3D Character Creation - Modelling a 3D Travelling Elf for Film & TV


Character Concept Process: Phase 1 - Character Design

Initial thoughts & Ideation intent: 

A sign of strong character design is when a character’s silhouette and garment can provide visual cues of their world, life choices, and purpose.

In my design process, I had a vague character profile wherein I decided that the character was a young, introverted explorer. I chose a few words as my anchors before I set out to design this character.


Rough Sketch & Freestyle concept brainstorming

Per my project timeline according to my Gantt chart. I allocated a week to render a full character turn-around with finalised garments and accessories before starting the sculpting and modelling phase. 


Warm-up sketches

I began some more "considered" freestyle sketching to try and understand what kind of personality and mood I wanted from the elf. You can see how I shifted from a stubborn/ moody teenage personality to a more aloof and spacey character. 

Freestyle Sketches


Starting to decide on character garments
Garment & Accessories Inspiration: 

I used PureRef to collate clothes and travelling accessories that fit within the medieval to late 19th century time period, pulling cultural dress inspiration from across central Asia, Norway, Japan and parts of Ukrainian cossack wear. 




As you can see below, there are elements of the cossack trousers mixed with my iteration of tabi shoes and other mixed elements of cultural dress that would indicate that the Elf is from a small, village in wide terrain. After a few design considerations and attempts, I  decided on the character design turn-around.

Character Front, Back and Side view: 

My finalised character design, with a front, back and side orthographic character turn-around to help me with sculpting. 

Initial Character Design
Face/Head Turn-Around

Thinking about accessories/textures/ prints 


Thinking forward: Texturing & Rendering
At this point, I knew the stylisation I wanted for this character and what kind of production style I would create it for. I pulled from the Fortiche/Arcane style of 2D graphic hand-painterly textures and I started to brainstorm flat colour themes.











Coming next: Sculpting in ZBrush and the block-out

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