I started this project in 2017, requested by a former colleague who wanted a real-time character to animate, based on the amazing Thoot Wu concept. I accepted this challenge very willingly since it would allow me to work on a very interesting concept and improve my knowledge of the character workflow.

It took me almost two years to finish it because I wanted to achieve much higher quality than my previous works, so I took some time to learn new stuff and software solutions that I never used like Substance Painter. I also happened to rework some parts several times thanks to the feedback that I received.

Since I worked on it in my free time, I stopped the project for several months due to my job and personal reasons, but despite this, since I’m a very stubborn person, I really wanted to finish this piece without sacrificing the quality that I wanted to achieve.

Sculpting

My intention was to remain fairly faithful to the original concept. I really liked the design and the character mood, but I wanted to make it a little more real, trying to find a fair balance between stylization and realism. I started gathering many references of female models and athletes, and study works from other artists. Then, I started working on the face and anatomy from a Basemesh. It was important that the body was athletic and slim like the original concept, but I also wanted to give it a soft feeling, so I worked on some pressure points as the thigh, breasts and the hips.

Throughout the sculpting process, I have reworked the body several times, especially the face, because for me it was essential to be able to achieve a quality and a style that would convince me fully. Initially, I was going to make it more realistic – the face, in particular. It looked really bad and not very charismatic, so it was important for me to have someone who didn’t fear to give me negative feedback. Although it was sometimes depressing, that kind of feedbacks allowed me to do my best, note my mistakes and also go out of my comfort zone.

For this reason, the face took a fairly long time, especially because before then, I had never modeled a character with this style. I took the time to understand the best proportions to obtain a satisfactory result.