Behind the Scenes: Pennywise By Alina Khan on January 31, 2025 Behind the Scenes Bennie, a self-taught 3D artist from South Africa, shares how he brought Pennywise to life using Blender, blending creativity and technical skill to craft this iconic character.INTRODUCTIONHello everyone,My name is Bennie, and Im a self-taught 3D artist, born and raised on South African soil. I live in a country rich in history, racial diversity, language, and culture, filled with African wildlife and breathtaking landscapes such as bushvelds, grasslands, forests, majestic mountain peaks, beaches, and coastal wetlands.I developed a love and passion for character art at a very young agepreschool, to be exact. Throughout my adolescence, I sketched various types of characters almost every day. However, after graduating high school, I had to face the challenges of adult life. During this time, my passion for sketching characters began to diminish, as I was too occupied and exhausted from working and building a life with my late wife.Years later, a former colleague who knew about my sketching abilities introduced me to Blender. My first encounter with Blender was with version 2.5 Beta in 2010. Unfortunately, online tutorials at the time were rather limited and lacked the comprehensiveness they offer today.The first thing I wanted to learn was whether I could create character art using Blender. One day, while browsing the web, I came across a YouTube video by Kent Trammell, where he sculpted a male torso. That video reignited my passion for creating character art in Blender.I became a hungry 3D artist, eager to master human anatomy courses. This led me to discover my favorite 3D artist, Rafael Grassetti. I purchased Rafaels male and female anatomy courses, which remain gold standards to this day. Although Rafael primarily uses ZBrush, his workflows and sculpting techniques can be effectively applied to Blender as well.Apart from character design, I wanted to master all the workflows in the 3D pipeline so that one day I could create my own short movies. I became a citizen member of CG Cookie, and it was through their foundational courses that I began achieving my goals. These comprehensive courses allowed me to elevate my skills to levels I had never imagined. My favorite course from CG Cookie, even to this day, is Piero by Kent Trammell.I started setting goals for myself and committed to daily practice. I immersed myself in learning theories, terminologies, and the fundamentals of the entire 3D pipeline. Day after day, year after year, I continued to hone my craftand I havent stopped since I began.Today, I can proudly attest to the hard work I invested all those years ago. Was the journey smooth? Of course not. There were moments when I almost gave up on myself, overwhelmed by the complexity of Blender and the pressures of the outside world.But one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to excel in Blender. I embraced the challenges because giving up simply wasnt an option. Art doesnt just bring joy and happiness to my lifeit also serves as a therapeutic medium for self-expression.Now that Ive introduced myself, lets shift gears. How did I go about creating this character, Pennywise? Please join me as I share some of the insights behind my creative process.INSPIRATIONAll of my inspirations are rooted in the shows, movies, video games, and comics I enjoyed during my childhood. The inspiration for this particular piece struck me shortly after watching IT: Chapter II. I always try to level up my abilities when it comes to creating new projects. The great thing about evolving as a 3D artist is that you can always return to old projects and create revised versions.Here is an example of such a test I did on myself The Ring of Power (created in 2012 but uploaded in 2017) The Ring of Power (2021) PROCESSCollecting & Studying ReferencesThe first and most obvious step was to collect references. I used PureRef to manage my artboard. To get a better understanding of the characters likeness, I watched certain scenes from the movie several times to study muscle structure and flow. Once I was confident enough, I launched Blender and started a new file. The objective I had for this project was to create a mix between realistic and stylized, not aimed at likeness.Sculpting the HeadThe first step I took was activating Sculpting from Blenders Splash Screen.I manipulated the default sphere by sculpting primary details with a voxel size of 0.350 until I had an acceptable shape. Afterwards, I sculpted secondary details by changing the voxel size from 0.350 to 0.01. When I create character busts, I always start with the head. This gives me a clear perspective on deciding how the rest of the characters body will flow. For full-body character sculpts, I use spheres to block out the characters shape and form. Sometimes I use a skin modifier, depending on the type of character Im creating. Here is an example of such a workflow.Creating a Production-Friendly Mesh (Retopology)After I had completed the head sculpture, I proceeded to the retopology phase. I used a paid add-on called Quad Remesher to calculate the meshs density and transform it into a clean mesh with a decent topology flow. Ill be honest, I love creating manual topology using RetopoFlow, but I was too tired that day, which is why I chose to use Quad Remesher instead.Baking Texture MapsOnce the retopology was finalized, I added some seams and did a manual unwrap. The only texture maps I baked were Color (painted in sculpt mode), Ambient Occlusion, and Normal. Baking texture maps, as far as memory serves, can only be done in Cycles Render Engine. Here is a 3-minute tutorial on how to bake texture maps from a high-poly object to a low-poly object. Once the texture maps were baked, I started to apply them to the low-poly model. To conclude the characters face, I modeled his eyes and teeth.Creating HairFor his hair, I used the old method of using a Particle System. I have experimented with hair in the Asset Browser, but I still prefer the particle system. One day I will eventually transition, but for now, Im too comfortable with it.One thing to note is that when you create a particle system for hair, it is ideal and practical to select the affected areas that will contain hair in vertex mode and then duplicate that mesh. In my case, I did not follow this method. I created a particle system directly on the characters scalp, which is incorrect. However, since this was not a project for a client, I wasnt too worried about it.For an in-depth tutorial on creating hair using the new Asset Browser, please refer to this link:Creating the CollarHis collar was the most fun to create. I always enjoy playing around with cloth simulations. I started by adding a circle, extruding it once, and then subdividing it a few times to add more geometry. I then selected the inner circle and assigned it to a new vertex group. The vertex group that was applied held the inner circle in place, acting in a passive state while the rest of the vertices were affected by the simulation. For collision, I created a fake torso.After several simulations and mesh tweaks, the cloth modifier was then applied. I duplicated the simulated mesh by two and started placing them in a perpendicular position. Afterwards, I applied a solidify modifier to add some thickness.So, with sculpting, modeling, and the hair particles system out of the way, I finally reached a concluding result.Depth of FieldFor depth of field, I used an Empty object as my focus to drive the depth of the scene. Nothing to note here, just a simple setup.LightingFinally, at this point, I reached the most important part of the project lighting. I only used 2 lights here (Point Lights) instead of a 3-point lighting setup. I didnt want sharp shadows, so I adjusted the radius of the light to make the shadows softer. I created a cold and warm light with a value of 20,000 25,000 watts.World & VolumeFor the world, I used the default settings but made a few tweaks to the volume to add a fog-like appearance.Shaders & MaterialsThe shaders and materials that were compiled consisted of simple node networks. Below is a list of each.Head Eyes (Sclera) Eyes (Pupil) Eyes (Iris) Teeth Hair Collar Final render before compositing with volume disabled.Volume disabledFinal render before compositing with volume enabled.Volume enabledCompositingFor compositing, Ill include a step-by-step node setup, including the render result for each, which led to the final composition.Denoise, Diamond Sharpen and RGB Curves:Color Balance and Brightness/Contrast:Grunge Image, RGB Curves, Mix Color(Multiply) and Lens Distortion:Ellipse Mask, Blur, Mix Color(Multiply), Hue/Saturation and Composite.And that was it!RENDER: Pennywise On a final note, I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read. I hope that some of the information presented was of value and assistance.Take care!About the Artist Bennie Griffin is a 3D Generalist from South Africa. He is known for creating character art and props for 3D printing. Links