if you want to check this is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdA7J9yeNf0

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Feb. 3rd, 2020

*@JessElton* Thanks for letting us know :)

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