Behind the Scenes: Iron Sentinel By Alina Khan on January 21, 2025 Behind the Scenes Dive into Yusuf Salih zdemirs creative journey as he masterfully crafts a medieval knight, blending realism and fantasy through intricate armor design, detailed texturing, and dynamic posing.INTRODUCTIONHello, Im Yusuf Salih Ozdemir (y2art). My journey into the creative world began at a very young age with graphic design, and today it has positioned me as a 3D artist. I describe myself as a 3D generalist because the effort to bring every idea in my mind to life is a constant source of happiness for me.My interest in games encouraged me to deepen my knowledge in this field, leading me to complete a masters degree in Game Design. Throughout this journey, I had the opportunity to mentor game companies in Turkiye and deliver talks at universities. Additionally, I manage the Blender Turkiye Toplulugu Discord server, which consists of over 2,000 members, where we collaborate on exciting projects together.For me, 3D art is not just a profession but also a space where I express and discover myself. Meeting new people, learning something fresh, and generating creative ideas at every step of this journey are my greatest sources of motivation.INSPIRATIONRecently, I had been focusing a lot on characters and was interested in working on armor instead of clothing, but it was just an idea. That is, until I watched The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Trailer. The knight in the trailer caught my attention so much that I immediately started working on it.PROCESSAll Stages: Concept, References (PureRef) Base Shapes, Models (Blender) High Details (ZBrush) UV Mapping (Blender) Bake, Texturing (Substance Painter) Rig, Pose, Render (Blender) Concept, ReferencesIn the initial stage, I examined various medieval outfits from many places selling them. This was an important step in gaining a deeper understanding of the clothing from that era.However, when working digitally, we have the opportunity to overlook certain details if we decide they are unnecessary. Therefore, my goal was to achieve a realistic appearance while also giving the character a slightly fantastical vibe.Base Shapes, ModelsFirst, I used the basic female model from ZBrush. Since I had previous experience with hard surface modeling, creating the armor was not difficult.After establishing the base on the character, I added the necessary modifiers to build the armor. I shaped the entire armor in this way.I completed the model, but it didn't fully satisfy me. So, I examined my references more closely and tried several alternatives to find the armor that would best convey the feeling I wanted.High DetailsAfter finalizing the armor design, I completed the entire character's armor and sword using the same technique. Then, I moved on to adding more details in ZBrush.Since the character is a knight, I aimed to give her a somewhat aggressive appearance, starting by sculpting the face. I added details like cracks and dents to the armor and applied wrinkle effects to areas like the cape.Additionally, I wanted the helmet to be removable, so I needed to incorporate details that allowed the hair and hood to open and close. Considering the character needed to be game-ready, I began creating the hair using hair cards. While I experimented with many alternative hair alphas, I ultimately chose to work with just three of them. To make the hood open and close, I applied a shape key to the head area and sculpted accordingly. This approach allowed me to complete the characters visual and functional details effectively.UV MappingDuring the UV stage, since I wanted to make this character game-ready and designed with detachable elements, I kept the texel density of the invisible parts inside the armor much lower compared to the outer sides. To avoid losing detail, I increased the number of materials. Therefore, I assigned a separate material to each part of the armor, ensuring that areas like the body, shoulder pads, shoes, etc., each had their own material.Bake, TexturingI switched to Substance Painter for texturing and performed a high-to-low bake. To easily access every part of the character, I made sure to keep both the individual pieces and the full character in a single file. After a clean bake, I began creating high-quality textures.By creating my own smart materials, I painted down to the finest details. I used "Texturing XYZ" for the detailed displacement texture on the face. However, before achieving the final result, I had to make several changes to the tattoos, colors, blood, and some minimal details.Rig, Pose, RenderI was really excited to see the final version of my character in T-pose. The next step was to add a pose and take a render. For this, I rigged the character using the ARP addon. There were some weight issues in certain areas, which I manually corrected. To add effects to the cape, I weighted half of it and applied a cloth simulation, making it responsive to wind. I actually wanted to create an animation and render a video, but although the processes I mentioned may seem short here, they took quite a bit of time. Therefore, I decided to apply a pose and take a render of my character from a nice angle.Finally, the most enjoyable part for me was the post-process. I started by adding a background, then increased the contrast and brightened the darker areas to make the details of my character stand out more. After that, I finished my project with some general touch-ups. I hope this article has answered any questions you had and inspired you as well. Your feedback is highly valuable to me; I would be happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions.RENDER: Iron Sentinel And that's it. Thank you for reading my article. I hope you have a nice day!If you have any questions or feedback, please dont hesitate to share your thoughts.About the Artist Yusuf Salih zdemir is a 3D Generalist from Turkiye. He is currently working as a Lead 3D Artist at a gaming company. Links