Venusaur

Project Goals

My primary specialization is Character Art, but early last year I started to do more 3D projects based on Pokémon fan art, focusing especially on stylized and highly hand-painted versions of the original designs.

The concept I chose for Venusaur was designed by Greyson Zoske, who created amazing fan art of Kaiju-like versions of the three final evolution stages of the Kanto starters.

I already adapted one (Blastoise) last year, and I wanted to see how I had improved since the last time with a new and more complicated character: Venusaur. You can check out the original art here.

Software Used

• ZBrush (modelling, low and high poly)
• Blender (retopology, unwrapping, polygon reduction)
• Marmoset Toolbag (baking)
• Substance 3D Painter (texturing)
• Unreal Engine (rendering and lighting)

References

Having only one main reference, I needed to find others with different points of view to have a more comprehensive idea of his anatomy.

Fortunately, finding references for Pokémon projects is not that difficult. There is a ton of content on the internet, especially for a Pokémon that famous! That wasn’t always the case for all the Pokémon projects I did, though.

For Venusaur, I used a mix of the original 2D art, game models throughout the years, other fan art and figurines.

Blockout & Sculpting Process

I started my blocking by quickly adding all the different elements of the character. I always try to keep modelling in symmetry as long as possible so I can easily place everything.

I always try to find one central symmetrical point on which I can build my entire model, so the most important part of the project keeps its symmetrical aspect until the end (for this project, it was the X symmetry of the body/head).

I usually start creating my 3D projects with several things in mind:

• Which parts will surely need a full retopology? For example, the body, because Venusaur’s body/head is made of one block without separation and it’s the most detailed part of the project.
• Which elements can be created both in high and low poly within ZBrush using Polygroups and ZRemesher? (The leaves and petals in this case.)
• How will I need to create and sculpt my different elements to make the unwrapping quicker afterwards? (Having a full loop going around the side of the leaves, separating them in two.)
• If it doesn’t have a full turnaround as a reference, which part will need to be created entirely? And how will I adapt it so it doesn’t look odd compared to the part shown in the reference?

I model both high and low poly elements, hard surface or not, using ZBrush for most of my projects. I start with simple primitives, shaping them roughly, and quite early in the process I use Masks and Polygroups to create details and more complex structures.

For hard surface parts, I use the ZModeler brush, which is full of possibilities and very handy for designing clean shapes quickly.

I followed roughly the same process to create the foliage and petals of the flower. The main difference was that the flower was very asymmetrical compared to the rest of the character in the original concept.

Here is a quick video to explain my process for the foliage:

High Poly

To sculpt the details on the head, the body or the inside of the mouth, I used a mix of Orbcrack brushes, ClayBuildup, Move brush, Pinch, Standard brush and DamStandard.

I wanted to really focus on the detail of the mouth and face, and on the many wrinkles Venusaur has.

For the back, I really tried to push the effect of him being a very heavy creature on much too small legs, to give the feeling that most of the mass kind of crushes those tiny legs.

The flower and leaves didn’t have as many details as the body, so I focused on getting clean shapes with a good mix of smooth and hard surfaces.

For the trunk, I decided to put all the triangular shapes only on the high poly so I could have a lighter mesh, considering that it was mostly hidden by the petals and leaves.

Retopology & Unwrap

I know my way around Maya for retopology, but I prefer using Blender now, mostly because I already unwrap and reduce my meshes in Blender, so it’s easier to use a single piece of software to centralize this important step of my process.

The goal was not necessarily to do a game-ready character in terms of polycount. However, I always try to keep my characters under 100K tris and to have clean topology as if they were destined one day to be rigged and animated.

I always try to have clean topology very early in my process, so I don’t spend too much time on retopology, which is a very time-consuming task.

In this project, I did retopology on the body and the central part of the pistil. The other low polys were made first with ZRemesher and Polygroups in ZBrush, and then polycount reduction was done directly in Blender.

UV & Baking

I prefer to use Blender for UVs: it’s handy because it has three different kinds of unwrap, offering different possibilities depending on the shape of what you are unwrapping.

A little tip to get more space on your UV map: if you have elements that can be mirrored on your mesh, unwrap only one side.

Add a Mirror modifier, Ctrl + A to confirm, then select your new mirrored part and go to UV Vertex in the UV panel (top left). Add 1 instead of 0 in your X or Y value (depending on the axis of your symmetry), and it will move the mirrored part outside of your UV square.

When you texture your original part in Substance, it will automatically texture the mirrored part the same way.

I always use Marmoset Toolbag to bake my textures. I really like their baking group system. It truly allows me to separate different parts of the mesh, so I have a clean Normal Map and Ambient Occlusion. The other maps usually follow if these are also clean.

A little tip for this process: I like to bake a second Ambient Occlusion. The first Ambient is set to two-sided and “Ignore Groups” is unchecked, and the second is set to one-sided with “Ignore Groups” checked.

This allows me to have 2 different AOs so I can bounce between the two when I want a particular part to be darker or lighter while texturing. Don’t forget to uncheck “Ignore Groups” for the Bent Normal map as well.

Texturing

I like to start by putting my tone mapping in ACES because it creates shading similar to Unreal with strong contrast. I also put a standard environment, but not always the same for each project. For this one, I use Soft5daylight studio.

I always start by creating my base colour and different groups of colours first. I usually start texturing the eyes early. Having a detailed and lively gaze early in the texturing process really helps.

I always begin by adding my AO, Convexity, Curvature, Gradient, etc. before doing the hand-painting work. It creates volume in the base colour, which will help later on.

When I have something I like, I export my texture and create my scene in Unreal. I like to go into the engine very early on to see how my texture, colours and everything look even at such an early stage of texturing. I always try to start a simple 3-light scene with a background and minimal post-process effects.

Back in Substance, I use the Standard brush and play with the flow to have a smoother or harder effect. I start by putting on the main colours, and when it’s done, I add the transition colours.

I use a separate layer for highlights that are usually quite hard, and another one for very dark shadows and line art.

This character also has some hatching on his body; I chose to separate that into a single layer too. Having different paint layers allows me to modulate a lot, draw or erase things and mix different effects more harmoniously than if it were a single paint layer or two.

There was a big part of the character that I couldn’t see because I only had a single main reference, so I started my texture process with symmetry on, and I created different layers afterwards to produce asymmetry in the texturing.

For the spots or the horns, I textured them the same way as the ones I could see in the reference, but asymmetrically. I did the same thing for the flower and its different petals and leaves.

Rendering & Lighting

I always use Unreal Engine now for my renders and lighting. I used Marmoset Toolbag for several years and it’s a very useful tool in many ways, but I think there are more possibilities with Unreal, and using a game engine even for my personal projects keeps me in the full game-ready process.

In addition, there are so many possibilities with cameras, lights, post-process, etc. that it’s an endless resource to learn new things.

I have done projects with a specific plane as a background, but with this one I only had a small grass/ground asset. Other than that, Venusaur was mostly without an environment, so as usual in this kind of instance, I chose a curved plane that I kept using and changing a bit as needed.

I usually start with quite a strong directional light to create the main shadows I see in the original and to have a good reference. I usually turn it down a lot throughout the lighting process.

I like to have one top light illuminating the entire scene and especially the background. It creates a sun-like light that I can easily play with.

For this project, I also had a front light, one light to illuminate the inside of the mouth and several rim lights. I like to create some of the rim lights directly in the texture, but sometimes they are too strong, so I prefer to create them in Unreal, where I can turn them off if I want to capture another angle.

For post-process, I prefer to go with the essentials and tweak them a bit, nothing too strong. I add a bit of sharpness, bloom and some colour grading that are very powerful in Unreal. I like to set my Exposure to manual mode and change some things in the local exposure panel too.

One of the most important things to enhance the hand-painted effect is a little trick I use almost every time now. You need to go into your material, duplicate your base colour and connect it to your emissive. It will increase the colours and painterly effect.

Of course, you will need to adjust it, so I add a Multiply node. As a result, you usually need to lower most of your lights so your scene doesn’t look too bright. I used this technique for all my three maps and even a little for the background.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I’m very happy about how this project turned out, and the various positive reactions on ArtStation and other social media platforms really keep me going in practising my art. I would love to work someday on a Pokémon project or a Pokémon-like project, creating lots of creatures like that!

I really loved doing this project. Going back to that style felt very fulfilling. Can’t wait to do the last of the Kanto starters trio!

Thanks a lot to GamesArtist.co.uk for this amazing opportunity and their kindness throughout the article process.

Feel free to send me any questions or work inquiries on my socials:

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