Bohloul Belarak | Expert 3D Character Artist

Josh Hokit — EA SPORTS UFC 6

I had the opportunity to work on Josh Hokit for EA SPORTS UFC 6, taking the character through several stages of the character art pipeline while maintaining a strong focus on likeness, realism, and production quality.

The character development process involved a combination of traditional sculpting and working with scan-based data when available. Depending on the source material, I refined and cleaned up the scan, corrected forms and anatomy, and added the additional sculpted details required to achieve the desired final quality.

My Responsibilities

My work on the character included:

Traditional sculpting and form development in ZBrush
Cleaning up and refining scan-based geometry when provided
Correcting facial and body forms, proportions, and anatomy
Adding secondary and tertiary sculpted details
Modeling, cleanup, and final polish in Maya
Texture creation and refinement using Substance 3D Painter and Adobe Photoshop
Hair and grooming work in Maya using Ornatrix
Reconstructing and refining body tattoos from available reference material

Likeness & Scan Refinement

One of the main priorities throughout the project was achieving a convincing and accurate likeness of Josh Hokit.

When scan data was available, it served as a valuable foundation, but still required significant artistic refinement. I focused on cleaning up scan artifacts, correcting anatomical and proportional issues, restoring important facial forms, and adding details that were either missing or not captured clearly enough in the original scan.

For areas where scan information was limited, I relied more heavily on traditional sculpting and reference analysis to ensure the final result remained consistent and recognizable.

Tattoo Reconstruction

The character also included multiple tattoos across the body, which required additional texture work.

Some of the available tattoo references varied in quality, resolution, and viewing angle, so part of my responsibility was to reconstruct and regenerate the tattoo artwork as accurately as possible from multiple reference images.

This involved identifying the original shapes and patterns, correcting perspective and distortion, rebuilding missing or unclear sections, and integrating the final tattoo textures naturally into the character’s skin.

Attention to Detail

A large part of the work involved refining both major and subtle character details, including:

Facial structure and likeness-specific forms
Body anatomy and proportions
Scan cleanup and surface refinement
Skin details and texture variation
Tattoo placement, shape, and visual accuracy
Hair and grooming details
Clothing materials and fabric characteristics
Small surface details that contribute to the overall realism of the character

Throughout the process, I focused on balancing likeness, artistic refinement, scan fidelity, texture quality, and technical requirements to deliver a character that met the visual standards of EA SPORTS UFC 6.