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Creative Bloq
Creative Bloq
Technology
3D World staff

“It was the really loud, cheesy and retro look that hooked me in” – this 3D artist updated a retro Japanese sci-fi classic

Gabriel Lebel Bernier 3D art of the week.

Gabriel Lebel Bernier is a look dev artist and 3D generalist from Montreal, Canada. His series ‘Yuriko’ is inspired by a character from the Japanese Ultraman film and TV franchiser. Gabriel used a range of software including Maya, Arnold, Substance 3D Painter, ZBrush and XGen. Here we find out more about the process.

If you're inspired by Gabriel’s artwork, take a look at our collection of the best ZBrush tutorials to help refine your 3D skills. Looking to upgrade your creative kit? Check out our guide to the best laptops for 3D modelling.

(Image credit: Gabriel Lebel Bernier)

Gabriel says: As with most of my projects, I got inspired while doomscrolling through the internet. There’s always a moment when an image or idea stands out from the noise.

For this one, it was an old picture of Yuriko Oka from the Japanese sci-fi series Return of Ultraman. It was the really loud, cheesy and retro look that hooked me in. I loved everything about it.

(Image credit: Gabriel Lebel Bernier)
(Image credit: Gabriel Lebel Bernier)

The hardest part was finding good references. As the show first aired in 1971, most images I found were very low-resolution and had a lot of compression, leaving them either desaturated or oversaturated. I tried to use some free AI tools to upscale and restore the references, but I didn’t get anything out of it aside from spam mail, so I had to fill in a lot of the gaps.

Huge thanks goes to Lukas Kutschera, who gave me a lot of constructive feedback while working on this project.

Check out Gabriel’s ArtStation.


This content originally appeared in 3D World magazine.

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