Stylized Character Course by Marlon R. Nunez

Want to get good at stylized characters without bouncing between ten different programs? This course walks you through the full build in ZBrush, from stylized anatomy blockout to clothes, armor, pose, and final render in Marmoset Toolbag.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Sculpt stylized head, torso, legs, and hands with correct proportions
• Refine faces for appeal with asymmetry, lips, and profile checks
• Block out hair and caps and extract clean clothes in ZBrush
• Model hard-surface shoulder plates, kneepad, and weapons in ZBrush
• Organize files, do a beauty pass, and pose for presentation
• Create UVs, Polypaint, and texture in Substance Painter
• Set up lighting and render in Marmoset Toolbag

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic familiarity with ZBrush UI and 3D navigation
• Tools: Drawing tablet, 3-button mouse
• Hardware: PC capable of running ZBrush and Substance Painter, 16GB+ RAM, dedicated GPU recommended

📝 Description

This is a straight, no-fluff production run. You start with a custom ZBrush interface and a simple blockout, then build the body piece by piece – head, torso, legs, hands. No retopo detour, no Marvelous Designer. Just sculpting.

The middle of the course is where it gets practical. You will learn how to extract a jacket, t-shirt, pants, and boots directly from the body and keep the topology usable. Same idea for hard-surface modeling – shoulder plates, kneepad, weapon – all done in ZBrush with clean shapes that read well from a distance.

Later weeks focus on what actually sells a character. You will check facial asymmetry, profile silhouette, and lip proportions, then push appeal from far, mid, and close views. After that you do a beauty pass, add small storytelling details, and get it out of that dead T-pose.

To finish, there are two bonuses. First: UVs and Polypaint in ZBrush, including fixes for common errors. Second: take those textures into Substance Painter for final maps, then light and render in Marmoset Toolbag. You get all project files, so you can compare your sculpt at every stage.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Beginners in ZBrush who want a clear start-to-finish character workflow
• Aspiring character artists building a stylized portfolio piece
• 3D artists who want to model clothes and hard-surface in ZBrush without extra software

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Marlon R. Nunez is a character artist focused on stylized sculpting and real-time presentation. His work centers on ZBrush workflows for anatomy, clothing extraction, and hard-surface props. He teaches the way he works – direct, step-by-step, with files included so you can follow every decision.

🏁 Final Result

• A finished stylized character – sculpted, clothed, armored, posed, textured in Substance Painter, and rendered in Marmoset Toolbag – ready for your portfolio.