Free Preview – Hand-Painted Character with 2D look Maya NPR Arnold

What’s inside this FREE PREVIEW:
This is not the full course — just a sneak peek to show how it all begins.
You’ll find the first units of the full workflow, including:

• Intro to the project and concept
• First steps in Zbrush
• Early thoughts on style, shape, and design

If you'd like to keep going with the rest of the process, there's more content available for those interested in diving deeper! :)

I’ve been exploring more graphical and painterly styles in Maya. My previous piece, Zuko, was a full character, but this time I wanted to try something more graphical and experimental.
The idea was simple: take the first cool concept I found on Pinterest — literally the first one — and turn it into 3D without overthinking it.

The model started from a Dynamesh sphere in ZBrush, hand-painted in Substance Painter, and rendered with Arnold.
The goal: blend the feel of 2D illustration with 3D structure, using dynamic lighting and painterly textures.

The full course is 26 units, where I go step by step through everything I did to reach the final result, from the sculpting, texturing, uvs, shading hypershade, dynamic light, and 2D animation.

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Explore the full gallery and the full course:

- ArtStation 4K images: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0lDEPe

- Course page: https://courses.manisalguero.com/products/courses/npr-sketch