Duai Sebastian
Hello, my name is Duai Sebastian, and I am a Character Artist and teacher at Libel Academy. Thanks to the partnership between Libel and Reallusion, I have learned to use very powerful tools that have become an important part of my workflow, both for my profession and my commitment as a teacher.
Duai is also Libel Academy’s newest Master Course. He is a distinguished Colombian character artist renowned for his expertise in Blender, ZBrush, Character Creator, and iClone. Duai’s masterful creation, the ZBrush + CC4 course, centered around his CyberMaya character, represents a pinnacle of digital artistry.
Concept Behind “Seeker”
Meet Seeker – a charming little ninja whose design draws inspiration from ancient times, brought to life with a playful cartoon flair. I used AI to brainstorm different concepts for this character, who became the perfect showcase for Character Creator 4 and iClone 8’s capabilities. Seeker demonstrates how modern tools can help create polished, game-ready characters without getting bogged down in technical details. By streamlining tasks like rigging and animation, artists can spend more time on what matters most – bringing their creative vision to life.
My Personal 3D Workflow
The CC4 base meshes have been a game-changer for me, whether I’m using morphs or the new GoZPlus feature. What I love most is how they’ve made character animation accessible. Before, I’d often shy away from bringing my characters to life because the process was so time-consuming and complex. But now, I can focus on what I do best – character art – while still producing fully rigged, animation-ready characters. This workflow has really allowed me to specialize in my passion without getting bogged down in technical hurdles.
The use of morphs allowed me to find a shape close to what I needed for my character, both in terms of muscle structure and proportions. I loved the latest update of GoZ Plus because of the distribution of the polygroups; this allowed me to modify many more details in the sculpting process much more quickly and efficiently.
Progressive Detailing: ZBrush Face Tools & Marvelous Designer
The use of Face Tools was mainly to modify the facial expressions of my character. In this particular case, I made the eyes a bit larger and the mouth a bit smaller. By using Face Tools, I was able to better control each facial animation of my character.
The connection between Character Creator and ZBrush is wonderful! So much so that these two pieces of software feel like one. For Seeker, I wanted to implement Marvelous Designer due to the dynamism and practicality of creating patterns, making seams, and allowing the clothing to interact with our character in a more natural way.
Leveraging CC Rigging Tools
I really liked the precision of the Transfer Skin Weight tool. Even though I had to correct a few weight issues, which were very minor, the “Layer Cloth” feature also helped me a lot by allowing me to specify which clothing goes underneath and which goes on top in CC4. In this part, I focused on maintaining good deformation, so I used weight paint as well as a weight map in the physics section of CC4, taking collisions into account to avoid intersections between the objects. I also used the “Layer Cloth” feature to keep everything more organized.
For the poses, I looked for various references in anime, searching for action poses and also aiming for the pose’s curve to be appealing, as well as the facial expression.
To improve the shapes that were slightly distorted due to the pose deformation, I used Pose Tools. To enhance facial expressions like blinking and other expressions, I used Face Tools. Since I wanted the course to be more comprehensive and demonstrate that Character Creator is compatible with most 3D production software, I utilized Auto Setup, and to create the cinematic, I used Unreal Live Link.
“Character Creator 4 is an incredible software; it helped me save 50% of the time in my character creation pipeline. Additionally, it allows me to pose characters quickly without needing complex rigging methods. Its integration with ZBrush is so seamless that they almost seem like a single program.”
Duai Sebastian Florez , 3D Artist and Instructor at Libel Academy
Thoughts on Character Creator
As someone who teaches, I’ve made it a priority to keep up with Reallusion’s latest tools, and Character Creator has been invaluable to my workflow. Creating game-ready characters used to be overwhelming – you had to master rigging, animation, and so many technical aspects. But Character Creator streamlined all of that for me. Now I can pour my energy into what I really love – character design – while still ending up with fully animated characters that feel alive and dynamic. It’s amazing how much time I save, and my students benefit from learning these efficient workflows too!
As I mentioned before, I come from a traditional workflow: starting with blocking, then high poly modeling, followed by clothing and accessories, and finishing with retopology and rigging. Not knowing how to rig a character made it difficult for me to create facial expressions. Character Creator changed that, providing everything I had been missing in my characters instantly. It allowed me to focus on creativity, making the process more fluid by trusting that the toughest part was already handled.
Advice to Others
I would advise newcomers to embrace this workflow now, as it is gradually gaining traction in the industry. Adopting it sooner will give us a competitive edge. Many major companies are already using this optimal approach. In an industry where time is money, leveraging Character Creator to streamline production will enable us to create spectacular games within a more efficient timeframe.
Stop overthinking it—just do it! This won’t hinder our artistic expression; in fact, it enhances it by integrating with ZBrush, preserving our creative vision. With facial and body rigging, Character Creator supports not only realistic characters but also stylized ones, like cartoons. It’s not limited to video games—it’s also perfect for film!
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