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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: Head Design Variations

In this timelapse I am creating the rest of the head variations to find the design I wanted to take further. I will go over a few more techniques and time saving methods to create these sculpts.

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.

15 comments
Margot Croix-Rouge
Margot Croix-Rouge
July 6th, 2024

Hi guys, I have a problem when I merge my objects (hair, face etc.) with CTRL+J, part of the vertex paint disappears. For example, my hair will turn back to the white of the base material, or the face will turn white. How do I merge my meshes while keeping the initial vertex paint of each object??

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Sept. 2nd, 2024

@Margot Croix-Rouge When merging the objects it will also merge the list of vertex colors. Your issue is likely that Blender named the vertex colors inconsistently, so they get merged as two separate vertex colors in the list. Make sure to check the name of your vertex colors and rename them if needed.

Kenzie W Townsend
Kenzie W Townsend
April 10th, 2023

:D Every time you touch the hair it seems it adds 500 new faces. Just something to consider when planning a hair style on a smaller computer.

coolyan2016
coolyan2016
June 10th, 2021

Hi Julien, is Mask Tool Addon required to extract the mask of the hairline (at 18:53)? Or is there another way to do the same thing with the tools that are in Blender 2.93 by default? Thank you!

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
June 10th, 2021

@coolyan2016 Yes you should use the default tools in Blender at this point. I made these tutorials in Blender 2.80 when they were not implemented yet and I had to use an addon.

coolyan2016
coolyan2016
June 10th, 2021

@Julien Kaspar Okay, thank you! :)

YKLim.art
YKLim.art
March 29th, 2021

In version 2.92, I can't find the duplicate option in Mask tool, the one shown around 18:33. Please tell me if anybody found it.

YKLim.art
YKLim.art
March 29th, 2021

@YKLim.art nvermind lol, "Mask slice to new object" does the same job ;)

YKLim.art
YKLim.art
March 29th, 2021

@YKLim.art or "mask extract"

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
March 29th, 2021

@YKLim.art Yes, the new masking functionality that is in Blender by default made the mask tools addon unnecessary.

Evgeny Dekalin
Evgeny Dekalin
Nov. 11th, 2020

Even i, who have never studied Blender at all, can repeat after you and make my own project! It's incredible!

Giovanni Coakley
Giovanni Coakley
Aug. 8th, 2020

The video doesnt seem to work.

Julien Kaspar
Julien Kaspar
Aug. 10th, 2020

*@Giovanni Coakley* Can you elaborate? Might be an issue with your browser.

Matteo Cuccato
Matteo Cuccato
Sept. 3rd, 2019

Brillant workflow, really useful in terms of character/shape exploration too in early phases! Your tutorials are pure gold!

Gemma María Rull
Gemma María Rull
Aug. 24th, 2019

Awesome! So many important things with the goal in mind to keep full control of the character from beginning to end. Just what I was expecting to finally learn well altogether and far more by now already that you are teaching, plus full control of 2.8 as due along the way too, short keys and everything. Very impressed and very greatful! Thanks a million times! :)

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