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Udemy3D ModelingPaid courseIntermediate levelCertificate

Making a Cartoon Character in Zbrush course (Udemy.com)

Zbrush and Keyshot course

Created by: NIkolay Naydenov

Last updated December 2021

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What you will learn

  • Making cartoon character from scratch in Zbrush
  • Tips and tricks of making a clean shape in Zbrush
  • Modelling a horse in Zbrush
  • Basics of rendering in Keyshot

How it compares

Against the other 545 rated Udemy courses in 3D Modeling on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.8 out of 5higher than 90% of them
  • Reviews144#377 of 546 by number of reviews
  • Length18.7 hourslonger than 85% of them
  • Last updatedDecember 2021earlier than 58% of them

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Course Description

In this course we will do scary dragons!

And brave knights!

And also a ... horse.

So basically we will do this guy.

The concept is from Taran Fiddler

This is  Making a Cartoon Character in Zbrush course - Dragon knight edition.


My name is Niko, and i will be your host for around 50 exciting videos, full with trilling cartoon character sculpting in Zbrush, along with some tips and tricks. Expect also some peptalks and wise life advises and stories, here and there.


My experience and facination with cartoon characters goes long way since i was a little boy, drawing from comic books, and reaches up to this day. So now, my 15 years of experience in the game industry help me help you make the best characters you possible can :).


This course is mainly for intermediate Zbrush users, and if you are a complete beginner, you should look for my Absolute beginner Zbrush course or my other Zbrush, Blender, Substance painter course for beginners, and then get back to this one.


In this course we will start by loading my interface and hotkeys, i will explain why you will work 2 or 3 times faster with it, and at the end of the course if you don't like to work that fast, i will tell you how to revert back to default Zbrush UI.

Then i will talk about my process of thinking when i start working from concept a bit. After that we will do a dragon's head, which is not even in the concept, but it will definitely be fun.


Then we will went on to model the body and the arms, talking a bit about how real anatomy affects even the cartoon characters. We will make the legs and then we will concentrate a bit on the horse, by talking a bit about horse anatomy and the importance of references when we sculpt.

When we are ready with the overall shapes of the horse, we will do the horse and dragon tails, the spiked ball and the mighty dragon wings! We will do some of the horse clothes and straps too. Then it will be time to start the helmet of our dragon knight. It will be a process full of pain and difficult obstacles, but also with joy and new knowledge. When we are ready with the basics of the helmet we will do the pike and start detailing various things like the horse hair and doing some polypaint. We will also work few videos on the helmet to polish and finish it, because it is a pretty important part of our model after all.

We will then continue detailing the dragon rider by adding some fine details here and there to prepare it for posing.


After that we will pose the character using the latest Zbrush technologies of posing, that i use for about a decade now. When we are done with the posing and we are happy with how our character look, it will be time for the bonus section of our course - Keyshot. I will get you familiar with everything you need to know in this pretty easy program, capable of handling all the millions polygons and the polypaint, from Zbrush. We will make some materials, lights and finally i will show you how to make a render and a turntable video for your characters.

This course is for intermediate Zbrush users, but if you are a beginner, don't worry, go to thе "Absolute beginner Zbrush course" or my other "Zbrush, Blender, Substance painter course for beginners", and then get back to this one and you will be fine.


Since the dawn of time people were afraid of dragons and they were facinated by them. So after thousands of years all the stories and fables of dragons and knigts, are finally combined in to one character. It is up to you to explore how this character is modelled and rendered in Zbrush and Keyshot, and even do your own version! So lets dive in to it!


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Instructor Details

NIkolay Naydenov

I have interest in arts since i was a very little kid. I was drawing all the time at school and at home. I was barely going out to play with the other kids, and later go to night clubs. Drawing and books were my passions. Later i became a Graphic Designer and then i was 3D character artist at Gameloft for 15 years. I have more than 10 years of experience with Zbrush, but now i use the amazing free software Blender and make courses and characters with its help.

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Reviews

4.8

144 ratings on Udemy

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By Udemy User on 8/28/2026

I'm Vietnamese, I can't listen to English very well, I need proper subtitles so that I can follow the course. Urgh... Anyway, I like the tutor's teaching style. It'll be fun if he livens up the lesson more.

By Dmitriy Chebykin on 11/26/2025

Amazing course! Amazing teacher! Everything was interesting, including the lyrical digressions about life and real-life stories. It was like watching a TV series and mastering new techniques with brushes and references in ZBrush. Thank you so much, Niko.

By Kevin Zaatour on 8/3/2024

Really nice tuto like always from Niko, even tho sometimes during this tuto he talked a lot about things that are not really important but always fun to hear, thank you again ! I do recommend it completely

By Lucas Freitas on 5/18/2024

The best teacher that i had , juts fun and fantastic all your courses and your knowledge ! thanks so much Niko

By Vitali Makouski on 9/25/2022

Thanks for this course! It's very helpful. I learned a lot of useful things and sculpting methods. It's amazing!

By Corentin Ville on 7/4/2022

Amazing work, amazing project, amazing teacher, what else there is to say ? I recommand it to anyone that wanna learn stylized project on zbrush !

By Nahueldaranno daranno on 3/31/2022

excellent! nikolay is one of the best explaining zbrush , anatomy and sculpting technique. all the courses are so funny and very detail , nik share a lot of good information and knowlegde .

By Emanuele C. on 1/31/2022

Niko is one of the best zbrush teachers you can find online. This is my third course and I had great improvements, I'm planning to start the human anamoty courses as soon as possible. Thanks Niko!

By Jack Stephenson on 1/19/2022

Niko is an amazing teacher and explains his reasoning for each step he takes. He makes the journey fun with little life stories and funny experiences. 5/5 very good! :)

By David Massaroni on 1/1/2022

Il docente del corso è molto chiaro e approfondisce aspetti di approccio al soggetto che spesso non vengono affrontati a dovere. Lo consiglio sia ai principianti sia a chi sta già a un buon livello perché qualcosa c’è sempre da migliorare.

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Overall Score : 96 / 100