My 3D Art Journey

Hello, my name is Hyeonjoo (Zoey) Lee.

After over 5 years of dedicated experience in customer service, I am now pursuing my lifelong dream of a career in 3D art. With a deep passion for stylized 3D art, I am committed to mastering all aspects of the craft.

I started my journey in January 2022. That’s when I opened up the program Zbrush for the first time. I would like to share my progress on this journey. Here are some studies I have done. My first time sculpting in Zbrush was quite terrible!

In the beginning, I was trying to get used to the program. I tried my best to sculpt a face, but it didn’t really work out well. However, with more practice, I was able to see the difference!

After trying several face and body sculpts, I wanted to create "Elsa" from Frozen next. With multiple references, I was able to study her face from every angle.

After the Elsa project, I was finally ready to challenge myself to create Zeri, a character from League of Legends. This time, I am also learning a new program, Maya.

For this Zeri character, I started by building the body in Maya to get used to the program.

After creating the base body, I started sculpting it in Zbrush. After some time, I had trouble working with the mesh I had, so I quickly retopologized the face and hands to have an easier time with sculpting. I worked on the hair and body in Zbrush.

For the clothing, instead of working in Zbrush, I used Maya. I found it easier to build clothing in Maya, and this way, I can create both low poly and high poly versions.

After creating the clothing in Maya, I finalized the details in Zbrush.

Next, I am working on UV maps. I had quite fun with this process!

After completing the UV mapping, I brought the model into Substance Painter for coloring.

The baking process was quite challenging for me. Some areas were not projecting well.To fix this issue, I checked the UVs and the baking settings in Substance Painter.

Finally, after perfecting the baking process, I was able to color the character. Coloring came naturally to me, and it was the most fun part.

And finally...! This marks the end of my 3D art journey from 2022.

Time flew by quickly. It took quite a long time for me to learn the whole process. I dedicated time to each step, making sure I learned the correct and efficient way as much as possible.

I committed myself to learning this process for 2-3 hours a day after my full-time job. With my strong passion for art, I have come a long way, and I am ready to move forward!

Thank you for taking the time to go through my process.

Enjoy the final artwork!