Overview
The 2024 Reallusion 3D Character Contest was a major success, attracting 267 creative and skillful submissions. The contest featured three main categories with Artist Konrad Hetko securing first place in the “Character Design” category with his submission called “The Last Entry”. Just what inspired his intriguing character concept and what gave him the edge in this competition? Take a deep dive into his masterpiece and discover how he leveraged Character Creator, GoZ, and ZBrush Face Tools to win the contest.
Character Artist – Konrad Hetko
Hailing from Poland, Konrad Hetko is a character artist who has spent over 15 years working with different areas of digital art — from photo bashing and painting to video editing and animation. While he originally set out to become an animator, a university project sparked his love for 3D character design, completely shifting his focus. Now, he is putting his skills to work at Teyon, a Polish game studio, where he was part of major projects like Robocop: Rogue City.
Driven by his passion for both the craft and cutting-edge tech, Konrad constantly pushes boundaries, experimenting with new workflows and tools like Character Creator 4 (CC4). Lately, he’s been hooked on the GoZ pipeline, which seamlessly connects CC4 with ZBrush, allowing him to bring characters to life faster than ever.
The Concept of “The Last Entry”
Konrad’s entry, “The Last Entry”, for the 2024 Reallusion 3D Contest drew inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft. His character, an old investigator, has uncovered terrifying truths about ancient, mythical creatures — knowledge that slowly drives him mad. He documents these horrors in a journal marked with the Elder Sign, a mystical symbol meant to shield his writings from the lurking dangers of the unknown.
Konrad intentionally moved away from realism in this piece, explaining “I wanted to focus on a more intriguing stylization”. His inspiration for this shift came from the “Bad Travelling” episode of Love, Death & Robots; Fascinated by the stylized character designs, he sought to evoke a similar feel, blending the dark, psychological atmosphere of Lovecraft with a distinctive and captivating visual style.
Benefits of Character Creator x ZBrush GoZ pipeline
A key part of Konrad’s workflow was the smooth integration between Character Creator 4 and ZBrush, thanks to the GoZ feature. This made it easy for him to transfer his character model back and forth between the two programs for ongoing refinement.
“Reallusion’s tools were a game changer, especially the ease of switching between Character Creator and ZBrush using GoZ,” he explains. With GoZ, he sculpted intricate details in ZBrush and could instantly bring them back into Character Creator for further tweaks. This seamless interaction allowed him to efficiently achieve the stylization he envisioned while maintaining detail and precision.
ZBrush Face Tools – Empower the Character Expressions
For “The Last Entry”, Konrad dedicated most of his effort to designing the character’s face and expressions. This entailed creating several variations, with each iteration bringing him closer to the visuals he envisioned.
All the versions were stored in layers, allowing him to mix and match different elements to refine the face. Once satisfied with the results, he transferred the head back into ZBrush and used Face Tools to sculpt the necessary expressions and dynamic wrinkles.
“That’s probably my favorite tool in Character Creator,” Konrad stated, “Face Tools handle the most tedious aspects of working with morphs and dynamic normals by automating everything with just one click,” he shared during the creation process of expression morphs and conducting dynamic wrinkles tests in CC.
Instead of manually creating and baking wrinkles, Face Tools streamlined the process, giving Konrad more time to focus on the creative aspects of the project. Then he was able to refine the expressions and overall look, enhancing both its depth and realism.
Personal Aspirations
Konrad’s journey doesn’t end with the contest. He’s eager to explore more of what Reallusion’s suite of tools, including iClone and Unreal Engine, has to offer. “I’m already planning a personal project where I’ll integrate the best aspects of Character Creator with MetaHuman in Unreal Engine,” Konrad reveals. Though he remains tight-lipped about the details, his passion to push the boundaries of 3D character creation is palpable.
Final Thoughts
Konrad’s thoughtful approach to character design, combined with his mastery of tools like Character Creator 4 and ZBrush, earned him first place in the realistic character category of the 2024 Reallusion 3D Character Contest. His ability to merge Lovecraftian themes with stylized art, while utilizing cutting-edge technology, made his entry truly stand out.
Reflecting on the contest, Konrad notes how it helped him grow as an artist. “I’m really happy I participated”, he says. “The contest motivated me to finish a project, learn new tools, and push my artistic boundaries”. Konrad’s work shows how Reallusion’s tools enable artists to create immersive characters while streamlining the technical side. With new projects ahead, we look forward to seeing more impressive creations from this talented artist.
Learn more
Character Creator – Enjoy a 30-day Free Trial
Konrad’s Full WIP of “The Last Entry”
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