Renji, the Yakuza

Project

This character was created during an intensive mentorship led by Ankit Garg at Zombie Art School. The course focuses on developing high-quality AAA characters, with particular attention to clothing creation and a refined final presentation in Unreal Engine 5.

In this article, I’ll share the full process behind Renji, covering the artistic and technical decisions that shaped the character from the early stages to the final presentation.

Concept & Personality

Renji is a Japanese gangster character created as a personal character study. The goal was to design someone stylish and confident, but intentionally tacky: a man who takes care of his appearance while conveying fatigue, danger, and a sense that he should not be underestimated.

His suit is relatively restrained and elegant, while the brightly coloured suspenders and shiny floral shirt reveal his loud, excessive taste. His expression communicates someone who is tired of his routine, yet still dangerous.

The intention was to create a character who looks as though he is thinking, “Well, another day of being a gangster,” while remaining someone nobody should bother.

Goals

Before starting, I set several clear goals for this project:

• Build a character that feels believable within the visual language of Japanese gangster fashion, avoiding generic archetypes.
• Achieve a natural, non-stiff clothing simulation that balances elegance with a deliberately flashy aesthetic.
• Push my skills in XGen and Unreal Engine 5.
• Explore a cleaner, more restrained type of character presentation, moving away from the heavily weathered and damaged surfaces I often work with.

References

Like any character project, nothing can begin without strong references. I gathered real-world references in PureRef for each element of the design.

I looked specifically at Japanese male head references to guide the facial proportions and structure, as well as references for hairstyles, facial features, and overall attitude.

These references helped define the silhouette, the clothing combination, the slicked-back hairstyle, and the crucial balance between elegance and excess.

Blockout

This stage is crucial, as it allows me to visualize the character’s overall proportions and silhouette clearly. I began with a raw blockout in ZBrush to establish the body proportions and the relationship between the character and his main assets.

Once the proportions felt right, I moved on to Marvelous Designer to start developing the outfit, ensuring the foundational shapes were solid.

Cloth Simulation

The entire outfit was created in Marvelous Designer. Renji wears a classic Japanese gangster-style suit: a shirt, chino trousers, and a jacket.

My workflow focused on achieving a natural posture. The most challenging part was fitting the jacket correctly. I needed the garment to sit convincingly on the body without looking stiff, forced, or unnatural.

Sculpting & Facial Expression

I started with a base mesh, but its initial features were not a good fit for the character. I gradually reshaped it using my Japanese male head references, working primarily with the Move brush in ZBrush to adjust the proportions and facial structure until I had a result I was happy with.

For the expression, I wanted to balance fatigue with an underlying sense of menace. He should not look defeated, but rather like someone who has seen enough and is best left alone.

Hair

I created the hair using XGen and exported it as an Alembic cache. For the hairstyle, I aimed for the classic slicked-back look associated with a confident, stylish gangster.

The main challenge was making it read as intentionally well-groomed rather than simply styled backwards. I focused on controlling the direction, volume, and flow of the hair so that it felt deliberate and consistent with Renji’s polished appearance.

Retopology & UVs

I created the topology in TopoGun, following a standard game-character workflow to ensure clean edge flow, especially around the joints.

I then created the UVs in RizomUV, focusing on clean, efficient layouts that would maximize texel density and work well for baking and texturing.

Baking

Once the UVs were ready, I generated the bakes in Marmoset Toolbag.

I polished any remaining artifacts or seams in Photoshop before moving into the texturing phase.

Head Texturing

For the head, I used textures from a TexturingXYZ head pack and darkened them slightly in Photoshop.

In Substance Painter, I painted veins in selected areas, including around the nose, ears, and under the eyes. To reinforce the tired expression, I added vascular details beneath the eye bags, giving the gaze more depth and fatigue.

I also painted small white blemishes in that area to suggest slightly worn, mature skin. Finally, I painted scalp textures on both the head and beard to help the hair appear denser and create a smoother transition between the skin and the groom.

Outfit Texturing

Texturing the outfit was an exercise in restraint. Most of my previous work involves worn, damaged, or weathered materials, so I was concerned about becoming typecast.

My goal was to create clothing that looked clean and believable without feeling artificial: a realistic finish, but still flashy and intentionally tacky.

I worked heavily with roughness to give the fabrics a freshly cleaned appearance. I added subtle sweat in areas such as under the arms, along with darker colour transitions where the shirt met the suspenders or the trousers.

For the leather elements, I deliberately avoided excessive wear so they would retain a more polished look.

Look Dev & Lighting

Since Renji is a practice character, I wanted to keep the presentation sober and focused entirely on the character itself. I decided not to create a full environment, as I did not want the setting to compete with him or distract from the character work.

I presented the final character in Unreal Engine 5. I used a simple black backdrop and focused on dramatic lighting, particularly on the face.

The lighting was designed to reinforce his tired expression and give the portrait more depth, while keeping the overall presentation clean and cinematic. For the hair in the engine, I used a MetaHuman hair shader.

Conclusion

This project helped me grow in every direction as an artist. It allowed me to improve several parts of my workflow, especially hair and clothing creation, as well as my work in Unreal Engine.

It also pushed me to explore a cleaner, more restrained type of character presentation, moving away from the heavily weathered and damaged surfaces I often work with.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my process, and thank you for taking the time to follow the journey.

A huge thanks to Ankit Garg and Zombie Art School for their invaluable guidance throughout the mentorship.

Thank you as well to the GamesArtist team for giving me the opportunity to share this article. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on any social platform.

Thank you,
Guillermo.