Whether it’s for animation or illustration, creating appealing looking characters is one of the hardest, but also most satisfying, things you can do.

In this class I share my process for transforming a 2D character design into a final 3D character illustration using Blender.

What you will learn:

The first part of the class focusses on the character sculpting process within Blender:

Working from the provided design, we’ll start by building a base mesh which will form the foundation of our sculpt.
From there, we’ll gradually start adding detail and refining our character with a constant eye on creating an appealing end result.

In the second part of the class, we’ll be focussing on presentation:

We’ll build a simple environment, before moving on to shade our character with Blender’s procedural shaders.
If you’re new to procedural shading, the networks of nodes can initially look daunting, but we’ll start out simply before gradually building towards more complex shaders, incorporating techniques such as subsurface scattering to give our character a believable look and feel.
With the shading complete, we’ll turn our attention to lighting, where I’ll demonstrate not only how to light your character in an appealing way, but also how to use lighting to add an element of storytelling to the illustration.
Finally, we’ll bring the whole image together within Blender’s compositor, where we’ll colour balance the image and add some final effects to create a polished end result.

What you will create:

By following along with the class, you will sculpt a 3D sea turtle hatchling and build a simple environment before creating a final, fully rendered, image.

Good to know:

This class is designed for those who already have some experience with Blender and are ready to take their work to the next level.
If you’re new to sculpting in Blender, I’d highly recommend starting out with my Character Sculpting Essentials class which will teach you everything you need to know to get started.
I’ve provided the sea turtle design in the class resources section but, if you’d like to model a character based upon your own design, consider starting out with my Into the Ocean: Character Design Essentials class.
The Blender software application can be downloaded for free from: blender.org

By the end of the class, you’ll have a far greater understanding of what it takes to make an appealing 3D character illustration, and the skills to bring some of your own designs to life.

So, if you’re ready, let’s get started!

Once you have finished this class, don't forget to check out the other animation classes here on Skillshare.

Anita Steinberger

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