The Project
A hyper-realistic 3D character sculpt of RuPaul, created as part of the Digital Media Publishing module at Glasgow Caledonian University. The project followed a full character-art production pipeline from initial blockout through sculpting, retopology, UV layout, texturing, and final presentation in Marmoset Toolbag.
The Goal
To push my digital sculpting skills by capturing the likeness of a real person, while developing a deeper understanding of the character-art workflow - from ZBrush blockout to real-time rendering.
My Responsibilities
Digital sculpting
Retopology
UV unwrapping
Texturing
Lighting & rendering
Software & Pipeline
ZBrush
Maya
3ds Max
Substance Painter
Marmoset Toolbag
Blender
Photoshop
Credits
Digital Media Publishing module, Glasgow Caledonian University, 2025.
Final Images
01
The project began with a ZBrush blockout using a base head mesh. The initial phase focused on establishing correct proportions and the overall silhouette before committing to detail. Reference images were gathered to capture RuPaul's likeness from multiple angles.
With primary forms locked in, sculpting moved to secondary shapes - refining the brow ridge, cheekbones, jawline and nose bridge. DynaMesh was used early on for freedom of form, then the mesh was ZRemeshed to create cleaner topology for further detailing.
02
Using Maya’s Quad Draw tool, a clean retopologised mesh was built over the high-poly sculpt. Careful attention was given to edge-loop placement around the eyes, mouth and nose to support deformation and maintain likeness at lower subdivision levels.
UV unwrapping followed, with seams placed along natural contours - behind the ears, along the hairline and under the jaw. The layout was checked for consistent texel density to ensure even texture resolution across the final bake.
03
Tertiary details - skin pores, fine wrinkles and micro-surface variation - were sculpted in ZBrush using alpha stamps and layers. These were baked down as normal and displacement maps ready for the texturing stage.
Texturing was carried out in Substance Painter, building up layers for the base skin tone, subsurface colour zones, roughness variation, and specular detail. The goal was to achieve a believable hyper-realistic skin shader that would hold up under close-up lighting in Marmoset.
04
The eyes were built as a separate multi-layered assembly - cornea, iris, sclera and tear duct geometry - to produce a convincing gaze. A refractive shader was applied to the cornea to capture light scatter and specular highlights realistically.
Final presentation was set up in Marmoset Toolbag using a three-point lighting rig with a soft key light and warm fill. A neutral HDRI environment provided ambient fill while keeping the focus on the sculpt’s surface quality and likeness.
Reflection
This project deepened my understanding of the full character-art pipeline - from ZBrush sculpting and retopology through to real-time rendering in Marmoset Toolbag. Capturing a likeness pushed my observational skills further than any previous work.