Textured Turntable
For this project I worked on the whole character from sculpt to final. I wanted to focus on the head since most of the body would be covered.
Head Sculpt
Body Sculpt
For the face, I experimented with R3DS Wrap to play around with wrapping skin texture to get some realistic details and facial expressions using a free head model from 3D Scan Store.
Mapping points
Final wrapping
I was able to get some great skin details and create some interesting facial expressions from this.
I was able to transfer and mix a few XYZ and 3D Scan Store skin maps to get the texture on the face and body. Eventually I decided to hand sculpt the facial expression myself which can be seen below.
For the dress, I used Marvelous Designer to model and simulate my dress. I used the simulations to test how the fabric moved in so that I knew how it should fall when I pose my character.
Dress Pattern
Front
Back
For the fabric, I focused on creating charmeuse silk as the base of the dress and an interesting lace pattern. I built all the lace and fabric in Substance Designer. The main colors I played with were orange, blue, and white. I settled with a light blue and white lace.
Complex Lace Skirt Overlay
Charmeuse Silk
Complex Lace
Charmeuse Silk
Below are turnarounds and simulations of the dress with the textures.
Textured Dress No Simulation
Textured Dress Simulation
For skin texturing, I used a mix of scans and hand painted textures. I used an XYZ texture to project some pores since I lost some detail in decimation. I also added few additional pore maps and scattered them across the body to give the arms some texture. Most of the detail and painting I did was on the face.
Pore Projection (Front)
Pore Projection (3/4)
Pore Projection (Side)
Base Color
Roughness
Normal+Height+Mesh
Below are renders with all the skin texture maps applied. This was a pass with a simplified makeup look.
Base Color (Pass 4)
Glossiness (Pass 4)
Ambient Occulsion (Pass 4)
For posing, I referenced everything from live models to greek sculpture. I found that out of all of experimenting these 5 poses told interesting stories. I then quickly simulated my dress to each one to see if I felt connected to one in particular.
For my theme of Bridgerton and a nod to my African American heritage, I decided to go with this pose. It felt the most classic and also would allow my hair to shine and build out the shape. It also displayed every area of the dress in a way I liked.
The hair was probably one of the scariest and most difficult parts of my project. I wanted to do a kinky natural hairstyle for this character from the beginning.
Cornrow Hair Test
I experimented with lots of different styles and attempted to incorporate Regency Era hairstyles with a kinky natural hair texture.
Eventually after gathering more reference and exploring I found this hair style (inspired by the wedding wig of Queen Charlotte in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story) I created my character's hair. In the front are dreadlocks and in the back a large curly afro.
To keep some originality for my interpretation , I switched out the dreadlocs in the front with 3 bantu knots. I use to wear bantu knots as a kid so I wanted to pay homage to my childhood. After lots of trial and error, I made two simple procedural hair strands. One for the bantu knots and another for the afro. The afro hair isn't perfect. It is something I'd like to explore outside of Blender.
Now that the hair is set, it's time to light. For the lighting I wanted strong contrast similar to lots of the portrait of the Regency Era.
I did a very basic 3 point light setup with a backdrop.
Then came the final renders and the finalized breakdowns.
Dramatic Lighting
Bright Lighting
Grey Model
Dramatic Lighting
Bright Lighting
Grey Model
Render Layers
Color Map
Roughness
Normal
Glossiness
AO
AO + Wireframe
Turntables
Full Final Character
Grey Final Character
