Ultimate character creation in Blender From beginner to pro by Monica Chavez

Welcome to the “Ultimate character creation in Blender: From beginner to pro”.

In this course we will be using the open-source 3D software, Blender, to learn how to model, texture and rig 3D characters with a professional look.

We will start by getting an overview of the Blender interface, so we can get familiar with it and with all the tools that will be needed for the development of the course. We will get to know all of the very basics, how to navigate around the viewport, manipulate objects on the scene and learn some shortcuts so we can work more efficiently with the software.

When we finish getting the quick run-through of the Blender basics, we will actually start creating some characters. Our first approach to 3D modeling will be by using the box modeling technique which will allow us to model a hard-surface character, we will be using reference images and some primitive 3D shapes to create a Robot.

Then we will create our second character which is a Mouse. Here we will be using the polygon modeling technique which lets us model organic characters.

For our last and biggest project we will be creating a human character. We will use two techniques, the polygon modeling and the curves modeling method. We will make sure to work with the proper edge-flow for animation and we will model the face, body, hands, feet, hair, clothes and shoes, all from scratch.

When we finish modeling the human, we will continue by unwrapping all of the parts of the character creating its UV maps, so we can texture it later. For the shading phase, we will learn different methods that we can use to create materials, such as painting textures in other digital painting softwares, applying textures found in the internet, creating and applying PBR maps, creating procedural textures and using Blender’s own Texture Paint tool.

Later on, we will continue with the rigging section. We will be able to create a facial rig using shape keys, bones with drivers and constraints, so our human character can get some facial expressions. Then we will create the body rig by adding bones and following the right method to make them move, we will understand the difference between forward and inverse kinematics and we will be using controllers that will let us pose the character. Afterwards, we will give the bones a nicer look so the rig turns more appealing and intuitive to use.

Lastly, we will assign automatic weights from the rig into the mesh and we will also learn how to paint weights manually with the Weight Paint tool within Blender, so we can change the influence of the bones according to our needs.

In the end, when all of that is done, we will be able to pose our character and we will be ready to use our human character for animation purposes!

So, if you want to be able to create your own 3D characters for animation, this is the right course for you!

By the end of the lessons, you will be completely trained and will have all the necessary skills to build your own characters in Blender.