3D Character Workflow For Beginners Tutorial

[@blenderguru]

Seriously awesome video. There's so many workflows for creating characters that newbies can quickily get overwhelmed by all the choices. This is the overview video that everyone needs! Also I agree that Zbrush for sculpting and Substance Painter for texturing are a great combination, and I'd add Marvellous Designer for clothing. Pretty much standard in the industry nowadays :)

[@DannyMac3d]

Thanks a lot! A lot of the times I mentioned Maya in this video I would now be saying blender 😄 forgot to mention marvelous though, thanks!

[@mineralhillsworkshop5275]

Thanks for recommending this video Blender Guru. It is awesome! Thanks Dannymac!

[@GhostOfViper]

you're the best andrew!!!

[@jainegi9544]

sir what should i learn ??? z brush or mudbox for sculpting

[@andryowyeh3531]

what about retopo? should we do with blender or maya?

[@valient75]

I see a lot of comments on here saying this is overwhelming and discouraging. So I just want to point out (as a college student currently learning all of these steps) if you are wanting to get into this industry you’re usually only in charge for one of those steps and if you take the time to learn it’s really not that bad and really satisfying. I hope this helps some of you that might be a second guessing.

[@beeloaf3681]

Good advice to the newbies. It is better to learn all of the steps and become a generalist anyway though, sure it looks overwhelming, but no one expects a new person to learn to all in a week. Being a generalist gives more options for work anyway.

[@scotts6724]

Danny, you will probably never see this comment because the video is a couple of years old now, but I just wanted to say that this video has helped me like you wouldn't believe! I'm currently in that stage between novice and intermediate, where I'm fairly good at sculpting in Zbrush and compositing in Photoshop, but all the other more technical parts have alluded me for years - no matter how hard I've tried to understand them. Your clear, concise method of teaching has really cleared things up for me in only a few minutes! I've subscribed to your channel and will be looking to forward to watching more of your videos and checking out your gumroad. Honestly man, keep up the good work.

[@DannyMac3d]

Glad to have been of some use! And thanks for taking the time to comment I sincerely appreciate it. Keep it up! :)

[@yeetusselfdefeetus4566]

*"Wait am I the only person who models instead of sculpting?"* *"I don't wanna be alone"* *cries in the corner*

[@KaptonTimo]

do you still model?

[@wendellpo2215]

No even i model characters

[@codyplayzgamez3874]

I'm terrible at sculpting, so I only work in modelling too

[@chulalachannel]

Ohh hell nawh

[@jenovaizquierdo]

You can do both in Blender 😁

[@sachads5322]

I'm only 2:38 in and absolutely LOVING this. This is really well done, DannyMac! Very informative.

[@rj_ay8172]

It took me a while to realise you were saying 'hair'..

[@OwenPrescott]

Same and I'm British lol

[@longname4784]

Same but I don't normally hear that accent. My British accent is from south London.

[@GrumpSkull]

Probably says 'sumfink' too. LOL

[@DannyMac3d]

Same

[@longname4784]

Danny Mac 3D I shouldn't have laughed at your comment 😂😂😂

[@Theocita]

I'm a new to 3d Animation. Shiiit.... I'm new to doing art on the computer. And you just blew my mind. Like damn, i underestimate 3d animation.

[@JA-mw1kx]

Do you need to be good at art to learn this ?

[@Theocita]

@@JA-mw1kx nope. Not at all. There are people that do 3d that do not know how to draw.

[@laurachristellrosetemar8673]

yes 🎁🎁🎁♥️♥️🎉🎉💓

[@fruitsalad2458]

@@JA-mw1kx its certainly has some perks of doing things, but you're fine for the most part

[@Chimunculous]

As a 2D Character Designer looking to get into sculpting, this was a brilliant overview of the 3D pipeline! Looking forward to learning more from you, Danny 👍

[@GingerTurquoise]

Can you make a full realistic eye tutorial? I've seen a couple on YT already, but they're somewhat confusing and complex. Your explanations are more concise. Thanks!

[@russell2952]

The key to realistic eyes is to make them four times as big as normal.

[@mequable]

Such a carefully composed, in-depth explanation of the process. Thank you for that.

[@DannyMac3d]

+pastichka it's a pleasure :)

[@bakedbeings]

What a great breakdown, all the software/approach nitty gritty up front! Thanks again.

[@sierra4603]

Love how straightforward this is

[@TheToneBender]

Good job! You somehow managed to make poppy even creepier.

[@TechnicFlow]

Amazing tutorial! A lot of comments thinking this is a tool tutorial and not realizing it's a workflow tutorial in these comments though.

[@allenwest1986]

I knew that was poppy from the thumb nail ! So you nailed it !!! Good job .

[@Stritex1]

sculpting is the key to create original characters as 3D artist, and modeling is just a matter to get the 2D concept right

[@samantha123d]

Is that poppy?

[@DannyMac3d]

it is! :)

[@Toshinben]

She's Poppy. She's Poppy! Sheee's Pahppy. Sh's Poppy?

[@billyt033]

Evey - Sue no it's koppy, yes it's poppy

[@DlcEnergy]

totally reasonable acceptable response incoming NO

[@Mjacoub]

dammit just the same thoughts

[@Tarikkb]

that tutorial is for beginners how it looks soon hard to do

[@StephenW313]

When I saw the thumbnail, I was like "hm, that model looks like poppy." and then I saw your reference images... I love poppy.

[@Marco-717]

who gives a crap, nerd..

[@novavii9663]

Damn chill

[@novavii9663]

@Marco CB

[@thatskyparrot-turtle5052]

@@aniga5173 yea... No one cares

[@NiderShifter]

Thank you! I understood everything, I will just continue working at the factory ... (T_T)

[@boldfrog82]

Are you still working there?

[@JesusSaves-007]

I feel your pain. Just finished a 12 hour night shift.

[@NiderShifter]

@@boldfrog82 yep

[@justchris846]

@@NiderShifter what do you do?

[@justchris846]

@@NiderShifter so. You reprocess a highly radioactive fuel cell?

[@hi.5311]

I never knew sombody actully made poppy in 3D I think ur the first vid on yt to make poppy and the first person to make poppy animated

[@gauravidesigns]

Bro u are a pro , cool stuff . Most of the I use addons along with blender such as speedsculpt , retopoflow , mesh remesher or quad remesher etc

[@carlos412]

LOOOOL I also wanted to create Poppy, mainly because of her clothes and hair. Also, great video, I always had doubts regarding the order in which to do things.

[@asatorftw]

Yes! This is exactly what I needed to see. Fairly new to this world so that gave me exactly the overview I needed. Thank you! =)

[@CueSic]

Blender can do everything youve mentioned thats why I love Blender it can be a 1 stop shop!!

[@rodneyabrett]

Here's a pro tip for character modelers using rigging just for posing: If you do a decent fast paint block-in weighting of the character's joint influences only using a value of 1 and 0 mostly, you can instantly turn the "chunky bind" into a nice smooth, blended gradient by using a post skinning deformer called Delta mush, which is available in Maya 2017 and above. It's tech from Rythym and Hues and it's particularly useful for denser organic meshes.

[@DannyMac3d]

Rod Brett thanks for sharing!

[@Anep10]

You are/were not alone! I pray you found what has worked for you!

[@OutcastAngelV]

Educating people for free. (so to speak) Good man.

[@tralthamidor]

Love the "Supermarionation" look of the model.

[@tzartrex]

id love course by you dude, my uni isnt great at showing us how to do things well, i have a modelling deadline in 2 weeks, and we got thrown at zbrush 3 weeks ago, and its not been a smooth ride trying to learn it as well as try and make a complex thats decent quality

[@Giogiogio4]

PluralSite is awesome. Tons of Zbrush courses there. That's where i learned it. You will even question why you went to school for it. The have the entire workflow for game design. 30+ hours in Maya, 3Ds max and everything you can think of. Micahel Palovich tends to rush/list through the software.

[@DannyMac3d]

I feel you, uni expects you to cram soooo much in in such a short amount of time. I'm sort of building up a course as I go along though. If you check out my other tutorials I've gone over sculpting the head, head retopology and poly hair. Hopefully they might help a bit!

[@tzartrex]

Thanks my dude, and all who replied will see if i can get through this module, then come back to modelling and learn Zbrush properly. Im sound at animation etc, but cramming modelling into a small deadline window and expect proper topology, UVs, textures, renders, 360 turn around too is like mental..

[@APRICEPRODUCTION]

To become professional and great at anything, it's best to learn and teach yourself, the greatest teacher is yourself, by exploring and learning in yourself you get better and better... group courses and uni, try and teach so much in little time, but everyone learns at different paces.

[@aams_animation]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6vYeZpre7mHqtE

[@MindfulnessOne]

Hey, Danny. It would be great if you could do the whole process on your gumroad. Like take a Disney, Pixar style character and go from Concept to Final Image, so we can see the troubles and challenges you go through and we can have an idea. I mean, I know it's probably a lot work, so maybe you can do that for you gumraod and I would totally buy it the whole workflow tutorial. Just a thought.

[@DannyMac3d]

Fernando Soares that is exactly what I'm doing, but on a month by months basis. It would take an extremely long time to get it all in one go and remain high quality

[@MindfulnessOne]

Alright, gotcha! Thanks for the reply.

[@PengiChyan]

i would be interested in buying a course like that as well

[@zion8754]

As a game designer, I'd love to be able to model like this! I think i'll have to put my passion project on pause for now XD

[@pstuddy]

yay poppy!!!!!

[@wehauldirect]

This really give me a better understanding about the whole 3D concept...i always wonder'd how those characters were made

[@harisetiawan2313]

awesomely complicated, thanks man. thats why art should be literally expensive

[@hallenguyen886]

The most useful tutorial that i have ever watched

[@theowenator2006]

I really wish I could do what you do. Seen a lot of your stuff on KZbin and its amazing.

[@DannyMac3d]

Liam Owen thanks man!!

[@laurachristellrosetemar8673]

happy 🎁🎁♥️🎉🎉

[@laurachristellrosetemar8673]

my secret 🎁🎁♥️♥️♥️

[@tennisphotography]

Wow, thats a lot of info in your video, thanks for your time, Ill have a look at this video again tomorrow, when Im having my dinner... Thanks again :) great work

[@PirataIndeseable]

amazing! cant wait for the rendering/shading tutorial danny! :D

[@lyndajones1133]

i want to see tutorials that go through this workflow, with a frickin blob of clay or something randomly sketched as that is what will help see the process, instead of going, ok so i need this super high end model. so ok. the workflow is whats important. so having the model is the crux of it, and a stopping point for some i would imagine. would be helpful to see the process without a fully fledged model, just as a test. i would think this could be whipped up pretty easily by many. its the non-linear aspect that would be a time suck with a project, especially with meshed you need to preserve infos bc its the vision, but looking to figure the process rather is what is the goal.

[@smurvertje]

Very clear en helpful content, Thanks!

[@happypanther17vid]

Really cool video, will help me a lot to make my portfolio i think

[@ChritsianBucic]

Very informative ! Thank you very much to understand different steps of the processing!

[@JackPeach-Animation]

Great video. Personally I prefer to model with polygons from the get go rather than sculpting.

[@bebywonderland7087]

Ohhh! I'm learning more and more!

[@NovataSecondLife]

Really well explained, I'm a noob regarding all this matter but I'm looking forward to learn more. I'm working in a very technical tutorial about the evolution of mesh in Second Life, something to help others to understand the concepts between classic, mesh and the new thing "bento" and I'd like to use a part of your character modelling, just a couple of seconds to display the use of programs like Zbrush, maya.... I'll share the link of your channel as a reference of course, hope it's all ok with you? It wont be for commercial purposes but to use it as a reference for the work of "mesh prims" for the new avatars. Hope you can read this ^^, keep up with the good work!

[@Snakebloke]

Why am I the only one genuinely freaked out by this character...

[@Snakebloke]

Not the girl he modelled it off, obviously. Now 9:49 ... THAT'S the kind of photo I want to be working from. Wowsers...and what incredible modelling too!!

[@Extremely_Shawol]

​@@SnakeblokeBut don't you think his model looks more like a white girl than the Asian girl in the photo? It lost all the cuteness too

[@Extremely_Shawol]

It's in the uncanny valley that's why that character is freaky

[@javedakhtar7596]

Just amazing, you provided very important information pipeline of 3d, thanks 👍, liked, subscribed, belled

[@wnur2129]

here I am already happy create my zepeto character... and yet watch this video gave me a GASP!!

[@anastasiyaosichkina3472]

Very easy to understand! Big thanks!

[@mahadisuleman5023]

i'd like to return here to refresh my workflow.. thank you so much, Danny

[@mrirurfkjsdo]

Good tips and vid', but totally... discouraging.

[@piotrowski4366]

mrirurfkjsdo Totaly agreed

[@theunitydev5418]

i personally am still lacking in many ways ive got no idea of sculpting even though i really want to learn it. But i can tell you every render makes you a better artist

[@ellaakiyama5670]

How?

[@amjigo]

Thank you for making and uploading these tutorials!

[@DannyMac3d]

Amber G it's a pleasure :)

[@CGFamilyStudio]

Agreed, Sculpting really is taxing. but the new and updated versions of software like Maya and blender also do handle many things quite well now. Though it's not much detailed, but I find Maya's sculpting tool helpful enough so I won't have to go to other software just to get organic depth on my ground or stuff like that..

[@darksteelyurius]

Excellent video. You deserve more than 55k subs.

[@anhphan8381]

Thanks Danny, really looking forward to the X-gen tutorial !

[@trudiepops9112]

No one: My mind: I'm *Poppy*

[@QuizzicallyBee]

a very educational video! I'm a games art student and this video will definitely come helpful when it comes to my projects soon : )

[@wojt3d415]

awesome useful stuff - im happy i found this video - and now im heading to learn as much from Your chanel as i can! quality content.

[@strotoven]

Excellent breakdown and explanation! 5/5

[@Nazareadain]

12:28 I need to find more on this topic specifically. Rigging puts me through DABDA, and I don't want to accept the inevitability of it being bad lol.

[@in3432]

Brilliant video. Thanks. Very educational.

[@nitshuwa2757]

Look up how to make templates, once you have a template customized for you, you can get to making soft quickly

[@vladartov2817]

Thank you! Straightforward and logical

[@DannyMac3d]

glad you found it useful! :)

[@catch5145]

These lads don't know northern UK accents. Great tutorial, narration on point, this is my accent too!

[@BebxOfficial]

Grace Howieson Godamn Northerners!!!

[@ronaldlee5324]

Will you create a whole video of 3D character workflow to teach how to work correctly??

[@gooorylin]

thanx for professional video! - i could use retopology,but it is a time consuming process,at the moment i model just from image reference from just box

[@landon_n_n]

Thanks for these shares man and there's a lot of info and work to do these so thanks for sharing this 😃😃😃😃😃😃

[@JakobScheidt]

Very good workflow & great tips!

[@alexandregoncalves6141]

Thank you, it works perfect!

[@martok2112]

Too bad Zbrush is a bank-breaker. Otherwise, great video. :)

[@jojogape]

Clicked for Poppy.

[@user-fb6yp8xt5t]

could you explain clothing in a tutorial? those fabrics are gorgeous

[@joelsavell]

Yes, agreed. Hi Danny, do you model/sculpt clothing at the same time as the model? Or do you sculpt the body first, then extrude/duplicate the shapes for the clothes and model/sculpt those separately? Do you extrude/duplicate the clothes from the scupting base mesh, or the retopologized base mesh? Thanks! -Joel

[@محمد-ع4ع1ش]

Rajo is working on a learning course designing characters on Cinema

[@taraviolet3269]

Best character ever!

[@MichaelHurdleStudio]

Wonderful tutorial

[@Hey-ti9zv]

This is so great! Random question, could you do a hand/feet workflow if you have the time? For me, hands and feet are so difficult sculpting especially once you reach the retopo stage and there's suprisingly little tutorials on the retopology side in depth, I would kill for one. Thanks Danny!

[@DannyMac3d]

Ill put it on the to do list for sure :)

[@Hey-ti9zv]

YAY! Danny for the team :D!

[@rfyorfyo5022]

you should include full version of the video, without speedups and cuts

[@mattdoheney1314]

Thanks a lot for this video, very instructive!

[@YeeiPlay]

Amazing. Nice work. I use mudbox and maya.

[@madhavanmanoharan]

very very gooood, thaaankss maan

[@MikhnoOrg]

Great tutorial mate, thanks!

[@APRICEPRODUCTION]

I noticed you didn't mention Lightwave 3D as popular app's at the bottom, Lightwave is largely used a lot in film and TV as well, I would say more than The Foundary Modo.

[@DannyMac3d]

Who's still using Lightwave?

[@fivesix3868]

this is amazing, awesome job!

[@kamehamasterr]

Your works are awesome!

[@Matthitizidu]

Great breakdown

[@GimpTOOTS]

Great stuff Danny. Thanks for the video.

[@ayeshamuhammed6224]

production. Thanks again!

[@MiguelALuna-ry4er]

i'd love a renderman tutorial!

[@cd2028]

any chance for an updated version of this for your workflow now?

[@seve8138]

Great tut + great accent

[@seanmckee8106]

Great workflow. Not usable for animators, but ideal for still artists. Although Maya is powerful, rigging still seems to be a big chore in the program.

[@MichaelKerch87]

Love the video. Are you planning on updating it now that you are using mostly BLENDER?

[@BrianLife]

You tha Man! Always! Thanks so clear and precise!

[@bltn7469]

Whats up Danny keep them coming :)

[@unbuiltartist2354]

Very insightful,thanks

[@9FACTASTIC]

nice

[@mycloudvip]

You are an amazing artist

[@Obrik]

Wow, I didn't realize how much of 3D work is (can be) done in Photoshop

[@MaleeshDedigama]

Very useful. Thank you very much!