By Alvaro Haddad.

Stylized Cartoon Crocodile

In this project, I wanted to showcase my ability to bring 2D drawings/concepts into 3D. The original concept art is by Mattias Adolfsson, whose playful and intricate style was a great inspiration. Translating it into 3D came with many challenges. In 3D softwares, shapes tend to become mathematically perfect, but I focused on keeping the organic flow of the original drawing — where no line is perfectly straight. This helps preserve the stylized, cartoon-like feel, which has become one of my favorite approaches.
For the process, I combined both modeling and sculpting tools in Blender, and also used the HardOps addon for some of the mechanical details. The character was also taken into ZBrush for additional sculpting comfort, even though this wasn’t strictly necessary to achieve the result.
As 3D artists, we often begin by striving for hyperrealism, but over time we discover the beauty of stylization — breaking rules (once you know them) and pushing artistic boundaries to create something more expressive and unique.
This project represents that journey for me: keeping the charm of a hand-drawn concept while expanding it into a fully realized 3D world.

Process:
I started by modeling in Blender, placing the 2D concept on top as reference and carefully translating the shapes into 3D — a tricky step that requires interpretation rather than just copying. For the hard-surface details I used HardOps booleans, while in sculpt mode I relied on brushes like Grab and Inflate to break the stiffness of primitive forms and keep the drawing’s organic feel. The crocodile was briefly taken into ZBrush for additional sculpting.
For texturing, I worked in Substance Painter with UDIMs, then enhanced them in Blender’s Shader Editor to add variation and life. The final scene was lit and rendered in Cycles. Since the project was always meant to respect the 2D drawing, everything was modeled to be viewed from a single camera angle.

You can see more of information about this image in the following link: https://blenderartists.org/t/stylized-crocodile/1613073

Also my artstation portfolio here:
https://www.artstation.com/alvaro18