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GLBHow Francisque Facon Built a Career in 3D Character Art
0Article by Filip Radivojevic
Francisque Facon is a 3D character artist who turned a passion for games into a thriving career, contributing to industry giants like League of Legends and World of Warcraft. Known for his expertise in hand-painted textures and stylized art, he shares how self-learning, community support, and specialized training at Artside helped shape his path. In this RenderHub interview, Francisque opens up about his workflow, creative influences, and advice for aspiring 3D artists.
Origins and Influences
How did your journey into character art begin, and who or what inspired you in your early years?
I've been playing games since I was little, and during high school, I started wondering what I wanted to do in life. I thought about working in the video game industry, but since I was never really an artistic person, I became interested in game and level design. I started messing with Unreal Engine. And during that period, I was watching 3D streams on Twitch. That's when I discovered ZBrush with someone sculpting figurines there. I decided to give it a try.
From there, I got more involved in 3D by installing Maya and Substance Painter, doing some 3D modeling, and trying texturing for the first time by hand-painting my textures without thinking it would become one of my favorite workflows a few years later.
Path to the Industry
Can you walk us through your educational path and how you made the leap into professional work?
After spending a few months learning on my own, I started thinking more seriously about turning it into a career. That's when I decided to apply to an art school. I was hesitating between different ones, but decided to go for the one in my hometown.
During my second year at that school, I was really disappointed. I already knew I wanted to become a character artist. I was working on personal projects and learning on my own. I also made online friends who were actually working in the industry at that time. It helped me to realize that I needed to leave if I ever wanted to find a job.
Through my research, I discovered Artside. A French art school specializing in making art for games. They had a 3D character art online program, which was exactly what I was looking for. I enrolled and completed the program. Later, one of my teachers there, Julian Hoarau, recommended me to Envar to work on League of Legends. And that's how I got my first job working on the Summoner's Rift Season 2024 update.
Experience Working on League of Legends
You contributed to Riot's League of Legends - Arena Update. What were your main responsibilities on that project and what challenges did you face?
Working on that project was a huge team effort, but in terms of my own responsibilities, I was assigned specific assets and sections of the map to model and texture. Sometimes up to the final version, sometimes to a first pass. Back then, we were also starting to work on the swarm game mode maps, and I had to jump between both projects a few times. We went through several iterations, and some of the first assets I created had to be scrapped due to concept art changes.
As an artist doing hand-painting textures, one of the challenges I face is being able to paint and understand rendering without the help of super-polished concept art. In production, concept artists often lack the time to render everything, sometimes not even partially. Here, since the main concept art was a general overview of the map, it was quite often the case.
World of Warcraft Contribution
You worked on the Coldflame Tempest mount created for the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft. What was it like collaborating on such a legacy franchise? What unique constraints or expectations did that project have?
Working on such a franchise and on such a huge asset was amazing! I never played WoW, but I grew up playing Warcraft 2 and 3, as well as many other Blizzard games. So joining such a project was definitely a goal for me.
When I joined Dardo Studios I was under a lot of pressure because it was the first asset created under the WoW contract, and it needed to be done under a tight timeline. It was also quite complicated because when I started it, I was at the end of my League of legends contract with Envar and ended up working on both projects at the same time for a week
Regarding technical constraints, I would say that the polycount was quite challenging. I like working on low-poly models, but making a bird with all the feathers and details that come with it, makes it quite complicated. Particularly as part of an outsourcing company, because we can't make compromises if we want to meet the client's expectations on the targeted polycount. Hopefully, I was working closely with Daniel Orive, my Art director at Dardo, and he helped me a lot to figure it out.
Art Style and Workflow Choices
Your portfolio shows both hand-painted and PBR approaches. How do you decide which method best suits a project?
I would say it depends on the concept I choose and how I envision it in a game, if that's the goal. When I choose a concept art, I always try to pick a render target. Sometimes it can follow a one-to-one style from an existing game. Sometimes it can be a mix.
So if I see the character well in a MOBA or Diablo-like game, then a hand painted unlit art style will fit very well because those games have a top-down camera that doesn't require complex lighting and doesn't move the camera too close to the character.
But if you make an FPS or a 3rd person action RPG then you will prefer a PBR workflow because you will see the character closely in many angles and under different light directions. Still, making it PBR doesn't mean you can't give a hand-painted touch to the textures. Combining both styles can create a very nice result!
Tools and Pipeline
Which tools form the core of your workflow, and how do you usually move from concept to afinished character?
Depending on the project, this workflow can change. But in general, I always start my character in Zbrush. I make my retopology in Blender and do the final low poly touch-up including UVs in 3ds Max even if I'm slowly transitioning all that workflow to Blender. Then proceed to the baking in Marmoset Toolbag and texture in either Substance Painter if it's a PBR character, and/or Photoshop and 3DCoat, depending if I want my textures to be unlit or mixed with the PBR.
Overcoming Creative Blocks
During a complex project, how do you overcome moments of creative block or frustration? Are there rituals or practices you rely on to reset or find new direction?
If I'm struggling with something, I always try to look for references. There is a good chance someone has already faced the same problem. Then, depending on whether I find something or not, I just work on it. I will then try to make different quick iterations and ask for opinions on which direction is the best.
But if by any chance I'm working with the concept artist, I might ask them for a rough sketch explanation, or, if possible, a render, which can be very helpful.
Feedback, Iteration and Teamwork
How do you approach feedback and iteration when working within a studio environment? Can you share a story of a time when feedback dramatically changed your work (for better)?
Feedback and iteration are an important part of the character creation process. This is how you can push your art to the best point possible. This is also when you grow the most as an artist. Some projects are more challenging than others and require more or less of those. It can be quite tiring, and sometimes some feedback doesn't make a lot of sense, or you don't have the vision to see the reasons behind it. But in the end, working on a game and a character is always teamwork, so following feedback and welcoming it is important for the cohesion of the team.
Regarding the feedback that dramatically changed my vision, I would say it was one I got during my mentorship with Annie Kwon. I was working on a character that was not having a defined design on the back part, which is something that can happen quite a lot. While the front was following a specific shape, I was wondering how to deal with the back. Her feedback was to simply copy what was in the front and mirror it to the back while fitting to the overall silhouette. And that worked perfectly! That's something I usually try to do when I'm stuck with a non-visible part of the concept. Keeping the same shape language to the whole character will often work.
Advice for Aspiring Artists
What key advice would you give to emerging character artists who want to break into the industry?
I would advise them to join communities of all sizes. That is one of the reasons why I am where I am today. Joining communities is the best way to motivate yourself alongside other artists. It is also a great way to learn, get feedback, and progress. Join an art Discord or forum! Interact with other artists on social media. Work together with your classmate in a voice channel.
With the number of hours we spend on projects, it can isolate you quite a lot from the world and make it hard for your mental health. Isolating yourself from everyone and going into tunnel vision is the worst thing that can happen to your art.
Also, you never know with whom you will work tomorrow, and the industry is quite small. So it's always nice to end up in a team with familiar faces 
Looking Ahead
What kinds of projects or artistic directions excite you the most for the future, and how do you see your work evolving over the next few years?
I particularly love fantasy projects, so I guess it would be nice to continue in that direction. Even working someday on a Warhammer 40k project would be quite fun. I've been focusing a lot on stylized and hand-painted work so I suppose that's where I'm heading!
Right now I'm not so sure where my work will evolve. I would love to experiment with new art styles as well. I feel like stylized art has been very coded so far. And even if I love what I already do, it would be quite nice to experiment and try to create something a bit different.
Follow Francisque Facon on ArtStation, Instagram, LinkedIn and X to see more of his incredible work.
