Technical breakdown of how I made the Nutcrusher:
I began with the high poly sculpt, which was initialized as a blockout in Maya, then brought to ZBrush for sculpting. Then I went back and forth between the two software with each new asset to add to the sculpt. You can also initialize assets in ZBrush, but by combining the two you have more efficient topology control which allows you to sculpt cleanly in a cartoon style.
After the sculpt was finished, I brought it back to Maya to create the low poly version, conformed onto the high poly, and its UV maps. Both parts simultaneously complicated and boring but actually quite fun once you get the hang of them. This is the final geometry, onto which the high poly light, ambient occlusion, and curvature information will be baked in the form of 2D texture maps in Substance Painter.
Also in Substance Painter I used hand painting techniques for the first time on a character! Really fun but I have a lot to learn about it. I also still used the Roughness, Metallic, and Normals channels, which aren't always used in a hand-painted style, but in this case worked well.
Then it's back to ZBrush with the low poly this time to pose it. I'm not a rigger so I use the Transpose Master Zplugin to pose by hand, just for the render. In an actual game dev pipeline she would be rigged, and the A-pose in which she's modeled makes this possible.
Finally in Unreal Engine, I applied all her materials with their many channels (BaseColor, Roughness, Metallic, Normals, and secretly a touch of purple Emissive light in her hair!). I created a plain backdrop, made a 3-point lighting system, and set up multiple camera shots using keyframes and a combination of moving the camera vs. character. Lastly, I built a geometry-based rim light with a fresnel mask material (check it out in the first image!), plus outline and shading post-process materials for the final shots.
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