Vikings - Betch
Hello there! My name is Dwayne Jones and I’m a 3D artist. I focus on stylized character/cartoon characters. I am based in Nigeria. I currently freelance and also work on personal project. My personal work is the expression of my inspirations at the time, and it is mainly what gets me noticed, leading to exposure and job offers. I find myself far more attracted to stylized characters than realistic because there’s a lot more room to play with. I recently worked on OMO berry, a YouTube kids nursery rhyme, Where I created most of the characters. I try to express my feelings in my art. I hope to get more opportunities to get better.
INSPIRATION
I was on David Ardinaryas page on Artstation, when I came across the Vikings girl concept. I knew it would be a challenge and a learning experience for me, the concept was a little bit outside my comfort zone. The concept reminded me of an open world game where you go hunting and skin animals for upgrades or inventories. This project was a learning experience, and I faced so many challenges. mostly on the hair grooming to lighting set up.
PROCESS
When making characters I start by getting similar references, so I could get different ideas for the project. I always start by blocking out the base mesh before sculpting, which I do in blender. I think getting a good block out makes your sculpting a little bit easier, and faster.
.jpg)
When I’m done sculpting I then Retopo in blender with Retopoflow addon. Retopology takes a lot of time, not actually fun but it has to be done. After retopology I then refine parts that looks off.
.jpg)
Next, I UV unwrap, and export to substance painter, I actually used the UDIM tiles for this project and exported the textures in 8k resolution for the skin. I hand painted the skin textures to get most imperfections, the clothes and other accessories were all exported in 4k.
I made the hair and fur with blender hair particles, I blocked out the hair and used it as a guild for the hair strands. The fur was mostly done with interpolated children settings and was combed a little bit. I did a little rigging to get the character in the pose as the reference. I used the three- point light to light up the character.
I mainly work with Blender for sculpting, grooming and rendering. Blender has most features any 3d artist would need if only you know how it works, it’s not that complicated to use and there are a lot of free resources to learn from online. It isn’t perfect yet, but it will get to the standard someday. The other software I use is substance painter. Substance is actually a lifesaver, not that difficult to use or learn.
I love working on personal projects because it gives me a chance to improve and gain more knowledge.
The more you practice the more you get better,
I gain more insight and encounter more issues that I try to solve. I always try new approach in my project, trying something new.
