What I did: Used AI to generate the style of character I want to model (as my drawing skills aren’t great).

I started off using Adobe Firefly, generating the same prompt until I felt I had a reasonable stylised likeness to my dad in his late 30’s.

Prompt: stylised 3d character of man wearing suit, aged 38, full head of dark hair just starting to recede. strong nose and jaw, blue eyes, showing full length body, grey 3-piece suit, 1970s big collar, kipper tie, flared trousers, black shoes, sideburns no beard or moustache.

Result:

Firefly couldn’t generate a side or rear view of this character, so I switched to Microsoft Copilot. I uploaded this image and asked it to create me a side view.

Prompt: using this image as a reference, are you able to generate a side view for me please, as i want to model this character in 3d

Result:

Prompt: that is really amazing, but are you able to include his hair and his shoes please?

Result:

Prompt: Amazing, a rear view would also be super helpful, so maybe a turnaround sheet if that’s okay please? I don’t need any background, isolated characters on white would be perfect

Result:

This turnaround was a really good starting point. I opened it in Photoshop and made some tweaks to the face and hair, and making the clothing a little more 1970’s.

Result:

What I learned: This is the first time I’ve used AI to generate a reference turnaround for 3D modelling. I have found it to be a very fast solution, as for me to draw anything like this would take me many days, and wouldn’t look fractionally as good as this does. For my personal animation pipeline, AI is a huge help. It’s not perfect by any means, but with a little coaxing and some retouching, this has given me confidence to make a start on my next stage.

Next: Character modelling refresher course needed?