Learn how to create your own game characters in Blender! Learn how to model, texture, rig, and animate a character in Blender. Discover how to bring the character into Unity and set-up a character controller to move the character around.


Build your skills so that you can create your own game characters in Blender.
Model and Sculpt a Game Character in Blender
Use Blender's Retopology Tools
Create UV Maps and Bake Texture Maps
Use Blender's Texture Painting Tools
Rig a Character with Blender's Rigify Add-on
Animate Game Cycles for a Game Character
Import a Blender Character to Unity
Set-up a Character Controller in Unity
Create Your Own Game Characters!
Learning to create your own game characters opens the door for you to create the incredible video games you've always dreamed of. Blender is free to download and use for any purpose and has proven itself to be a powerful tool for independent and commercial projects all over the world.
Blender provides an excellent low-cost way to learn the fundamentals of 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering. Since 1995, it has been growing in features and usage in the animation and visual effects industry.
Content and Overview
In this course you’ll create a game character from the first polygon in Blender to the final controllable character in the Unity game engine. Throughout the course you’ll learn about Blender’s modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation tools. You’ll learn the techniques and strategies needed to tackle a complex project such as this, so you can bring your own characters to life.
In the first section we will create a character using Blender’s sculpting tools. We will model a base mesh using box modeling techniques, and then we will use Blender’s Multiresolution modifier to create high-resolution detail on the character.

We will then use Blender’s retopology tools, the Grease Pencil and the BSurfaces tools, to create a low resolution version of our high-resolution sculpt. And we will bake Normal and Ambient Occlusion maps, from the hi-res sculpt to the low-poly mesh. We will then import these texture maps into Unity and test them on our character in-game.

We will look at some of the unique issues regarding UV mapping an organic model like a character. We will use Blender’s UV mapping tools to create an organized UV map that can be exported to external paint programs like Photoshop or GIMP for texturing. And we will look at Blender’s Texture Painting tools and how to use them to create texture maps for the character.

Then we will use Blender’s Rigify add-on to create a basic rig for our game character. You’ll learn how to prep the character for rigging and generate the base rig. We will then generate the control objects of the rig and go over the various controls and how they can be used during animation. From there we will adjust the weights of the character using Blender’s vertex groups, and parent the character’s war hammer and shield to the rig.
You’ll then learn the basics of creating animation cycles for a game character. We’ll use Blender’s Graph Editor and Dope Sheet to animate the Idle and Run animations, as well as create a Jump Pose.
Finally, we will take it all into Unity and write some code to get our character running and jumping through a test level.


Character Sculpting
05:14:05
Preparing the Reference Images
17:57
Beginning the Base Mesh
14:15
Extruding the Arm
09:45
Creating the Hands
13:14
Finishing the Base Mesh
09:35
Beginning to Sculpt
14:21
Using the Mask Tool
10:56
Sculpting the Upper Arms
08:56
Working on the Torso
10:03
Sculpting the Lower Arms
11:28
Adjusting Proportions
10:05
Sculpting the Hand
11:44
Detailing the Fingers
08:39
Beginning the Face
12:53
Modeling the Eyeball
10:07
Finishing the Face
07:11
Sculpting the Boots
12:34
Using Retopology Tools for the Straps
11:42
Starting the Clothes and Accessories
12:03
Sculpting the Gloves
15:47
Adding Detail to the Gloves
08:01
Sculpting Cloth Folds
13:45
Adding Texture to Sculpt Brushes
13:49
Modeling the Shoulder Armor
11:18
Using the Anchor Stroke Method
12:22
Creating the Fingernails
13:54
Sculpting the Ears
07:28
–
Retopology
01:47:37
Blender's Retopology Tools
19:02
Retopologizing the Head
10:53
Working on the Shoulder Armor
09:58
Creating the Legs
10:39
Retopology of the Arm
11:41
Working on the Back
07:59
Creating the Glove
10:22
Retopologizing the Fingers
09:57
Finishing the Fingers
06:10
Finishing the Character Retopology
10:56
–
UV Mapping and Texture Baking
01:12:16
Preparing the Character for UV Mapping
09:46
UV Mapping the Eyes and Legs
11:07
Working on the Shoulder Armor
11:05
UV Mapping the Head and Torso
11:11
Finishing the Retopology
15:46
Baking Texture Maps
13:21
–
Texture Painting
02:17:34
Setting Up the Interface for Texturing
09:55
Filling the Base Colors
11:53
Using Paint Slots as Layers
09:37
Adding a Texture to the Brush
09:30
Painting the Character's Armor
09:44
Prepping to Paint Cloth Texture
08:55
Texture Painting the Cloth
10:54
Texturing the Boots
08:23
Texturing the Gauntlet
15:32
Texturing the Skin
12:47
Texturing the Face
14:15
Exporting the Texture Maps
10:35
Testing the Textures in Unity
05:34
–
Rigging the Character
54:20
Generating the Base Rig
13:07
Creating the Control Objects
11:10
Adjusting Weights Using Vertex Groups
14:23
Parenting Props to the Rig
15:40
–
Creating Animation Cycles
01:08:55
Beginning the Idle Animation
10:26
Finishing the Idle
07:38
Beginning the Run Cycle
07:20
Continuing the Run Cycle
10:41
More with the Run Cycle
09:05
Swinging the Arms
11:39
Creating a Jump Pose
12:06
–
Setting Up the Character in Unity
56:22
Preparing the Character for Export
09:16
Importing the Character into Unity
13:19
Setting Up the Animations in Unity
11:30
Setting Up the Jump
10:32
Getting the Character Moving
11:45

Darrin Lile is an animator, developer, and Blender Foundation Certified Trainer teaching courses in computer animation and game development. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Film and Media Studies from the University of Kansas and has worked as an animator, a producer of educational films, a sound editor for film and television, and as a computer security analyst.

https://blender101.com/courses/