Okay, so I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making some 3D models based on Jujutsu Kaisen for a while now. Big fan of the show, you know? The character designs are just really cool, and I thought it’d be a good challenge to see if I could translate them into 3D.
Getting Started: The Reference Hunt
First thing I did was just dive deep into collecting reference images. Seriously, I spent a good couple of hours just scouring the web. I grabbed screenshots from the anime, looked up official character art, even checked out some manga panels. The key thing was getting views from different angles – front, side, back if possible. Trying to capture guys like Gojo or Sukuna, you need good references for their specific looks, especially the hair and outfits.
- Grabbed lots of screenshots.
- Looked for official character sheets.
- Found some good manga panels for details.
Picking the Tools and Blocking Out
I decided to use Blender for this project. Mostly because I’m comfortable with it, and well, it’s free, which is always a plus. Once I had Blender open and my references loaded up (on a second monitor, super helpful), I started blocking out the basic shapes. I usually begin with a simple cube or sphere and just start pulling and pushing vertices around. The goal at this stage isn’t detail, it’s just getting the main proportions right. Like, how tall is the character? How broad are the shoulders? Getting that basic silhouette down first saves a lot of headache later.
I think I started with Yuji. Seemed like a good baseline. Got his general body shape roughed out, then moved onto figuring out the basic form of his uniform.
Adding the Details: Sculpting Fun (and Pain)
Once the basic blockout felt okay, I moved into sculpting. This is where things start to actually look like the character… hopefully. I spent a lot of time working on the faces. Getting the likeness right is always tricky. You’re constantly tweaking the nose, the eyes, the jawline. Gojo’s hair was another big time sink – getting those spikes to look right without looking totally unnatural took a few attempts.
Then there were the clothes. The Jujutsu High uniforms have a distinct look. Trying to sculpt the folds and creases to make them look like actual fabric, especially around the joints like elbows and knees, required patience. Fushiguro’s pose was a bit tricky too, trying to get that dynamic feel.
Textures and Final Touches
After the sculpting felt mostly done, I did some basic texturing. Nothing too fancy yet. Just laying down the base colors – the dark blue/black for the uniforms, skin tones, hair colors. Making sure the iconic features, like Yuji’s markings when Sukuna takes over, were there. I didn’t go crazy with super detailed materials this time around, just wanted to get a solid representation.
There were definitely challenges. Sometimes the software would lag a bit with higher poly counts during sculpting. Getting hands to look natural is always a struggle, I probably redid those a few times. And sometimes you stare at it too long and lose perspective, have to take a break and come back with fresh eyes.
How It Turned Out
So yeah, after all that clicking and sculpting and tweaking, I’ve got a few models that I’m pretty happy with. They’re not perfect, definitely things I could improve if I spent more time, especially on the texturing side. But seeing Yuji, Gojo, and Megumi standing there in 3D space, looking pretty close to how I pictured them? That feels pretty good. It was a fun process, learned a few new tricks in Blender along the way too. Definitely worth the time spent.
