Recreating Bleach's Kenpachi In 3D With 2D Look Using ZBrush & 3DCoat

Introduction

Hello, my name is Antoine Zavagno and I am a 3D Character Artist working in video games for 5 years. I have worked for multiple studios throughout my career, including Stratosphere Games GmbH, Lilith Games and others as a freelancer.

Since my last article on 80 Level, I had the chance to join the outsourcing studio GFactory on the SUPERVIVE project and also spent time expanding my portfolio, notably with this fanart of Kenpachi Zaraki based on the drawing of Ognjen Sporin.

Getting Started

As a big fan of Kenpachi and Ognjen Sporin's style, when I came across this drawing, I didn't think twice before deciding to recreate it in 3D. Recently, I've been trying to give my projects a sketched look, and this Kenpachi fanart was just perfect to achieve that result.

For this project, I mainly used these images as references, but also a PureRef made up of images from the book Anatomy for Sculptors. I use PureRef for all my projects, as it saves me time by not having to search for references online, at least for anything related to anatomy.

Modeling

As with all my projects, I primarily use ZBrush for modeling. I started my sculpt with symmetry to establish the main shapes, but I quickly broke symmetry to pose it and give it his expression.

This time, I used a base mesh for Kenpachi's body because the topology allowed me to sculpt more efficiently and also faster. For the cloth, I extracted it from a copy of the body and then ZRemeshed it, followed in some cases by topology adjustments using the ZModeler.

In general, I always use multiple subdivision levels, as it gives me more control over my sculpt. The more drastic the modification I need to make on my sculpt, the lower I set the subdivisions, and vice versa.

I always use the same brushes, the most important of which is the Move brush combined with AccuCurve, which gives me more control than the standard Move brush. I then use the ClayBuildUp with the DamStandard to sculpt the organic shapes and folds. Finally, I clean up my shapes with hPolish and SmoothDirectional.

To get as close as possible to the concept, I use the See-through tool, which allows me to check the proportions and see if I'm matching the concept correctly. The hardest part during the sculpting phase was compensating for the camera angle of the concept while achieving a satisfactory result in 3D.

Texturing

Once the sculpt is finished, I prepare my mesh to create the UVs and start texturing. For this, I simply export a subdivision level that retains as much detail as possible without being too heavy in terms of polycount. In this case, I was around 1.6 million triangles for the entire character.

I used RizomUV to create my UV maps. I did them manually because I prefer having clean UVs when I do my texturing. To ensure enough resolution for my final render, I divided it into 4 UV maps. Once the UVs are finished, I import my FBX files into 3DCoat to start the texturing phase.

I used 3DCoat for texturing because I find it easier to achieve a sketchy look with this software. The brushes have a better feel compared to Substance 3D Painter, in my opinion, and I can also import the brushes I use in Photoshop!

My process consists of a few layers: a base layer, a shadow layer using the multiply blending mode, a highlight layer, and a final layer for the lines.

The hardest part I encountered during texturing was maintaining the flow of the lines while ensuring they worked in 3D. My main goal was to represent the sketchy aspect of the concept. Instead of trying to match the concept 100%, I focused more on capturing its energy with spontaneous lines and brush strokes. This aspect, along with having the shadows painted directly into the diffuse, gives the final render that 2D effect.

Rendering & Lighting

I made the render in Blender and added the finishing touches there. I started by setting up my camera to match the concept. I recommend using a fairly large focal length for portraits, as it's commonly used in portrait photography. It allows you to get close to the subject without being too wide or too zoomed in.

I then placed curves around the hair strands to capture the fibrous look of the hair seen in the concept, as well as the small flying pieces of fabric around the character.

To set up my materials, I simply created a material using the diffuse I exported from 3DCoat, with a relatively high roughness value.

I followed a tutorial for the hair and the outline effect in order to make an unlit material. It's worth noting that this material only works with the Cycles render engine.

For the outline effect, I duplicated my mesh and applied two modifiers: a displacement modifier to control the thickness of the outline and a Geometry Node modifier to flip the faces. Combining these two modifiers with the material above creates the outline effect on my mesh.

For the lighting, my main light source comes from an HDRI, which I complemented with secondary lights that follow the direction of the concept.

First, I used a warm main light, followed by a flash from the camera's direction and a bounce light coming from under the character, both with a cooler color to create contrast with the main light.

Finally, I sent my render to Photoshop to add a few smart filters, as well as the yellow outline, to get as close as possible to the concept.

Conclusion

This project took me 2 months to complete, and I spent between 8 and 12 hours on it each week. The aspect I enjoyed most during this project was recreating Kenpachi's expression. I had to take breaks sometimes because I was laughing so much while sculpting his expression. What I learned during this project is that sometimes it's necessary not to replicate every detail in 3D and let the paint handle it.

The most complex aspect of translating a 2D concept into 3D is trying to capture the energy of the concept and convey that spontaneous feel while still having a model that works in 3D. If you're looking for good tutorials to learn hand-painting, I recommend the YouTube channel VSquad Studio, which has excellent videos detailing the hand-painted process for characters and props in Substance 3D Painter.

Antoine Zavagno, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford