Character Creation

Approaches

Sculpt and Retopo

The traditional approach for high-definition characters

1. Create some starting geometry
2. Use the Sculpting tools e.g. Snake Hook to expand, contract, smooth, and extrude geometry, often with the Dyntopo option enabled
3. Use Retopology to turn the final sculpt into a more manageable mesh by reducing the number of faces without losing the important details

Model and Subdivide

A technique for creating low-poly characters or blocky/boxy characters.

1. Create geometry, e.g. a cylinder
2. Add Mirror and Subdivision Surface modifiers to inflate the available geometry and balance the character
3. In Edit mode, scale (S) and move (G) points around to match a desired silhouette
4. Manually subdivide, then repeat step 3 to refine the silhouette

Skin

A more recent option.

1. Create a skeleton with vertices and edges, but not faces.
2. Add the Mirror, Skin, and Subdivision Surface modifiers in that order.
3. Select vertices and use Mesh - Transform - Resize (Control-A) to control the skin size
4. Subdivide edges and repeat step 3 to refine the silhouette

Demonstration video: Fast Character Modeling with the Skin Modifier in Blender

Add-Ons

• Adjustable Mannequin
• CharMorph
• Human Generator Ultimate