In this workshop, Kat begins by gathering reference material and defining a clear character brief through structured questions. This preparation helps artists to get over the intimidation of a blank page and stay focused throughout the production process. By laying this groundwork, the creative decisions have clear direction, and the final piece is better positioned as a strong portfolio project that shows relevant skills and supports long-term career goals.

Duration: 5m 39s

In this lesson, Kat walks us through her initial sketching phase, an approach which helps to bridge the gap between her reference pool and the 3D production that comes later on. While 3D artists may not need highly polished concept art, developing solid 2D observational skills provides invaluable benefits for critically evaluating work throughout the entire 3D pipeline. Kats suggests establishing a clear direction for the body type and proportions before investing significant time in modeling and texturing.

Duration: 2m 36s

Moving into ZBrush for this lesson, Kat starts her 3D blockout stage, a crucial step that sets the stage for a final character model. By focusing exclusively on proportions and silhouette appeal without getting distracted by anatomical details, Kat can efficiently establish a solid base that saves significant time throughout the entire production pipeline. She also encourages the use of using base meshes in order to save time.

Duration: 6m 47s

Using the proportion block out from the previous lesson, Kat shows her process for finalizing costume design that prioritizes how concepts will translate into 3D models. She demonstrates that design refinement is an ongoing process of problem-solving, where elements like shoulder construction, cloak design, and accessories are continually adjusted based on visual logic, repeating motifs and manufacturing feasibility. The goal is achieving a locked-in core concept with clear construction guidelines before moving to 3D modeling.

Duration: 7m 19s

In this lesson, Kat returns to ZBrush to review the tools and brushes she uses in her workflow. She also covers polygroup and selection management, as well as ZModeler functions. Learning these tools helps artists control mesh topology and shape before moving to higher subdivision levels. Kat emphasizes that the best way to get proficient with ZBrush is through hands-on experimentation.

Duration: 15m 40s

With the base model and draw over complete, Kat moves to the next stage of her workflow; preparing the base meshes for the rest of her character's assets. By investing time in creating proper topology for these meshes, with good edge flow and minimal problematic poles, artists can avoid common sculpting issues while simultaneously preparing meshes that require minimal retopology later. The key here is balancing technical requirements with artistic vision, ensuring the 3D blockout maintains the silhouette and design clarity established in the concept draw over.

Duration: 28m 48s

In this lesson, Kat demonstrates successful highpoly cloth sculpting for stylized characters, balancing anatomical understanding with stylization. By identifying tension points, understanding how different fold types form and where they naturally occur, and consistently referencing real-world examples, artists can create believable yet stylized clothing. The iterative process of sculpting, evaluating, and refining is essential for achieving cohesive folds across an entire character while maintaining appropriate levels of visual complexity and rest areas.

Duration: 27m 47s

In this lesson, Kat uses her artistic judgment and technical skills to make extensive tweaks and "arty-farty" assessments to finish the highpoly character model. She shows that success comes from developing a critical eye for balance, consistency, and flow across all character elements. The next phase focuses on converting the high-poly assets into optimized low-poly game meshes with proper UVs, ready for texturing.

Duration: 34m 40s

In this lesson, Kat moves into Maya to finalize the character model and prepare it for a game pipeline. Because she used ZBrush earlier to create clean base meshes, much of the manual retopology work is minimized. She explains how using consistent naming, organized UVs, and a solid understanding of baking helps to avoid common errors and ensures high-quality texture maps. Kat emphasizes that careful technical setup, like proper topology flow and UV cuts at hard edges, is just as important as sculpting when creating production-ready assets.

Duration: 34m 36s

In this lesson, Kat shares her approach to creating stylized textures within Substance Painter. This process relies on establishing proper values and contrast first, selecting a cohesive color palette, then systematically adding depth through procedural masks and generators. Kat shows that stylized work still needs to be groundeed in real-world principles, whether that's material behavior, lighting physics, or in this example, makeup techniques. Distilling these features down to their essential elements enables artists to efficiently create rich and believable characters.

Duration: 49m 19s

In this final lesson, Kat walks us through her workflow for preparing, posing, shading, lighting, and finally setting up a project and rendering in Unreal Engine 5. While many advanced topics are introduced quickly, Kat says the most crucial takeaway is maintaining perspective on your work; avoiding getting lost in details at the expense of fundamental elements, like proportions, rhythm and values. Kat encourages artists to make sure they properly showcase the elements of their characters with extensive breakdowns.

Duration: 58m 22s