Creating a 3d character that is equipped to be animated is one of the most challenging things you can do in CG, and to make matters worse, it has always been equally challenging to find any comprehensive tutorials on the entire workflow. Well not any more! In this 7 video long, intermediate to advanced level tutorial series, professional Blender artist, Karan Shah, will walk you through the complete creation process of a ready to animate video game character. From modeling, to UVs and texturing, to adding the final mesh topology for deformation, this series is a must see for any Blender character artist!
Model, UV, and Texture a Complete Manga Character in Blender – Day 1
Oct 20th in 3D Art, Animation, Blender, Game Art by Karan ShahThis tutorial is Day 1 in a series - Go to Day 2, Day 3
Final Effect Preview

Video 1: The Body
DownloadNote: click the 'Monitor' icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
Video 2: The Head
DownloadNote: click the 'Monitor' icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
Video 3: The Hands
DownloadNote: click the 'Monitor' icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
This tutorial is Day 1 in a series - Go to Day 2, Day 3
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Craigsnedeker October 20th
Looks great =D
( )Mulch Diggums October 20th
Yes!!! This is amazing! You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for a tutorial on this. What about rigging and animation?
( )tom October 20th
awesome
( )haqzaf October 20th
Thanks for the tutorial.Unable to find ref image to follow the part1.
( )Please provide link to download ref image.
Eoghan Martin October 20th
Same, I’ve waited so long for a tut like this. Awesome!!!!
( )victor manuel October 20th
awesome
( )Nixon October 21st
great tutorial Mr. Shah,
( )i realy like the look of the character and it’s coloring!
followed both videos here so I’m excited to see the rest of the process:)
Thx for your tutorias and the effort that you put into blenducation!!
Best regards!
AzteKpr1de October 21st
Looks nice, I’m gonna try it out.
( )Karan October 22nd
Thank you all for appreciating my work.
Here is the download link for the reference – http://www.files-cashout.com/download.php?file=3934
( )haqzaf October 22nd
Mr.Shah,
( )Thanks for providing Ref image link.
I already modeled and blocked character body part1 after downloading ref image.
Renalexa October 24th
Wow! Thanks so much! ^^
( )I realy like to draaw manga!
And now i want to improve my skil to 3D modeling! ^^
Thanks so much for the tutorial!
Michael October 24th
Hello,
( )this Video-Tutorials is very Good
Marco October 24th
I cannot download the ref images, it says my IP has been logged for anti-fraud…
( )Karan October 24th
here is the link – http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/5551/reference.jpg
( )Frank February 4th
it is broken
( )Marco October 24th
Thank you Karan!
( )yuri October 25th
Karan, thanks for this tutorial! Can you tell a place where we can to get more reference images such like yours?
Best regards!
( )June October 25th
it cool,but is difficult for first time,
( )grass October 26th
great tuts Mr. Shah but i look your final preview image, the eyes not use sphere how i can animate the eyes? or I just animate texture for wink the eyes.
Best regards!
( )aklau October 27th
where is the video for day2???
( )Kaleb Aylsworth October 27th
Follow the link that says “Go to day 2″…
( )Arn Sweatman October 30th
Wait, wait!! How did you sphereize the (head) cube after subdividing?
( )Mikel January 29th
Ctrl + Shift + S, and just move the mouse
( )Jonathan October 30th
WOW!!! THANKS FOR THE TUT!!!
( )Kuba October 31st
what do you press in head film 45 sec please tell me
( )pasten December 4th
right, i dont understand how could you move the mouth in headvideo at 45 sec
( )ps: im using cinema4D so can you tell me the name of the command?i use extrude command but i can only move the selected area!
Please help :p
Great job man ;D
Johnn October 31st
Nice. Thank you.
In video 2 to shape the head spherical it is control-shift s
( )Barry October 31st
This is something i’ve been looking fro, thanks for the graet work!
( )BrickViking November 2nd
As a beginning animator, (and someone almost totally new to Blender) I can actually understand this! Let’s hope I end up with a model that’s useful.
Cheers – can’t wait for days 3-7.
( )Angela November 3rd
how can you get the cylinders not to follow each other.
( )Timothy November 3rd
woohoo! just found this! can’t wait to watch and follow ur tutorials Mr. Shah!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! keep up the good work!
( )Bass November 8th
damn i got lost on adding the torso to the body from the 2 legs, and edge looping. good tutorial though, its a nice anime character
( )bboy c-life November 19th
THANKS! been waitin for a tutorial on this for a LONG time!
( )Milad Thaha November 28th
Great set of tuts Karan, been looking for detailed ones since a long time
( )Michinobu December 23rd
My question is the same as Arn Sweatman’s above, how did you turn the cube into a sphere after having subdivided it? The SHIFT+S key-combo doesn’t appear to have the same affect on my copy of Blender as it does in Karan’s video. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I just don’t see how to make the flipping cube spherical like that, save for pressing the smooth button a bunch of times.
But, that’s the biggest problem I have with following Karan’s tutorial, it appears that there’s alot that he assumes that the audience already knows. So, some of us – such as myself – end up getting lost while trying to follow his videos.
I see that no one answered arn’s message since October 31 so I’m not entirely sure anyone will answer mine, but in case someone does I’d appreciate it.
( )Kaleb Aylsworth December 24th
I’m not a Blender user myself, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer your question, but Karan did do an introduction to Blender tut that preceded this one…which is also to the reason he assumes that the audience already knows certain things. Perhaps that tutorial might be of some assistance:) http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3d-art/a-detailed-overview-of-the-blender-interface/
( )Agnes Luvisotto December 25th
Congatulations, for the tutorial!!!
( )thamilharasi January 7th
hi superb. great tuts. thank u very much.
( )Hima January 17th
I’m french and i’m so happy. Blender is so difficult to understand.
MMMMMMMerci (TTTTTTThank you very very very much!)
( )Jeremy972 January 22nd
Very good tutoriel guy.. I wish you to continue making tuto like this..
( )EvadeAndSurvive.com January 24th
Thanks but couldn’t follow you. You missed to many steps so moving on
( )EvadeAndSurvive.com January 25th
Lost you at add modifier DO CLIPPING somehow you made the screen on the left of your character go to some 3d mode and you decided not to tell your students, HOW FRUSTRATING…there are very very few good tutorials to teach step by step 3D modeling…The biggest mistake that people do when they post a tutorial is ASSUME that their students know all the steps. If this was the case, why would we try and follow a tutorial. No matter how many times I went back to try and duplicate what you did, I couldn’t so I rate your tutorial 2/10. Sorry you failed at this. Someday I will learn this Blender Stuff and I will do a tutorial, I will SPEAK CLEARLY,SPEAK SLOW, and most important NEVER EVER LEAVE OUT A STEP…EVER
( )Kaleb Aylsworth January 26th
Not all tutorials can be geared towards absolute beginners. The reason that it is assumed that anyone watching this tutorial knows the basics of the Blender interface is because this is and Intermediate/ Advanced level tutorial (as it says in the tutorial description). If you are a beginner, then I recommend you watch the tutorial titled “Introduction to Blender: a Detailed Overview of the Blender Interface”, also by Karan (the author of this tut), and then perhaps you might not find this tutorial to be so frustrating.