Anatomy and Character Sculpture

日期：

20/ 4 / 2026 -   25/7/2026  Week 1- Week 14

YANG SHUO / 0384037

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media 

Anatomy and Character Sculpture

 INSTRUCTION

Exercises

In these exercises series you are to produce outputs (digital drawings and sculpting test) that demonstrates the understanding of anatomy. You will have to produce out as listed below:
  1. Skeletal studies (Human)
  2. Head Studies (Sketch and Sculpt)
  3. Muscle Studies (Sketch and Sculpt)
  4. Hands (Sketch and Sculpt)
  5. Feet (Sketch and Sculpt)
  6. Facial Expression (Sketch and Sculpt)
  7. Posture (Blockout)

Process

This exercise helped me become more familiar with basic human anatomy. I practiced body proportions, skeletal structure, muscles, the head, hands, and feet through sketching and digital sculpting. While doing these studies, I started paying more attention to how different parts connect instead of only copying the reference. It also made it easier for me to understand the overall form when sculpting later.

Fig 1.1 Human Body Generalization Practice



Fig 1.2 Human Bone Practice

During the skull practice, I realized that this was my weak point. I didn't have a good understanding of the skull structure, which caused some difficulties for me when modeling the subsequent human characters.

Fig 1.3 Practice on human skull structure
Fig 1.4 Practice in Modeling Human Skull Structure


The following are exercises for the muscles, face, hand and feet.

Fig 1.5 Practice on human skull structure
Fig 1.5 Facial Practice 

Fig 1.6 Hand structure exercises


Fig 1.7 Feet structure exercises


Final Output：


    Project 1

    You are to utilize your character design to create a stylized character block-out, where you have to demonstrate anatomy studies applied in your digital sculpting. Characters can be human, any form of bipedal creatures, or hybrid or quadrupeds. Sculpture should capture the listed components below:
    1. Proportion
    2. Character identity and believability
    3. Theme
    4. Readable silhouette
    5. Identical Landmarks
    6. Initiated Style 
    7. Muscle Flow

    Process

    I first established the character's body proportions before designing the costume. Since she is a 16–17-year-old girl, I wanted her to have a slender build with soft body lines while keeping the anatomy believable. After deciding the body shape, I developed a marching band uniform inspired by European ceremonial uniforms and modern school marching bands.
    Fig 2.1 Moodboard

    Fig 2.2 Character Design - The Girl of the Guard Corps

    Fig 2.3 Color scheme for  the character 

    The biggest challenge at this stage was improving the face without losing the overall proportions. I think the most challenging part lies in the structure of the lips and ears. I compared references repeatedly and refined the eyes, nose, lips, and ears step by step instead of changing everything at once. This helped the face look cleaner and more natural.

    Fig 2.4 Face Refinement #1

    Fig 2.5 Face Refinement #2


    For the body, I was unsure whether I should sculpt clear muscle definition. Since my character is designed as a teenage girl, I decided to keep only the general muscle flow instead of adding prominent muscle masses. This allowed the body to remain believable while maintaining a softer and more stylized appearance.


    Fig 2.6 Muscle Flow

    The connection between the hips and thighs looked unnatural at first. I studied the relationship between the pelvis and upper legs, then adjusted the volumes from different angles until the transition became smoother. 

    As shown in the picture, this is not a realistic sculpture, so the structure looks Weird.


    Fig 2.7 Thigh and Hip Structure (Example of Error)


    Hands were one of the most difficult parts because every finger affects the overall shape. I started with simple cylinders to establish the proportions, then refined the joints, finger lengths, and thumb position step by step.

    Fig 2.8 Thigh and Hip Structure (Example of Error)

    The final body matches the proportions I wanted and fits the character design quite well. I kept the body slim and only showed the basic muscle flow to suit a teenage girl. There are still some parts, especially the shoulders, hips and hands, that feel a little stiff. Further in the project process, improvements are still needed.

    Fig 2.9 Body modeling


    Final Output：

    Project 2

    You are to continue with the previous sculpture from Project 1 for further enhancement. You may add sufficient details and textures to the character sculpt by utilizing thorough studies of anatomical principles. Details should enhance the character's persona, adding a visual narrative to the output. Below is the list of components to be achieved in this project:
    1. Character Persona
    2. Skin Details
    3. Scars and bumps
    4. Creases 
    5. Color implementation
    6. Light setup
    7. FINAL RENDER

    Process

    Based on the sculpt from Project 1, I started adding the costume, hair, and accessories to make the character identity clearer. I also refined the proportions so the body still matched the image of a 16–17-year-old marching band girl instead of becoming too mature.

    First, the sculpting of the hair. I started by using Extract to create a basic hair shape that matched the head. After that, I used the Curve Tube Brush to build larger hair strands and adjust their direction and layering. Once the overall silhouette was finished, I refined the surface by carving subtle grooves and raised areas to suggest the flow of the hair. This workflow made it easier to control both the overall volume and the smaller details.

    Fig 3.1-3.3 The process of sculpting hair


    One challenge was deciding where to place the folds. I studied real clothing and followed the direction of gravity and the tension created by the body. Instead of adding folds everywhere, I only placed them around areas that naturally bend or are pulled, such as the waist, sleeves, and skirt.

    The professor's feedback to me stated that the wrinkles on the clothes were of varying densities, combining sharpness and softness. So I went to Pinterest to find reference images of suit pleats, studied them and revised my design.

    Fig 3.4 The carving of clothing folds #1

    Fig 3.5 The carving of clothing folds #2


    I added simple skin details and focused more on color variation than strong textures. Slightly darker tones were painted around the eyes, knees, elbows, and shadow areas to make the skin look less flat while keeping a soft appearance.

    Fig 3.6 Facial and skin details

    After completing the main parts of the character, I adjusted the overall proportions and checked the model from different angles. At this stage, my focus was on making sure the clothing, hair, and body worked well together before moving on to surface details, colors, and rendering. This model served as the base for the final polishing in the next stage.

    Fig 3.7 Character body sculpture
    Fig 3.8 Overall carving of the character

    Final Output：

    Final Project

    You are to finally polish your character, Cleanup and retouch your sculpt accordingly with an appealing posture that represents character personality clearly. Character to have props that will further support characters persona and adds visual narrative of its nature. Sculpture should stand on a platform and retopoed. Lighting to be further enhanced and final renders to then be retouched in photoshop or ad digital painting tool. Below are the required breakdowns list:
    1. Collective shots rendered to show components in details
    2. Final render to be polished and presented on a potrait sized image. Printable high res. 
    3. Final poster with appealing layout.
    4. Baked texture sheet 
    5. Projection to low-poly model 
    6. Character turntable

    Process

    Based on the previous model, I refined the costume by adding more decorative details. I sculpted gold trims around the clothing and designed an embroidered pattern on the back to make the uniform look richer while keeping the original marching band style.

    Fig 4.1 Embroidery details

    I sculpted the marching hat and refined the surface details of the accessories. Following my lecturer's feedback, I added subtle bends and wrinkles to the boots, hat, and other props so that they would look more like real materials instead of hard plastic.


    Fig 4.2 The detailed engraving of the hat

    Fig 4.3 The detailed engraving on the boots
    I further refined the character's face by adding eyelashes, freckles, and dimples. Instead of using a single skin tone, I painted subtle color variations around the eyes, cheeks, lips, and shadow areas. These small changes made the facial features look richer and gave the face more depth.

    Fig 4.3 The refinement of facial details

    After completing the sculpt, I assigned different materials to different parts of the character. Metal materials were used for the buttons and mace, while fabric materials were applied to the clothing. This helped separate the surfaces and made each part easier to read.

    Fig 4.4 The application of metal materials - walking sticks and buttons


    Before rendering, I adjusted the character's standing pose. Based on my lecturer's suggestion, I changed the position of the legs slightly to reduce the stiffness and make the character feel more natural and lively.

    Fig 4.5 Posture adjustment


    As the final step, I created a simple display platform for the character to complete the presentation. After adjusting the lighting, I rendered the model and made small touch-ups in Photoshop, mainly improving the contrast, facial details, and overall presentation.

    The final view and poster are as follows:

    Fig 4.6 Final multi-angle presentation of the characters

    Fig 4.7 Poster 


    Final Output：


    REFLECTIONS

    This semester taught me much more than how to use ZBrush. At the beginning, I spent a lot of time trying to make my model look good, but I often ignored the basic structure. After receiving feedback from my lecturer, I learned to slow down and solve problems step by step, starting with anatomy, proportions, and large forms before moving to details.

    I also realized that good character design is not only about adding more decorations. Every detail, from clothing folds to materials and colors, should support the character's identity. Sometimes I had to redo parts of the model many times, but each revision made the final result better.

    Although there are still many areas I want to improve, especially sculpting speed and surface details, I am more confident than before. This project helped me understand that patience, observation, and continuous practice are just as important as technical skills.

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