Sculpt, Model and Texture a Low-Poly Skull in Blender
Jun 9th in Blender, Game Art
by Karan Shah
Normal maps are widely used in games to make low poly models look high poly. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a high res Skull model, generate a normal map from that model and learn how to apply this to its low poly version.
Techniques covered in this tutorial include multires sculpting, baking a normal map, baking ambient occlusion and applying the maps to a low poly model.
This tutorial uses the free and open source Blender suite. If you're new to 3D, following this tutorial in Blender is an excellent way for beginners to get started. (Don't worry - this tutorial has plenty of techniques for more advanced users too!)
Karan Shah is a 3D Artist and Animator from India. He is a BFA Graduate with specialization in sculpture (traditional). An inclination towards the digital medium made him a self taught computer artist. He is a currently freelancing. You can follow him on Twitter as @karan_81.
Final Image Preview
Step 1
We first start with loading a background reference image. I have made sketch of a skull in front and side profile. You can also download this reference for a good 3D study of a skull model.
Go to View > Background image and load the image.
Step 2
Select the default cube by right-clicking. Hit F9 to go the editing options. Here, in the multires panel click on the button 'Add Multires'. Click the 'Add level' button 3 times. We see that the cube's shape has been changed to a sphere.
Step 3
Place the cube matching the reference image.
Step 4
We now begin sculpting. Select 'Sculpt Mode' from the Mode menu. Blender has good high res sculpting tools and features. Select the Sculpt panel in the Button window. You can also access the sculpt tool by pressing 'N' anywhere in the 3D view. The shortcut for the most commonly used tools in Blender are 'D' for draw, 'G' for Grab, 'S' for smooth, and 'F' for size. You can also adjust the tool brush settings according to your needs.
Step 5
Use the 'Grab' tool to pull out the basic shape of our object, matching the subject. Press 'G' and then click drag on the object.
Step 6
Don't forget the front view. Match the shape with the reference.
Step 7
After the desired shape has been achieved, add 2 more multires levels. We'll mostly be using the 'Draw tool' ('D' shortcut) in this section. Press Shift to subtract form. This is easier with a pressure sensitive graphics tablet, but can be completed with only a mouse. First, dig out the eye socket.
Step 8
Sculpt in and out to form the other basic parts of the skull.
Step 9
Add levels in the multires panel to sculpt in more details.
Step 10
Again, don't forget the front view.
Step 11
Switch between the GRAB and DRAW tools as necessary.
Step 12
We now see the bottom and clear the jaw line. Check the overall form before we begin with the teeth.
Step 13
Draw the teeth and other remaining details.
Step 14
We will now make a low poly version from the high res model. Go to object mode. Right-click on the skull and press Shift+D to duplicate it. Select either one.
Step 15
In the multires panel, reduce the level to 4 and press the 'Apply Multires' button. We now have a low poly base.
Step 16
We will now UV Unwrap the model. Select the low base model and press TAB to enter the Mesh edit mode.
Select the middle loop of vertices. On the front side deselect the vertices as shown in the image.
Step 17
Press Ctrl+E and click on 'Mark Seam'.
Step 18
Split the 3D view screen into 2 parts - one for 3D view and other for UV editing.
Step 19
While in the mesh edit mode, Press 'A' to select all vertices. Press 'U' and select 'Unwrap'.
Step 20
You will get UV layout that you can edit in the UV Editor. Rotate/Scale accordingly.
Step 21
Create a new texture image. Click on Image >New.
Step 22
Type in the dimensions of the image you want, and press OK.
Step 23
Next we'll create our Normal Map. Right-click to select the high res model first and then Shift + Right-click the base model. Press ALT-G to clear location. What actually happens here is that both our models are in the same location in the 3D space, overlapping each other.
Step 24
In the Button window, press F10 to bring out the Render options. Click on the 'Bake' panel. Select 'Normals' and 'Tangent' from the menu. Click 'Selected to Active'. Click 'BAKE'.
Voila! We have our normal map!
Step 25
All the high-res sculpture details are baked (according the the UV layout) on the image we created for the Low poly Base model.
Step 26
Save the Image. Don't forget to save the .blend file on each milestone, also.
Step 27
Before we bake the AO map we will use the following Ambient Occlusion settings.
Hit F8 to go to the World Settings. Select 'Ambient Occlusion'. Select 'Approximate' method. Turn on 'Pixel Cache' and enter value '1' for 'Correction'.
Step 28
Again, Select the high res model first, then the low res model. Press ALT+G to clear location. (Ignore this step if you have not moved the models). Now press F10. In the Bake panel, select Ambient Occlusion this time. Hit BAKE.
Step 29
Your AO map is now ready. Save the image with a new name.
Step 30
No we will apply our maps to the base model. First, move the High Res model to another layer, as we don't need it any more. Select the high poly model and press 'M'. Click on the layer block to move.
Step 31
Select the layer in which we have our base model. Select the Model and F5 to open the Materials panel in the Buttons window. Next we'll apply the AO map. In the 'Texture' panel, select Tex1. Press UV in the 'Map input' panel. In the 'Map to' panel press 'Col'.
Step 32
Press F6 to open the Texture Panel in the Buttons window. Select texture type > Image.
Step 33
Load the AO map in the image panel.
Step 34
Now we will apply our Normal Map. Add New Texture in the Texture panel (press F5 to bring material buttons).
Step 35
Press 'UV' in the Map input panel. For normal maps we press 'Nor' in the 'Map to' panel. Move the slider value of 'Nor' way up.
Step 36
Press F6 to open the Texture panel and select 'Image' as the texture type. Press 'Normal Map' in the Map image panel. Load your normal map in the Image panel.
Step 37
Now we will preview our models with maps applied in the 3D view. But first we will add a few lamps. Press SPACE anywhere in the 3D view to bring up the menu. Select 'Add LAMP'. Add 3-4 lamps and place them around the model.
Step 38
Now to preview the model, go to the 'Game' menu. Turn on Blender GLSL Materials.
Step 39
Change 'Draw Type' to 'Textured'.
Step 40
And we now have our model with maps applied!
Play with the AO map in your favorite image editing software and see the results. Press the 'Reload' button in the image panel of the Texture section (F6) to refresh the Map. The model is now ready to export.
Final Product
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Kristen June 9th
Congrats on the new site. Can’t wait to try this out. I need all the Blender help I can get.
( )2tone June 9th
Very good tutorial!
( )Craigsnedeker June 9th
Great tutorial. Glad to see it’s blender also. I’m working on some also. nothing that good though
( )Sean Sumido June 9th
Finally, TUTS for 3d is now UP! I love it.im a newbie and i need this so badly.
thanks so much!
( )Vincent Cohen June 9th
Ahh, Awesome! I have been refreshing the moment I noticed cg.tutsplus was online to see if there would be a blender tutorials.
I am so going to follow this!
( )Ian June 9th
An important note to all those thinking about learning Blender, or for those who may have dabbled with it in the past. The interface is undergoing a bit of an overhaul soon with version 2.5 due out and other significant improvements which should make learning Blender a lot easier than ever before. I highly recommend this flexible open source 3d software… it’s free and rapidly developing.
( )simonataction June 9th
Nice Tutorials but I dont like Blender .. Ugly GUI and too difficult …
I prefer Max
( )Craigsnedeker June 9th
NVA! The GUI is rockin’ Awesome!
just takes a while to get used to it….
( )kumar June 14th
If Blender’s UI is Difficult for some of U… It was Easy for me. that means I can learn any software’s UI with Ease.
Blender is the First (Mother) software that attracted/inspired and HELPED me to take the first steps in this 3D world.
Just like most got Inspired by it. since I learned From blender… it was easy for me to navigate through Maya & 3DSmax interface.
Blender Just Rocks. From the Blender Users (and People familiar with Blender) Perspective.
Morten Najbjerg June 9th
Luckily it is possible to change the icons and the looks a lot. My Blender is looking much better with rounded corners, smoother icons, and a nice gray/black/orange colorscheme.
By the way..
The Blender developers are working on a major rebuild of Blender where the GUI is completely reworked… Close to the Modo looks… but it’ll be a couple of months before it is released though.
As for the difficulty – I found Max a lot harder
I guess it’s just a matter of taste.
( )Joe June 9th
All GUI’s are ugly/difficult until you get accustomed to them
And I’m excited about this site too. Blender is neat because it’s free. Yeah, it’s not as easy to get used to as other applications, but nonetheless, it’s amazing. However, I’m definitely more used to Maya
( )kumar June 14th
yes Me too. Maya’s 3D View is very smooth. I want such Smoothness Implemented in Blender Too.
I Am always at Blender side Even if I like/Know Maya More than Blender.
kumar June 14th
Maya & Max are careers and Blender is Hobby and Freedom (Free beer).
Joe June 9th
I’m sure most people would prefer Max over Blender, but their wallets would probably argue otherwise.
( )Oliver June 10th
yes the GUI is very ugly and i don’t like blender.
More Max tuts please!!!
Joe June 10th
Personally I love 3DS Max and I tried Blender before but found it difficult.
But I’m willing to learn Blender, especially as I didn’t realise it had sculpting!! I did sculpting in ZBrush before and loved it.
TheGrayK June 10th
Actually i prefer blender to max and maya i have used them both blender is my favorite with all the features it has dont get me wrong though my wallet is glad i like blender too.
Michael Z June 10th
You can always get yourself the PLE (Personal Learning Edition) off the Autodesk website. Well, at least you can for Maya.
I am not too sure why people would be using Blender over Max or Maya, which is industry standard stuff, if they were serious about getting into the 3D/CG industry.
But on the other hand, if they don’t want to risk getting the demo version and cracking the software, or go the PLE version, or spend 1/10th of the price and buy a student version of the good stuff, then Blender would be the better option.
In my opinion, it shouldn’t come down to what the GUI looks like. MAX and Maya’s GUI is boring as hell. It should really be what can this software package provide and how powerful is it.
Toast June 9th
everytime i open up Blender it seems to say “I HATE YOU!”
( )Diego SA June 9th
YEEEEAAAHHH! Blender, finally! My first step to get into 3D world! Really thank you!
( )3d June 9th
brilliant absolutley immense just what we were looking for – just downloaded blnder and decided to expand to 3d work this week then this turned up coincidence – or fate thankyou Karan Shah nice one
( )tommy5 June 9th
Awesome! Very good tutorial!
( )Love to see more blender tuts!
Dario Gutierrez June 9th
I agree with simonataction is much better 3D Max, but congratulations for this tutorial is very detailed.
( )Aleso June 9th
really nica tutorial.
( )Johnny K. June 9th
why blender?
( )You could better use C4D or maya!
Migweld June 10th
Because Blender is freeeeeeee!
( )Raven June 10th
Well being that Blender is free it is readily available to everyone, legally. So the question is, Why not Blender?
( )Michael Z June 10th
Because Blender is NEVER used in the industry, ANYWHERE.
I’m not having a go at Blender, all go forth and procreate with Blender. My biggest problem is that people should be using the industry standard stuff if they want a real taste of the way things are. Otherwise, if you are only doing some 3D to bugger around with, go for it!
Roland Porth June 11th
“NEVER used in the industry”????
Blender was used for the Animatic of Spider-Man 2!
loran June 11th
I am a senior Max user and start Blender since few month: Blender is AMAZING. GUI is great, far from max tons of menus and tabs! AMAZING tools Max doesn’t have out of the box (scuplt, fluids and soon smokes!)
Janosch June 17th
@Michael Z: Blender has also been used for several commercials btw.
I mean what is the problem, when many people keep on telling not to use Blender it will not be used more. Are these trolls paid by major 3d software industry or is it the random «I use XYZ which makes me better than you…»?
weilynncg June 9th
Great sculpt in Blender, I’m glad to see it’s also in CGTuts+
( )Briggs June 9th
Nice! Please do a spaceship blender tutorial!
( )Corniger June 9th
Finally… Another CG site hosts Blender tutorials! Go, Blender! The world is waking up. Judging Blender by the way it looks is a very limited approach though
and whatever it still lacks is being worked on!
( )Matthew June 9th
It nice to see some quality tutorials for blender, most of the other 3D programs have great tutorials, however there kind of hard to find for Blender so thanks for taking the time to make one.
( )yunior88 June 9th
very good!! Thanks..
( )phradaka June 9th
Great tutorial.
Glad to see blender is here..
Blender FTW…
( )Cuby07 June 9th
Great tutorial thanks!
( )Raven June 10th
WEWT! Cuby!!! #blenderchat
( )anderber June 9th
Great tutorial! Hope to see more Blender at CGTuts! What a great way of making a good low res model.
( )TweakingKnobs June 9th
Ha ha ha, i dont like blender,
ugly GUI, ha ha ha…
Oh boy , this young people….
( )WillxD June 9th
Nice tutorial ! . Blender rlz
( )deyons June 9th
Blenders interface was original made for an in private studio design company and not made to be sold to the public like Max or Maya. The interface is all about speed and functionality, not looking pretty for you boys and girls. Any how now that you know the history; Its interface is being tremendously over hauled. So hold tight its going to get way better.
( )Michael Z June 10th
Are you suggesting that the interface with Max and Maya is pretty??
( )Joe June 11th
The interface is more intuitive in Max, I could find my way around Max pretty easily, Blender seems a bit all over the place.
Also, why is save Ctrl+w?
Roland Porth June 11th
Ctrl+w = (w)rite
Agustin Saldias June 9th
simply a+mazing.
( )Davd_97 June 9th
I’ve been looking for a tutorial like this for Blender FOREVER!
Thank you!
( )-David
erik90mx June 9th
Is a amazing tutorial
and Blender is great, just is a little diferent but have a enormus power
( )Liam June 9th
Brilliant tut! Finnally a decent source of Blender tutorials
keep ‘em coming guys.
( )Philo June 9th
Nice Tutorial! Prefer 3Ds Max though
( )Seth June 9th
Nice tutorial, very detailed,
( )too bad im a cinema4d user.
Geoff June 9th
Great tutorial! Will try this out soon and looking forward for more to come.
( )Sirwan June 9th
I just graduated as an Architect, this being a free software maybe a very useful step in the workplace to learn and use. thanks for this, i will definatly follow it.
( )random June 9th
Great tut, I never knew how to use normal aps till now, how embarrassing. thanks
( )Sirwan June 9th
Can you also do screencasts, please.
( )Joe June 9th
I prefer being able to own a house. I’ll stick to Blender, thanks! Have you seen the 2.5 GUI?
( )NaN June 9th
Good number of clear steps.
Thanks.
Hey Trolls, I’m Paid to use max but way prefer Blender.
( )AwokeKnowing June 9th
Blender so nicely integrates the sculpting and modeling and texuring and rendering process! Great tutorial.
( )Reyn June 9th
Thanks a lot! =)
As far as my research is concerned, this is yet the best and most well-written tutorial in this matter that I’ve read. Keep it coming.
-Reyn
( )RNS June 9th
Yeah! this is good thanks a lot! this help me develop some game trail.
( )Ben Lind June 9th
Yes! Finally – some high-quality, useful Blender tuts!
I can’t wait for you guys to come out with more – I’ll be gobbling them up!
( )rajesh June 9th
nice dude….nice sculpting tutorial…
( )Zalesthebard June 10th
if you do not want to steal 3dMax or Maya or C4D, blender is the only choice to improve 3D.. or not?
( )At the Politecnico of Torino we use only Blender, and we try to making it better, starting with the interface, you can do that with Maya?
So: low poly, nice results, very nice Nor,… Nice Blender! Nice tutorial!
Paul June 10th
Nice Tutorial…can’t wait to go home and try it out…nice!
( )pjoe June 10th
Does max/maya have integrated sculpting tools yet? If not then you would have to go through the whole hassle of exporting / importing to zbrush / mudbox.
This is what is so cool about blender, having the sculpting tool integrated with the modeling tool. And those GLSL shaders in the main viewport just rocks. Looking forward to 2.5 with the updated GUI
( )b00m June 10th
Wow this is great…Blender in CG.tuts+!
( )I hope more blender and other 3d apps tuts post here.:D
Blender 2.5 can’t wait.:)
Grafixsuz June 10th
Nice tutorial, and in my favorite program too. Blender is just a program guys and it plays nice with the other apps out there, I know as I use it in combination with XSI regularly.
( )rishteria June 10th
nice tut … but I think that’s so dificult for newbies like me … thanx ^^’
( )Ben Parsons June 10th
Loving this new addition to the Tuts+ Network… Cracking Tutorial mate keep up the good work!
( )Leo Shastri June 10th
Just amazing.
( )Jose June 10th
Excellent!!! I’ll be coming every day!!
( )Craigsnedeker June 10th
I think people need to stop bad-mouthing Blender. It can do anything max can do, and the interface takes time to get used to, but once you do, you’ll like it more then anything else!
( )blenderender June 10th
thanks a lot for this tut, great starter for me.
( )blenderender June 10th
by the way am a Ugandan 3D artist, used blender a lot for architectural visualisations but never tried organic objects before. am looking forward to pursuing this with blender no doubt
( )kABHIr June 10th
nice tutorial and well explained
( )Dj June 10th
Learning Blender’s GUI is about like using GIMP’s – quite a bit NON-intuitive, but memorizable. [I don't know why "open" projects seem to be like that] It seems to be able to accomplish ALMOST all of the things the “big guys” do.
The tut, for me, was a bit difficult to follow – as are most “rote” step oriented instructions. It might help to segment the steps into major goals with an explanatory paragraph about what will be accomplished and WHY you are doing it that way. That’s a method used in professional instruction manual development which works. Just a thought.
Perhaps these kinds of tut’s are best accompanied by a screencast.
( )Ola Magnus Gjermshus June 10th
Sooo awesome
this it what I been waiting for 
Great tut, and great site ;b
( )The Oblivious Prattler June 10th
Yes, Blender can be difficult to navigate, and yes, there are probably commercial programs that have more and easier features. However, as many people have been saying, we don’t all have money trees in our backyards. We’re not trying to be cheap; we simply can’t afford those other modelers. C4D costs almost $1,000? Sorry, but there are better ways to spend that money. Blender is the perfect program for artists who have loads of talent but not loads of cash. As far as the bad GUI goes, it may not be an issue much longer. Version 2.5 is expected to be greatly improved.
( )Ian June 10th
The key thing to remember about Blender is that if you have any kind of problem with it, any kind of criticism… then get off your backside and join the development!
Make the tool what you want it to be! You can’t do that with a proprietary software.
( )Michael Z June 10th
What about topology??
I can see that there is no topographical information on this scull at all. Shouldn’t we be teaching people how to model the correct way, even if it is going to be used for a low poly model.
( )Ash June 12th
For those of you badmouthing Blender because of the GUI:
The magic of Open Source software is that you can CHANGE it as much as you want. Something missing? want a function? Write it in! If you don’t like the GUI, modify it.
I have yet to see a version of 3DS max where you could have open a UV mapper (which, by the way, has the best smart projection coding of any piece of 3d software(proven), 3 different views of your object, a material editor which also included the render settings, a logic engine and modifiers, a serious amount of exporters (MOST of which work), that can import over 20 file types (with some 100KB python scripts added), a built-in sculpt tool, the ability to use nodes, recalculate normals by pressing one button (I’ve used 3ds max too, and this required selecting every inverted face and flipping it, which also takes less time in blender), the Ability to preview something in the 3d window before rendering…and more, probably, that I don’t know about.
Oh, and if you find the UI difficult I feel bad for you. There’s quite a bit of online documentation, and almost everything can be accessed through the keyboard rather then clicking into a different tool every few seconds.
( )Darren June 12th
There is no “correct way” to model, only a preferred way. You get the same results either way you approach it.
I’ve read a few of your comments, and you keep insisting you are not bad mouthing Blender, when its fairly obvious that you are. Who cares that its not industry standard software? The principals for modeling/texturing/animating across ALL 3D software is exactly the same, it’s just different approaches are taken through the various software packages available.
Just because people are using free open source software with a greater feature-set than Max/Maya, doesn’t mean its any less important.
( )Craig Luce June 10th
The grass-roots nature of blender and other open source makes it imperative to investigate !!! And just you try to get a major sw application company to respond well to a feature request! HA
The real goal for cg artists is to learn the concepts and FILM DIRECTION, not just any specific program.
Blender is the great leveler of 3D.
More tuts like this, please — helps EVERYONE, independent of Software!
( )Leo83 June 10th
The difficult part of the blender is to memorize all the shortcut. But once you got it, you’ll gonna be as smooth as riding a roller coaster. After you finish you feels like you want to do it again…
( )Karol Adamczyk June 11th
That is brilliant!
( )oscar acevedo June 11th
Excelente, celebro con todos la existencia de este nuevo enlace, espero que siga creciendo como sus paginas heramanas..
Muchas gracias y mucja suerte.
( )lawrence77 June 11th
omg, your twitter account is suspended…….. Why?
( )pat June 11th
amazing!i love animation and 3d stuff because it’s like my dream job to be in Pixar!
( )ArielPty June 11th
Nice Blender Tuts, just waiting for the 2.5 version with its new GUI
( )Myfacefriends June 11th
this is really amazing tuts.
( )Bob Kelso June 11th
Very useful. Helped me a lot.
( )Simkyn June 11th
Only reason Blender’s UI seems difficult is not knowing where things are.
I used 3ds MAX for years and wouldn’t touch Blender. Last year I decided to force myself into trying it out for a month. Spent time on a few tutorials and tried things out myself. Experimented with as many of the features as I could figure out.
After a months time I was hooked and realized Blender’s UI is in fact intuitive and quite fast to work with.
If everyone would just force themselves to try it out for at least a minimum of 2 weeks. I think they’d change their minds how easy it really is to get things done in Blender.
Some of the best FREE Blender tutorials I’ve ever found were from this site:
( )http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html
The video tutorials cover all the basics and a lot of advanced techniques.
bigeyex June 12th
wow, so many replies.
( )otomo June 12th
nothing beats the stupidity of a good ol’ “my 3d app is better than yours” flamewar.
Thanks for the tutorial. I will try it. In my life is space for more than one 3D app.
( )sine June 12th
Re: many above: Blender doesn’t have to be ugly. You can theme it.
( )Great tutorial – thank you. More blender please. Animation, scene building, export possibilities…
urakhai911 June 14th
You have no idea how happy I am! Thanks!
( )kaeru June 15th
Why people have to say “you should’ve used (”industry standard software” here) instead ?
( )Is it the same with other software tuts ?
3dsmax should’ve used maya , modo tut should’ve have used silo ?
Nate June 15th
Very nice to see a Blender tutorial.
( )GABO June 16th
I’m glad to see awesome tutorials of this AWESOME 3D suite.
I hope it will not make PLUS Blender tutorials. It would be an irony, because, FREE SOFTWARE = PAY FOR TUTORIAL ??
( )Nate June 17th
Yes, that would irritating. Actually, I’m currently working on a roundup of Blender
( )tutorials. I am hoping it turns out OK.
gabo June 21st
Keep me informed, plz
ggrosso.dg@gmail.com
RGriffoGoes June 21st
Amazing tutorial.
Although you made the sculpt seems soooo easy…. and is fucking hard! lol but then I read: “with specialization in sculpture”…..
Thanks
( )travis June 21st
awesome
( )Thomas June 23rd
Great tutorial.
( )For those of you who are complaining about blender’s interface, you just aren’t used to it. I don’t find anything hard to get to in blender. It’s much more accessible than in Max or Maya from my experience, and there are tons of tools, and it’s all in about 15mb (depending on the OS) too!
Victor Manuel Venegas Hernandea June 24th
this tutorial was awesome, but i thinks , thank the don show all the blender sculp blender features, like axis lock o axis simetry or de curve editor for the brush and also is posible to use a texture to sculp.
( )Magnus July 20th
Thank you, a very good tutorial
( )sujith July 29th
wow..nice tutorial
( )SEspider August 17th
Thanks for the help, Karen,
But I can’t get it to work. Every time I try the first BAKE, I get a
( )“No image to bake to” error.
Yari September 12th
Zarąbisty tutorial (SUPER)
( )jUAN cArlos Blender September 12th
¡Coméeeeee toto del ocote!
( )m1rr0r September 16th
Thanks for the good tutorial! It is just what I need.
Please, make more Blender tutorials with quality like this one!
( )Siavash September 19th
Hi, thanks a lot for this great tutorial
Unfortunately I’ve problem in 24/25/26 steps. Normal maps are not baking correctly for me [its triangular]
I’m using Blender 2.49b. Here is a link to the baked normal map.
Best Regards
( )Siavash September 19th
http://www.turboimagehost.com/p/2140480/skull_normal.jpg.html
( )Fillippe October 19th
Same here :/
( )Karan Shah October 23rd
Select the object (when in object mode) and then press Set smooth button in editing panels (F9).
( )or
In the edit mode, Select all vertices and press W to bring out special menu and select set smooth.