How To Model & Texture A Samurai Mask With Menacing Facial Features

Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Egor Ivanov. I'm a 3D Artist from New Zealand.
While I've always been fascinated by digital art and loved playing around with image and video software during my school days, I actually ended up getting a Master's degree in engineering. I worked as an engineer for a while, and sure, the pay was good, but my heart wasn't in it.

Then came the big "aha" moment — I decided to follow my passion for 3D art. There's this amazing saying that really resonates with me: "Find something you love to do, and you'll never have to work a day in your life." That's exactly what I was after!

So, I dove headfirst into learning everything about game-ready 3D models and the whole pipeline. I explored all sorts of online courses — some were pretty meh, but others were absolute gold! Funny enough, my engineering background turned out to be super helpful — it made picking up new software feel like a breeze. Before I knew it, I was working with cool tools like Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, and Unreal Engine.

About the Samurai Mask Project

The samurai mask project? That actually started on a random evening when I just felt like doing some sculpting. Since I usually work with props and environments, I wanted to challenge myself with something more organic. A mask seemed perfect — it's like a face and a prop rolled into one! Plus, I'm a huge fan of Japanese culture and had just finished playing Ghost of Tsushima (an amazing game, by the way!), so that definitely influenced my creative direction.

When I started searching for inspiration, I initially looked at historical mask photos, but they felt a bit too realistic for what I had in mind. That's when I dove into the fascinating world of Japanese mythology — all those amazing demons and spirits really got my creative juices flowing!

To keep my ideas organized (and not lose track of all the cool stuff I found), I created a Miro board. Let me tell you — gathering great references is absolutely key to any project! While sketching your own concepts is super valuable, studying professional work opens your eyes to designs you might never have imagined. Plus, redrawing them and analyzing different techniques really helps level up your skills.

The Making of the Mask

I kicked things off in ZBrush with a standard head model. Here's a neat trick I used: I treated it like I was making character clothing and used the extract function to get a face-shaped piece with just the right thickness. This gave me a perfect starting point for proportions. From there, I had a blast sculpting and making those facial features look extra menacing!

For the rope detail, I've got a time-saving tip for you: I reused an insert mesh curve from a previous project. It's basically four hollow cylinders with their inner bits and end caps removed. A bit of tweaking with the twist function and some curve modifiers, and voilà — perfect rope! (You can also find some great rope brushes on ArtStation if you want to save even more time!)

Retopology

After finishing my detailed sculpt, it was time for retopology — which is basically rebuilding the model with a cleaner, more efficient mesh. For this step, I chose TopoGun, and I couldn't be happier with how it worked!

What I love about TopoGun is that it doesn't slow down or get choppy, even when working with super-detailed models. I was able to carefully rebuild the mask's surface, making sure to keep all the important details while using way fewer polygons. It's kind of like taking a detailed sketch and tracing just the most important lines — you want to keep the character of the original while making it much more efficient!

Baking 

After getting my low-poly model ready, it was time for baking, which basically captured all the cool details from the high-poly model and put them onto our simpler version. Think of it like making a pizza — you want all the toppings (details) to look perfect before it goes in the oven!

I love using Marmoset Toolbag for this part because it's super handy — you can see everything change right as you work. There is no need to wait around wondering if your changes worked or not. It's like having a magic preview of what your final model will look like!

Here's what I do: I start with a quick test on just a small part of the model. It's like tasting your cooking before serving the whole meal — you want to make sure everything's just right! Once that small test looks good, I know I can go ahead and bake the whole thing without any nasty surprises.

Marmoset helps me grab all sorts of details — like how shadows fall in the creases (that's ambient occlusion), where the edges curve, and how thick different parts are. All these details are super important because they help make the textures look awesome later on.

The best part? If something looks off, I can fix it right away. There's no waiting, no guessing — just quick, easy adjustments until everything looks perfect! 

Texturing

I've developed a bit of a ritual for this part. I start with Base Color (using generators for ambient occlusion, curvature, position, and gradient), then build up layers of detail. First comes occlusion with Multiply blend mode, then color variations with masks and grayscale. The fun part is when I break out the stylus and tablet to add those personal touches!

For the roughness maps, I love checking how everything looks in Marmoset Toolbag as I go. It's all about finding that sweet spot — higher roughness values in the occluded areas and lower values on the edges. It really makes the details pop!

Lighting It Up

When it comes to lighting my 3D models, I have a simple but effective setup that works every time:

First, I add a gentle fill light — think of it like turning on the room lights. It softly illuminates everything, making sure no part is too dark.

Next comes my main light — the star of the show! This directional light is like a spotlight that really brings out the form of the mask. It's what creates those important shadows that show off the details.

Then, I add a rim light — it's placed behind the model and creates that nice glowing edge. You know when you see someone with the sun behind them, and they get that bright outline? That's what I'm going for here!

Finally, I pop in a few small accent lights. These are like little spotlights that highlight specific cool details on the mask — maybe a carved pattern or an interesting texture that I don't want people to miss.

The cool thing about this setup is that you can tweak each light until everything looks just right. It's all about finding that perfect balance!

Final Thoughts

While I'm still early in my freelance journey, I'm super excited about the possibility of joining a studio team someday. This project was actually a speed challenge for myself — three days from start to finish! Sure, I hit some bumps (those high-poly to low-poly alignments can be tricky, and my first pass at the roughness contrast needed some tweaking), but that's all part of the learning process.

Here's my heartfelt advice for anyone starting out in 3D art: Don't be afraid to experiment with new techniques! Sure, they might seem daunting at first, but that's how we grow. When things get tough, there's no shame in going back to basics. See something that gets you excited? Jump in and try it! Every challenge you overcome makes the next one easier.

Thanks for letting me share my journey with you! Keep creating and having fun with 3D.

Egor Ivanov, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine