Verbena the Evil Witch - 3D Character Artist | 2024

Verbena - The Evil Witch

This character was created during my final year at the University of the Arts London, Animation Game Arts pathway. Through this character, it demonstrates my commitment to excelling in the art of 3D character creation. I am grateful to my UAL lecturers and mentors for their crucial assistance and support throughout these endeavours.

I created both the concept art and the 3D character model for Verbena, the evil witch. The sculpting was done in ZBrush, while the clothing was designed using Marvelous Designer. Hard surface objects, such as some accessories, were created in Maya. The model was then retopologised in Maya and textured in Substance Painter. I used XGen to create hair cards for hair creation. I used Mixamo to rig the character, imported it into Maya for manual posing, and rendered the final model in Unreal Engine 5.

The VFX and environment background used to showcase my character are third-party content. The VFX is sourced from FootageCrate, and the background image is from Freepik.

Concept Art and Reference 

I drew inspiration from Tibetan and Mongolian cultural influences for her clothing, accessories, and patterns. Verbena's design uniquely blends traditional Tibetan elements with her mysterious, monstrous spider form, creating a fantasy evil witch inspired by darkness, spiders, and Tibetan culture. By utilizing a mix of real-life references and 3D models, I ensured authenticity in the outfit details and set a high-quality standard for the project, all while maintaining the character's fantasy essence.

Zbrush Sculpt

For the head sculpt, I began with a basic sphere in ZBrush,  refining it to shape the character's features. To add realistic texture, I incorporated noise to create detailed facial pores.

I began with an initial block out in ZBrush to establish the character's overall silhouette, allowing for simple modifications. After defining the basic block out, I added details, like wear and tear, to make the character more realistic. I used Maya for various accessories and jewellery, and Marvellous Designer for more realistic clothes folds.

Garment Creation in Marvelous Designer

I chose Marvelous Designer for its efficient cloth simulation and realistic results, along with its extensive customization options, which are crucial for creating lifelike cloth assets in 3D projects.

Topology and UVs

I retopologised the model in Maya, using the decimated mesh from ZBrush as a base. I then manually created a low-poly topology with Quad Draw. For the clothing, I manually retopologised within Marvelous Designer.

Texturing with Substance Painter

To create realistic skin, I created layers starting from the subdermal level, using red hues to mimic blood vessels. Adding noise helped create an organic texture resembling natural skin pores and imperfections. For the epidermal layer, I simulated sun damage, blackheads, veins, pores, and wrinkles, using real-world references for accuracy. Applying colour theory, I used yellow to highlight bony areas, blue for hair growth regions and under-eye shadows, and purple for shaded areas. Various generators and textured brushes added diversity to the skin texture, ensuring a lifelike, non-uniform appearance. This comprehensive approach aimed to achieve the realism expected in high-quality character design.

I used custom alphas to add intricate details and patterns to the face and clothing. Additionally, I incorporated extra material and dirt details in Substance Painter for enhanced realism.

XGen Hair Creation

For the hair creation, I used XGen to create intricate, realistic hair and then translated it into hair cards to optimize performance without compromising visual quality. I developed five different texture maps with XGen—Alpha, Color, Depth, Object ID, and Root maps—to import into Unreal Engine for a realistic hair shader. I then used curves and the sweep mesh technique to create the hair cards.

Thank you for taking the time to review my submission!