With this, I started looking for artists who had a charming character and found an image of Guilliame Singelin. I looked everywhere for more information about this image. When I couldn’t find anything I ended up asking him if he had more images about this character, he told me that this was only a small illustration and he never drew this character again. Although I didn’t have more information about this character, I was convinced that this would be my next work, and I was ready to commit to making my 3D version.

Always start from the general to the particular. Divide the process into at least three stages, beginning with the basic shapes, then medium details, and finally small details. This project was modeled in a traditional way called Polygonal Modeling, using the Subdivision Surface modifier to smooth the model. But I used the Multiresolution modifier to add the last details on the clothes in Sculpt Mode.

To solve distortions, you have to follow an elementary rule. The edge that you will use as a seam needs support on both sides. If it only has one edge, as the first and second object, the distortion will be evident when you subdivide the model. This does not fix all possible problems when doing UVs, but it is a very recurrent problem that we can easily avoid.

We need to generate a Color Grid image (2.6.1), which has a pattern of colors and letters. With this, we can see the orientation of the UVs and rotate the UV islands until they are all oriented to the same side. (2.6.2)

The import settings come with the PBR – Metallic Roughness (Allegorithmic) template by default, so we leave it as it is. We choose the FBX that we exported from Blender, in the resolution I used 4096 and OpenGL in Normal Map Format. Finally, we click OK.

The original illustration has a specific designs that I can hardly draw by hand within Substance Painter, so I create a list of black and white images called Alpha Maps.
I use Affinity Designer because it is simpler for me to work with vectors. Keep in mind that they need to be squared to work correctly in Substance Painter. I usually use a 4K size (4096 x 4096px) to avoid pixilation.

To give complexity to the material, I add four layers.(3.4.1)

1. In the first layer, I use a pre-made Fabric material as a base.
2. The second layer I use a Dark tone and a mask of Ambien Occlusion.
3. The third layer used a Light color and an inverted Ambient Occlusion mask.
4. Finally, I add a layer with a black tone using several maps to give the effect of Dirt.

To export the textures go to File > Export Textures or press Ctrl + Shift + E. Make a preset to export the textures to Blender. I use the following maps; Base Color, Metalness, Roughness, Normal, Ambien Oculussion, Emissive, Opacity, Scattering and Thickness. If the project I want to export does not use a map, Substance Painter will omit that map.

First, I have to talk about the incredible artist Nazar Noschenko. He has a great career creating beautiful characters with a realistic cartoon style, and he is a great reference point for artists that use Blender. I have learned a lot with his tutorials on how to create hair.
Last year (2019) he released a 3D eyebrow pack for Blender that has ten different styles. I used this pack for the eyebrows of this project. Feel free to take a look at his Artstation profile and check out this eyebrow pack.

With the lighting, determine the atmosphere, mood and tone of the scene. For this project, I used all five types of lights. A Key Light that illuminates from the left side with a cold temperature. An HDRI as Fill Light. A combination of several lights to give the effect of a Rim Light. A Kick Light to give more emphasis to the hair, and finally, a warm Bounce Light to provide more light to darker areas.

To be able to remove the noise, we must first have Denoising Data enabled in the Passes menu of the View Layer Properties before rendering. Once the render is finished, go to the Compositor, add the Denoise node, which removes the noise from the image.

Before making the render, we need to activate Cryptomatte > Object in the Passes of the View Layer Properties. Once the render is done, go to the Compositor, add the Cryptomatte Node and make the connections. Join the Pick output to the Viewer Node and Image to the Composite Node. Now select the areas you want to mask with Add in the Cryptomatte Node.

The first step is to go to Camera Raw and use tools like Clarity, Exposure, Sharpening and Noise Reduction to achieve a more balanced image. Then I add some Dark areas on the outside to give it a lateral emphasis. I also add a Brighter spot in the middle to provide the face with an accent. I add a LUT to create an atmosphere. And finally, play with Levels to lighten the image slightly.

I decided to divide the process of this project into three stages, to make it easier and more tolerable to see a lot of information about the same project.