3D Models
3D Print Models
3D Scans
Animation & MoCap
Textures
Materials
Skin Textures
2D Game Assets
Sound Effects
Brushes & Tools
Reference Photos
Stock Images
HDR Images
3ds Max
Maya
Blender
Unreal Engine
Unity
ZBrush
Cinema 4D
LightWave
Marmoset
SketchUp
FBX
DAE
DXF
GLBBehind the Scenes : Fire Keeper Ishtolia
0Article by Mania Carta
Hello everyone! My name is Mania Carta (.). I am a Blender artist, CEO and Founder of sandstorm studio, company based in Tokyo, Japan. I have worked in many game titles and productions, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Fantasian, Valkyrie Profile and many other upcoming game titles that will be released soon in the market.
When making characters it can be fantasy, realistic, cell shading or any style. I use Blender as my main tool. I have been using Blender since Blender 2.8 was released. From that moment, my adventure as a Blender artist started.
Inspiration
Since Elden Ring was released I was mesmerized by the creativity, look design, the ambience, atmosphere and gameplay. I played the game for one week and finished and after seeing the quality and fidelity of the visuals I decided to make something similar but in Blender. Because I have played Dark Souls, Demon Souls and Bloodborne my favorite masterpiece, I was thinking to create something dark. Then I was thinking to use fire keep Ishtolia as my main visual. I am not sure why she was my main subject for the production but I felt she didn't have so much value and especially visual aesthetic in Dark Souls. So I decided to make her. Since then I gather a lot of images and references using Puref. This help give me an overall look and atmosphere feeling how I would make such project.
Inside Puref
Process and Breakdown
Regarding the process of making Ishtolia, you may be familiar with it, if you have used Lego when you were a kid. Well, I am such an artist that I really don't have one direction to follow-up, but already have the final image in my mind on what I want to make, like making Lego.
My main production tool was Blender only, for Ishtolia my base character design was developed first using base rough mesh, then I sculpted and give it more anatomical shape to get the look I want. Also I created her helmet using base modeling so I can feel the firekeeper design based on the reference gathered. In Blender there is a cool matcap that can be used for sculpting as you can use cavity in the viewport to enhance and see the details of the sculpt.
Then I exported the sculpted model inside Character Creator where I modified the shape using sculpting and morphs, give it a rough texture and pose to see the character look. But then I changed almost everything after exporting it back to blender because I wanted her more beautiful especially for face close-up shots. Character Creator is good to speed up the character process but it really couldn't give me the fire keeper look I was going for and especially her beauty, so I decided to import the base character and made her final look in Blender instead.
INSIDE REALLUSION CHARACTER CREATOR
Reallusion is a well known company in the market and it helps artists like me and others boost their creativity using their technology but still it lacks that aesthetic I was looking for as I feel all their characters look like barbie dolls and don't have soul yet, but still it helps speed up the process.
Inside Blender
Clothes development
For the clothes I used a very cool add-on called Simply Cloth Pro. It helps you create a garment and shape it to the look you want, same as marvelous designers. It's also the one that helped me create her base outfit at the first stage of clothing.
Once you press simulation you get the same look in the asset library as realistic clothes folding but still you need to sculpt it and shape it to get the final look style.
Texturing
I use this powerful add-on called PBR painter. If you are using Substance Painter then it's the same workflow. I also like Substance Painter and it's very nice tool to use for shading and realtime texturing, but I really didn't want to jump to other software. So I wanted to find a solution to take the challenges and make high quality texturing and shading of Ishtolia inside Blender only. Texture xyz also helped me in the process especially her nose and mouth, so when creating the projection in her face I could extract all RGB channels then create her roughness map and specular by using shading network and then later I will merge everything into one full node and control it with sliders.
Accessories
Ishtolia necklace was made using spline curve then I used this cool add-on called Hardops when selecting the curve, so you can adjust the curve shape. It really speed up the process of making curves, ropes, chain, etc.
As for the helmet it was made with a base modeling shape. Then using multires modifier to create high detail sculpt. After that I used this cool add-on called Bystedts Blender Baker, so you can bake any PBR texture to normal, curvature, ao, displacement without even jumping to another baking software.
Hair production
Ishtolia hair was made using hair particles and based curve spline. If you are familiar with Xgen then it's the same flow. I wanted her hair to look cool but due to Blender lacked the hair system before I wanted to achieve better hair style in realtime. But now as the hair system evolved in Blender I think I will create new hair style for the next reveal.
For the braid part with the same principle, make a curved spline then you shape the hairstyle you want.Then with the hair completed, I created a base hair shader that can work for Eevee in real time.
And then I set up a quick light, shading and camera to see how Ishtolia looks like, as I was aiming for that dark touch look.
Rigging
In the process I wanted to pose Ishtolia and not just keep it in A-pose as it's boring, so I used Rigify. It's a cool add-on built-in inside Blender with a lot of features to make any character rig fast, but also useful for facial expressions.
Shading
This is the main work as I was focusing on realism in realtime and mostly for close-up shots. I could use Cycle render and give her more realism but I wanted to take the risk to make it in realtime and for that I created my own shading network with some procedural shading to change any skin look, give it a detail and not only plug PBR textures like in Marmoset Toolbag. Blender gives you the freedom to create any procedural network and create group input and output with some math nodes to create a more complex shading network. Then with using only a few sliders you can create any skin detail. When making such procedure, Blender is like a Lego puzzle for me.
Lighting
Lighting is the soul of any production it can be character, environment, anything and with one point light I can feel if my character design is giving that dark look I want or not. Shading is another key element and basically they are both connected, and if the shading is simple then the final result will look dull and not goot to the viewer. The key to any high quality characters is using PBR textures and procedural shading. Blender is so powerful with that and you can see every texture element on the fly. Now you need to use an add-on to show your images in the shadow node editor and it's called node preview. Also, you need the node wrangler to switch any texture on the fly and see it in the viewport when working.
Once I am satisfied with the look I save a Blender file of Ishtolia only as it will be append in a new scene with knight Lorian and the environment that I will make.
Making of Knight Lorian
The process workflow was the same as making Ishtolia, so everything was build using base shape and forms to make the armor chest, helmet, straps, belt, etc. Then I created high quality sculpt to get the normal map.
Because Lorian has armor, leather and metal I used this cool add-on called realtime material to speed up the process of materials.
Here is a tip for anyone who want to use Blender for their own projects. If you want to really master this tool and use it as full potential, use add-ons. There are a lot of that if you will check them you will forget your name and get headache. But it's really worth it, because it will speed up not only your workflow, but the time of making anything will be so fast that no other tool is capable of doing in it.
After I am satisfied with Lorian LookDev I saved it in it's own Blender file, the same as Ishtolia.
Environment, Lighting and Atmosphere
Now here is the real fun part and it was really worth it to go behind all those steps to achieve the final look and mood I wanted.
Characters without an environment and just showcasing it in different camera views is boring over time. So I wanted to take a challenge to create a full realtime environment within Blender and make it feel like you are inside a real game cinematic. And for that I used different tools and techniques, so I will explain a bit the workflow behind it.
As I saved Ishtolia and Lorian file, I imported them both using append, so I could check the pose and visual shot of how both characters will work together by adding a simple floor as cylinder shape.
Then I start to gather kitbash elements, and other stuff to speed up the process. But when I was looking for an example of the magic circle ornament in the floor I created an alpha image. Then within Blender you can convert it to vector using 2D mode and then convert it to mesh and make it polygonal. Then using extrude and bevel modifier to get the final look.
Candles
The candles are basic modeling shape with simple shading albedo, sss, roughness and normal map. The key here, was to control them all so they was used as instance elements in the firelink shrine, so I could only modify my candle element, change color, make it glow then all other candles will behave the same and this is so powerful tool. If you are using blueprint and components in unreal engine then it's the same workflow.
Also, what help me speed up the process of making realistic environment was Quixel Bridge. It's the best tool to get high quality details such as rocks on the spot, but you need to use add-on to import it properly and it's called Megascan plugin.
Final touch
After the whole scene start to take shape and that dark visual start to show, I felt something was really missing and it was adding grass, rocks, ferns, etc. And for that I used this cool add-on called Botanic. You can create anything with it when it comes to making trees, grass, fern, rocks, vines, etc.
It's really fast and you can create collections, instance everything in the scene and change anything in realtime and the result is realistic and it gives nice touch to the environment. The key to making cool environment is making the imperfections, but still for some final touch fog cards can be added, but I prefered to make it in the post.
Final composite
For the final touch I take the final visual to Photoshop for adding text and final color grading to the final artworks.
Ishtolia project that was released it's only a small preview of what is really coming. My goal wasn't really making images and cool rendering, but there is something far beyond that and Ishtolia the one hiding behind her helmet, I have already created her with here beauty look and it will be revealed soon without her helmet and more cool stuff.
I would like to thank Renderhub for giving me such a kind opportunity to share my experience and the breakdown of the Fire Keeper Ishtolia. So you can know more about the process and how she was made. I hope this breakdown can help other artist learn from it and use such a workflow in their projects or for people who want to move to Blender.
