Final Shot of Ranma

Final Shot of Akane

I started by modeling Ranma in Maya. I didn’t use ZBrush because I wouldn’t need to bake normal maps anyway. After I was happy with the base shape of her, I began adding edge loops in areas where shadows would fall.

Here, you can see all the different patches I created. This allows me to manipulate the normals on each patch, slightly altering their direction to create the stepped shadow effect commonly seen in anime.

Here’s how Ranma looked after I finished adjusting the normals and applied the basic toon shader in Maya. The hair isn’t completed yet.

I created basic UVs for the hair and painted two simple masks in Substance Painter. Each mask controls one highlight and determines where it can appear.

Here, you can see the lighting setup in Maya with the masks applied. The back of the head isn’t lit, so the painted mask doesn’t activate. This setup also includes a linework pass from Substance Painter.

At the end, I duplicated the mesh, inverted its normals, applied a black surface shader, and adjusted the distance from the original mesh slightly in some areas. This created the outline effect. Here is the final render straight out of Maya.