Mafia Hippo: from base mesh to game-ready character — a stylised 3D character case study

The essence of stylised character work is one sentence: the silhouette must tell the character. In Mafia Hippo, a heavy, wide body and a "boss" posture (leather jacket, plaid shirt, gold chain, cigar, office chair) read in the same silhouette. The project page is on the site — main image, alternate angle, base mesh and wireframe. This post explains the order and the decisions.

1. Base mesh: proportions get locked

The first step is proportion, not detail: head-to-body ratio, short legs, wide shoulders, a forward lean. The base mesh was built at low poly and the silhouette tested — if the character is recognisable as a shadow from three angles (front, side, 3/4), we continue. Approval happens at this stage; changing proportions later is expensive.

2. Sculpt: character language

In the high-poly sculpt the face (eyelids, lips, teeth), skin wrinkles, jacket seams and fabric folds were worked. Rule: detail serves the silhouette, never competes with it. Jacket collar, chain and cigar are the three accessories carrying the "boss" idea; all built as separate meshes so they stay manageable in retopo and texturing.

3. Retopo: animation-ready topology

A sculpt cannot enter a game; a clean mesh was built with retopo:

• Circular edge loops around the mouth and eyes (for facial expression)
• Enough segments at elbows, shoulders and fingers for deformation
• Jacket, shirt and trousers as separate parts; no intersecting surfaces
• Quad-dominant, no n-gons; wireframe on the project page

The poly budget sits at PC/console hero-character level; a mobile version can be decimated on the same UVs if needed.

4. UVs and textures: four materials, one language

The character is made of four material families: skin (grey, a hint of subsurface), leather (jacket; rough, worn at the edges), fabric (plaid shirt; weave pattern), metal (chain, belt buckle; high metallic, low roughness). PBR set — BaseColor, Normal (baked from the sculpt), Roughness, Metallic, AO. Because the stylised look rests on form rather than texture, the textures were kept "clean"; no noise. PBR guide.

5. Presentation and delivery

Turntable render, wireframe view, alternate angle; FBX + GLB, texture set in both packings (Unreal ORM / Unity Metallic-Smoothness), .blend source. If a rig is wanted, a humanoid skeleton and idle/walk set are added.

What this process teaches

• Lock proportions at the base mesh; fixing them later breaks every stage.
• Make accessories separate meshes; texturing and rigging get easier.
• In stylised characters, textures stay simple and form does the talking.
• Show the wireframe at delivery — "game-ready" is proven by topology, not by words.

A character for your own game: the Commissioning a 3D game character guide and WhatsApp. All game work: Game & 3D.