Hi everyone,
I am incredibly excited to participate in the Reallusion 2026 3D Character Contest and to join the 2026 Portfolio Artist Program. Huge thanks to the Committee for reviewing my portfolio and for this amazing opportunity!
My entry is for the Character Design (Stylized) category. The project is based on my original 2D concept: “Guardian of Silence”
The Concept
This entity exists in the threshold between reality and the void, standing beyond ordinary human perception. The design relies on functional, symbolic elements:
- The Red Strings: Channels acting as dimensional connection guides that link the figure to different worlds.
- The Garment: A volumetric robe designed to conceal the illusion of time, allowing the entity to take a recognizable form within our reality.
- The Sphere: A small point of absolute erasure held in its hand.
My Workflow
My main goal is to bring the artistic style, elongated vertical silhouette, and linework of my original sketch into 3D as accurately as possible.
- Proportions & Base: I am using Character Creator to block out the stylized anatomy and set up those tall, custom proportions.
- Sculpting & Form: For the main phase, I will use ZBrush or Blender to sculpt the shapes. This includes working on the organic flow of the clothes, the structured parts of the headpiece, and further refining the character’s overall body, features, and anatomy to fully shape their look.
- Texturing & Materials: I plan to handle the texturing in Substance Painter. I want to focus on creating clean surface details and capturing the vertical lines of the garments.
- Presentation: Finally, I will set up the lighting and composition in iClone to showcase the character’s final look and mood.
Note: This workflow represents my initial plan, but I may adapt my tools and pipeline as the character develops. I will keep you updated on any changes during the process!
I will be updating this thread regularly with my workflow and progress. Best of luck to everyone participating this year!
Regards,
Oleksandr Moroz
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Update 01: Base Anatomy and Proportions (Before & After)
Here is the first step of my process, showing how I transformed the default avatar into my own custom version.
Interestingly, this is actually my very first day using Character Creator. I am really enjoying it so far—the tool is super intuitive for blocking out shapes quickly.
As you can see, my main focus here was changing the standard body to get that tall, severe, and elongated silhouette for the character. This model is just a clean starting point. Next, I will move this base into ZBrush or Blender to heavily sculpt the details and really bring out the stylized look.
I have a big vision for this character with a lot of complex details to add. My goal is to make sure all the sculpted shapes and textures fit together perfectly, keeping the exact same mood and feeling as my original 2D sketch.
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Changing the Palette: Form and Story
I want to share a quick update regarding the color direction of the character. In my original 2D sketch, the entity had purple skin, but I’ve decided to shift toward a more traditional, natural skin tone.
There is a conceptual reason for this: according to the character’s background, this entity travels across different realities and layers of existence. By wearing the robe and taking on a more human skin tone, it can blend in with people and pass through our world unnoticed. I might play with lighter or more muted undertones for the skin later, but keeping it traditional makes perfect sense for its story.
This adjustment helps me anchor the character in reality while keeping its mysterious nature. Now that the base shapes and proportions are fully set, I am moving on to the sculpting phase to shape the character’s features, anatomy, and add all the complex details from the concept.
I’ll share more updates soon!
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Headpiece Modeling & Garment Preparation
I want to share a closer look at the technical process and the concept logic behind the character’s headpiece and structure, utilizing the seamless pipeline between Character Creator and ZBrush.
- Creating the Reality Stabilizer: As shown in
I started working on the main headpiece. Using the CC GoZ bridge, I sent the base mesh from Character Creator directly into ZBrush, keeping the workflow perfectly synchronized. From there, I built a clean topology path around the head. Using extrusion and adding supporting edges, I shaped these volumetric segments. Under subdivision (divide), they became the rounded, padded structures you see here. Conceptually, these work as a bio-mechanical stabilizer—a functional buffer designed to soften and absorb the transition of the entity from the void into our physical reality.
- Integrating Technical Elements & Garment Base: Moving on to
the process develops further into the design of the interface elements. I have started blocking out the attachment guides and antennas for the red strings, which serve as the dimensional channels. Additionally, to prepare for the clothing design, I duplicated the main body mesh, sliced away the unnecessary parts, and kept this geometry as a clean base. I will use this piece to fully model and sculpt the volumetric robe that conceals the illusion of time.
Now that the structural foundation and design elements are completely set, I am diving deep into the sculpting and detailing phase!
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Garment Simulation & Volumetric Robe Blocking
I have started modeling the character’s outfit and main robe in Marvelous Designer, following the original concept. The process begins with simple baseline patterns before adding layers and complex fabric details.
I started with a clean, straight base garment fitted to the character’s proportions to establish the core silhouette. This serves as the foundation for all upcoming drapery.
You can see the initial phase of creating the fabric volume. Here, I generated the straight, dense vertical pleats across the main robe to set up the bulk of the fabric.
- Shaping with Internal Lines:
In the process developments further. Using the Internal Line and Internal Polygon Line tools, I drew these red lines directly onto the pattern to edit, gather, and control the shape of the pleats. I also implemented the inner hood/balaclava element at this stage. This is a deliberate workflow optimization: this part of the fabric will be tucked under the main mask, so modeling it now streamlines the pipeline, allowing me to easily add fine details and refine everything later.
There are still many details and technical nuances to iron out, and the overall roadmap for this character is quite ambitious. Taking it step-by-step helps maintain a smooth workflow for further development.
More updates coming soon!
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Update: Developing the Liminal Shroud 
Hi everyone! Time for another update on the “Guardian of Silence” project. This phase is fully dedicated to developing the structural elements of the shroud in 3D, focusing on the fabric rhythm and mesh optimization before moving into ZBrush.
1. Pattern Construction
The 3D process started with the flat pattern blueprint inside Marvelous Designer. To break away from standard clothing shapes and adapt the concept’s logic into a 3D space, I split the main robe and sleeves into custom longitudinal strips. This creates a calculated geometric foundation, ensuring that the drapery follows a strict, deliberate vertical rhythm.
2. Simulation & Form Balance
Once simulated, you can see how the interlocking fabric bands react and harmonize. The blue and green strips flow seamlessly from the inner hood down the back, creating an organic, spine-like rhythm along the entity’s frame. On the front view, the lines compress elegantly toward the high collar, setting up a solid, monumental silhouette.
3. Current Stage: Manual Retopology
This is exactly where the work stands right now. I am currently using the topology tools to manually draw a clean, structured quad grid directly over the simulated folds. Every line is guided to follow the true tension and weight of the pleats.
Taking the time to stabilize the geometry at this stage ensures that when I subdivide the mesh later inside ZBrush, the volumes and clean silhouette will be beautifully preserved without any artifacting.
With this retopology layer locked in, the next step will focus on importing this structured base into ZBrush to begin shaping the biological micro-details and anchoring the headpiece elements.
More updates coming soon!
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