XC2 - Nia (Smash Ultimate Render)

Its the Neko/Gromotti girl from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This is a render made specifically for use in Smash Brothers Ultimate as a GUI asset. This one was fun to make as I focused more on making the render quality.

I do not create the character from scratch. When I create these renders, I find a base mesh and textures of the character, then I:
* Retouch the mesh to a much higher polycount for smoothness (if I feel its required)
* Modify the texture sets, upscale or recreate if its to pixelated
* Create materials with custom bumps and surfaces that is related to the look of it (leather, cotton, metals, skin)
* Light the scene properly, complete with a custom HDRI and Lighting.
* Render with V-Ray with various passes (Often a Diffuse pass so I can custom shade skin in photoshop if required)
* Export Render to Photoshop and perform postprocessing such as; extra lighting and shading, creating skins shades from scratch and fixing mistakes or roughness within the model and texture.

Credit to Nintendo and Monolith Soft for Nia and Xenoblade Chronicles 2