Cg Cookie - Introduction To Character Modeling In Blender May 2026

The workflow relies heavily on the Subdivision Surface modifier. You will learn how to model a "low-resolution" cage that smooths into a high-resolution character. This involves mastering techniques like:

The hardest chapter came next: UV mapping.

Maya had heard horror stories—textures stretching, seams appearing like scars across a character’s face. Jonathan demystified it.

“Think of your 3D model as a cardboard cutout. UV unwrapping is flattening that box so you can paint on it.” CG Cookie - Introduction to Character Modeling in Blender

She marked seams along the back of Grum’s arms, under his chin, inside his ears. Then she hit Unwrap and watched his polygonal skin spread across the UV editor like a strange, colorful butterfly.

She painted a simple skin texture—green, because goblin—and added a leather vest. When she applied the texture, Grum looked less like math and more like a person.

Rather than sculpting from a sphere (a common workflow in ZBrush), this CG Cookie course often focuses on a poly-by-poly modeling approach. The workflow relies heavily on the Subdivision Surface

This isn’t just a button-mashing tutorial. You’ll learn the why behind every click, equipping you with foundational skills that scale to any project.

The instructor, a calm voice named Jonathan, began simply.

“Every character, from Shrek to Gollum to a cartoon fox, starts here: the default cube.” “Think of your 3D model as a cardboard cutout

Maya followed along. She extruded faces, loop cut edges, and gradually pulled out arms from a blocky torso. It looked terrible—boxy, stiff, like a robot from a 1980s arcade game.

But Jonathan laughed. “Good. Ugly is honest. We’ll add the beauty later.”

She learned about edge loops—how they control deformation. She learned mirror modifiers—so her left side perfectly copied the right. She learned to stop modeling every muscle and instead suggest form through careful topology.

By the end of Chapter 3, her character—a plump, squat goblin she named “Grum”—had arms, legs, and a lumpy head.