Character Facial Sculpting [CGMA, Dmitrij Leppee]
- Publisher
- CGMA
- Product Type
- Video Course
- Author
- Dmitrij Leppee
- Language
- English, English Subtitles
- Duration
- 34:12
- Release date
- Jan 1, 2024
- Skill level
- Project Files
- Yes
- Product Price
- $998
Character Facial Sculpting
Course Description
Character Facial Sculpting is a 10-week intermediate course focused on sculpting the human face from the inside out.Instead of relying on a ready-made basemesh, students will start from scratch and gradually build the face layer by layer. The course begins with the underlying anatomical structures of the skull, neck bones, cartilage, eyes, glands, muscles, fat tissue, and skin. This approach helps students understand why the face looks the way it does and how each structure affects the final form.
Once the anatomical foundation is established, the course moves into portrait sculpting, retopology, detailing, polypainting, hair creation, expression sculpting, posing, rendering, and final image presentation.
By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of facial anatomy and portrait sculpting, allowing them to create more believable, expressive, and story-driven character faces.
What You’ll Learn
- How to sculpt the human face from scratch
- How the skull, neck bones, cartilage, muscles, fat, glands, and skin affect facial form
- How to build a face layer by layer for stronger anatomical understanding
- How to create believable portraits with personality and story
- How to retopologise a bust for cleaner detailing, posing, and expression work
- How to project sculpted details back onto clean topology
- How to refine and polish facial forms
- How to create a colour map using Polypaint
- How to sculpt hair or approach hair creation with Fibermesh or XGen
- How to pose the head and create facial expressions
- How to render passes in ZBrush and composite a final image in Photoshop
Course Curriculum
Week 1 - Skeleton
Students begin by studying anatomical references of the skull and neck bones. This week introduces the importance of understanding what is happening “under the hood” before sculpting the visible surface of the face.Week 2 - Cartilage, Eyes, and Glands
This week focuses on the anatomical structures that influence facial shape, including cartilage, eyes, and glands. Students continue building their understanding of the deeper layers beneath the skin.Week 3 - Head & Neck Muscles and Fat Compartments
Students add muscles and fat tissue to the sculpt, learning how these structures create the volume, softness, and rhythm of the human face.Week 4 - Skin
The skin layer is added on top of the previously created anatomical layers. Students begin building a generic face while understanding how the surface forms are shaped by the structures underneath.Week 5 - Portrait
To better understand portrait sculpting, students create a new portrait. This week focuses on capturing likeness, personality, and the subtle decisions that make a face feel alive.Week 6 - Retopology
Students retopologise the bust and project the sculpted details back onto the new topology. Clean topology makes the model easier to refine, detail, pose, and use for expressions.Week 7 - Refinements and Detailing
This week focuses on final touches, tweaks, and detail refinement. Students polish the portrait and improve the overall quality of the sculpt.Week 8 - Polypaint
Students create a colour map using Polypaint, adding natural colour variation and bringing more life to the portrait.Week 9 - Hair
This week covers hair creation, either through sculpting, Fibermesh, or XGen, depending on the chosen workflow.Week 10 - Expression Sculpting and Pose - The Final Image
In the final week, students use the cleaned-up topology to pose the head and sculpt expressions more efficiently. The course concludes with rendering passes in ZBrush and compositing the final image in Photoshop.Requirements
This is an intermediate-level course, so students should already have some experience with sculpting or drawing.Recommended prerequisite knowledge includes:
- Intro to Production Modeling
- ZBrush for Concept & Iteration
- Anatomy for Production
Software and tools used in the course include:
- ZBrush
- Graphics tablet with a digital pen
- Photoshop for final compositing
Who This Course Is For
This course is ideal for intermediate character artists, sculptors, portrait artists, and 3D artists who want to improve their understanding of facial anatomy and character expression.It is especially useful for artists who want to create more realistic, believable, and emotionally engaging faces for characters in games, films, animation, illustration, or personal portfolio work.
About the Instructor
The course is taught by Dmitrij Leppee, a Lead Character Artist at Digital Dimension.Dmitrij comes from a background in traditional drawing, graphics, and classical animation. He discovered ZBrush around nine years ago and developed his 3D skills independently. For much of his professional career, he has worked as a medical illustrator, while continuing to explore his passion for portraying people through digital sculpting.
He has worked on a wide range of projects, including models for print, animation, commercials, movies, and games.
Final Result
By the end of the course, students will have created a fully developed facial sculpt, built from anatomical foundations through to final portrait presentation.The final project will include clean topology, refined facial forms, colour work, hair, expression sculpting, posing, ZBrush render passes, and Photoshop compositing, resulting in a polished final image suitable for a character art portfolio.
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