How I made a Game Character in Unreal Engine 5

In this video we go through the process of how to create an original game character in UE5.
Going through the full process from concepting, modeling in Zbrush & Marvelous Designer, texturing in Substance Painter and bringing it all into Unreal Engine 5.
Also, to ‪@3dscanstore‬ & Cave Academy for the amazing work they do with their easy to use and organized assets. Check out their sites for some great ready to use assets
www.3dscanstore.com/
caveacademy.com/
The Bazaar Scene
www.artstation.com/meshingun-...
#xgen #maya #autodesk #metahuman #metahumans #metaverse #zbrush #zwrap #ue5 #unrealengine #unrealengine5 #unreal #3dscan #maxon #marvelousdesigner #pureref
If you have any questions or would like any of the files for this project, shoot me a message on ArtStation or Instagram.
Big thanks to ‪@ajmw6734‬ for the beats, and my boy ‪@artofjhill‬ for the base mesh.
Join the Discord!
/ discord
www.artstation.com/frank2223
/ animarch3d
00:00 - Intro
00:10 - Concepting in PureRef
01:24 - Blocking out
05:18 - Intro to Marvelous Designer
08:20 - High res Details
10:30 - Making the Sword
12:45 - More High Res Details
13:25 - Modelling the Nose Chain
13:50 - Organizing the Low Poly & Retopo in Maya
16:40 - UV Mapping & Vertex Colour
20:50 - Starting in Substance Painter & Texturing
41:35 - Making the Hair in Xgen
44:26 - Using the Metahuman Assets
45:20 - Posing with Proxy Pose
46:23 - Starting in UE5
51:25 - Exporting the Groom
53:38 - Importing a Static Mesh
55:00 - Adding Marketplace Assets & Rendering

[@nathali2023]

Wow this is exactly what I was looking for!! I needed reassurance that this workflow is possible. Specially the bridging back and forth with unreal. The meta human stuff was AWESOME! Thank you for sharing ! You are the man !!

[@animarch3D]

Eyyyy no worries! glad it helped. Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions! would love to see what you're working on!

[@3dmutiny]

Great job on the project and such a comprehensive overview. I see a lot of work went into this. 👍

[@animarch3D]

Means the world coming from you Virtus! Legend brother, looking forward to seeing what you’re working on next.

[@raff_kash]

Awesome work! The renders came out looking super crisp!

[@animarch3D]

Thanks bro! Even though they weren't the aim of the project, its good to still have some good presentation after it! Hope you enjoy it

[@franktyler8538]

Shoutout Frank! This guy is the man 🍻

[@animarch3D]

yiieeww!

[@gliallegricompari]

Finally man, I was waiting for this video since you showed me the final render on Instagram :D

[@animarch3D]

Eyy! Sorry it took so long, it was a big one. Ill try to stay more active on here moving forward with some shorter vids and live videos. Got some cool stuff in the works! thanks for the support brother

[@bakani2218]

Wow...best recommendation by TH-cam algorithm ever!! This is Awesome.

[@animarch3D]

Brother, thank you for the kind words! Keen to keep bringing the best content I can. You the man!

[@KABOOMANIMATIONS]

So many amazing nuggets of info on this video I keep watching it back and finding something new everytime 😄😄

[@animarch3D]

Eyyy thanks! It’s so hard to pack so much into such a short video, glad you’re enjoying it!

[@tomisackmann]

Awesome work man!

[@animarch3D]

My Man! cheers brother. Really trying to up my character art game!

[@artofjhill]

💪

[@animarch3D]

Learning from the best ma man

[@gbrlima1711]

amazing content man!
I came from linkedin

[@animarch3D]

Thank you! Hope you enjoyed it

[@R9nikeR9]

Awesome work👏👏
I also want to go through the entire process for Unreal Engine, but it's too difficult. In particular, it is even more difficult because of the omitted part in the middle.
Where can I refer to learn this entire process?

[@animarch3D]

Thanks bro! When you say omitted part, not sure what you mean. If you have discord hit me up there happy to answer any questions!

[@camerongt3d198]

Sydney boi approves this video

[@elvismorellidigitalvisuala6211]

Great content!
So the character is not rigged right?
I'll have to investigate a tool called Metapipe, looks like is possible to transfer a MH rig to any face

[@animarch3D]

yoo thanks dude. Yea that's right, not rigged. I was thinking id do a separate video for externally rigging in Maya, using the metahuman skeleton. thought that deserved a video of its own haha. thanks for the support man, glad I found your channel too

[@jhonbells]

Hi there. Did you use virtual shadowmaps or cascaded shadows ? I have an issue with my character , it's retopologized and is quite low poly 28k triangles , but the shadow artifacts i get from using virtual shadow maps in project settings just breaks the character. They look like a shadow terminator problem and shadow acne and with VSMs you cant adjust shadow bias. The only way i found to fix it is to make the faces really smooth , but that takes away from the silhouette too much , or to subdivide it , but that would make it 80k triangles just for the body and i think it wouldnt make a good portfolio wireframe piece. So any tips on this issue ? How do artists render their characters in ue5 with good and low topology without showing those faceted shadows.

[@animarch3D]

Hey man, I think I understand the question. I usually soften edges in maya, and then “unlock normals” will smooth the mesh, and get rid of any bad shadowing. If you wanna send me more info on the problem or screen shots, message me on discord! Cheers

[@jhonbells]

​@@animarch3D thanks for the reply, i sent you a dm.

[@RomanTimm]

Hey, sub'd for sure!
How long do you estimate it took you from start to finish?

[@animarch3D]

Eyy thanks brother! It was on and off, probably around 8-10 weeks if it was straight through

[@animarch3D]

Hit me up in the discord if you have any other questions 👌🏼

[@CrokedWillo]

Hey Frankie nice video well put together!! Your discords' link is invalid, can you share another one? thanks man

[@animarch3D]

Ahh thanks dude! Damn I wonder how long that hasn’t been active, just updated it, check it now!

[@32bitsGame]

nice work but how do you actually make the characters do stuff, because she is just standing there looking pretty
she needs to move and blink and do more stuff

[@animarch3D]

Hey! yep so in the games industry that would be job of a rigger, not a character artist. If you were to animate this character in UE5 (sort of easily) would be to skin it to a UE5 skeleton, the use the rig inside of UE5. If you would be interested in this workflow I can do a video on it! Cheers

[@MightyHeidi]

how do you pick a poly group to extract out??

[@animarch3D]

it could be when using Zmodeller? I messaged you on Instagram if you want to chat through how i did it :)

[@MightyHeidi]

@@animarch3D thanks!!

[@SeanMaxhell]

What about the rig?

[@animarch3D]

Yea I didn’t do that part, if I was to rig, I would use the metahuman base mesh from the start, or skin and rig my own skeleton. If it’s something you’d be interested in a can do that in a another vid

[@ComicalCoconutOfficial]

so.... how do you.... START???? bro kicked off with all the assets imported. I'm trying to figure out how to HAVE stuff to begin with

[@animarch3D]

By all the assets, do you mean a base mesh? Very common to start with a base mesh with already good topology. I got this one from JHills store. Head scan was from the 3d scan store

[@paluxyl.8682]

Why do you call at 44:50 the teeth "junk" ? ... they are important if someone wants to make a game with a speaking character or that shows emotions like screaming.

[@animarch3D]

I personally didn’t need them for this project

[@paluxyl.8682]

@@animarch3D I understand now your point.
My first thought was that you goal was that you are making a character to sell it later at 3d asset stores that other can make games with it.