Discover a wealth of insights with Sana, from intricate details to unique workflows for character design.

Interview with Sana Almusalli | Drift | 3D Character Artist

We'd like to learn more about you. Can you introduce yourself and how did you first get started in 3D?

Hi everyone! My name is Sana Almusalli Alawadhi and I am an Emirati 3D Character Artist. I have always been into art but never knew which direction to go. I used to think 2D art was what I wanted to do in the future but once I started experimenting with 3D art, I absolutely fell in love and have been creating 3D art since.

To further learn and enhance my skills, I enrolled in DAE to study Game Graphic Production. Once I graduated, I enrolled with Think Tank Training Centre to study at their online Character Art Program to advance in character creation.

Can you provide details on your project: Drift?

Drift was my mentorship project that I created from a concept art by CABORO. I had fallen in love with the concept and had saved the image for a while before I ended up re-creating it for my mentorship program with the help of my mentor Denis Melenets.

During the mentorship, I got the chance to experiment with a number of different aspects related to character creation. For example, I experimented with hair creation, body and clothes animation, and head blend shape animation with Unreal Engine, which I had been eager to do for a while.

Can you give us a quick overview of the different tools used in your pipeline?

I used various programs to create the project. I used Zbrush and Marvelous Designer for the creation of the initial block out and for the final high poly. I also used Blender for Subdivision and Boolean modeling. I then used Rizom UV for the UV and Marmoset Toolbag and Substance painter for the bake and texture. I also used Maya to create the Xgen hair and finally used Unreal Engine to render.

In addition to those programs, I also used a base mesh from 3D Scan Store to help me quicken the process of creating the character sculpt and Quixel Bridge to help me create the environment for the final presentation

What are the biggest challenges that you face during projects?

As I like to experiment a lot, I usually end up facing different challenges with every character. For the project Drift, one of my biggest challenges was creating the twists of the hair and working on an already posed character. Since I was trying to do a posed character, I decided to create the outfit on a non-posed character at first and once I was happy with the design and how it looked, I was ready to move on to simulating a posed character.

Another big challenge I faced was how I could create the blend shape for the head so that I could create various expressions while making sure the XGen hair follows the head and eyes of the character.

Why did you decide to use Marvelous Designer? How did it help you serve art direction?

I love using Marvelous Designer since it helps me create realistic looking outfits and experiment with different materials and designs with ease and with little time. I love learning about the technical part of Marvelous Designer as there are a lot of useful elements that I use to either fasten my workflow or make the outfit look even better.

As I was also able to join a class by Jayson Fitch at CGMA, I learnt most of the techniques about Marvelous Designer from that class. A few things that I always love to use are the pinning and freezing features for when I am happy with a certain area of the fabric while I work on the rest. The GPU Simulation feature is another feature that I love to use, as well as the Fabric Physical Properties that I can use to adjust the outfits to further match the concept art.

Let's shift our focus and talk about broader trends! What technologies are catching your interest, and what's driving your attention towards them?

One thing I am really intrigued by is to experiment with rigging and animating clothes. I would love to learn how to rig more complex outfits for game characters. I am also looking into more realistic moveable outfits along with possibly using blend shapes.

Lastly, what advice do you have for someone looking to get started in the industry?

I started to improve the more I researched and experimented with new workflows and techniques. That's why I would suggest that others use as many resources as possible. I love using Youtube, Gumroad, Flipped Normals to find tutorials that are helpful for each project. Another thing that helps me is keeping notes of any issues or problems that I come across and the solution for the problem as well. This has been especially helpful since I can come back to the notes if I ever come across the same or a similar issue again, and since I use PureRef for this, I find it even more helpful as I can add lots of pictures to come back to it again and easily find the notes in the future.

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