[WIP] Dragon Creator

HarlequinWerewolf · Jul 2 2026

Posting this here to mostly just keep track of my own thoughts as I try to work through this. I want to make a little character creator for a dragon in Unreal Engine where users can flick through different body parts like horns, spikes, wings etc. As well as being able to select body colour and different markings. This is basically an arty excuse to learn how to use blueprints and potentially mutable.

I've been noodling in ZBrush on and off for a few evenings smooshing together a couple of older sketches into something a bit more cohesive. I'm very much flying by the seat of my pants in terms of art direction and style, I just want it to feel like the dragons I drew as a kid! I've also played around with adding some scales in this evening but not sure if I want hand placed scales or something more tileable in the long run. Probably a mix.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/oq/ksnfupfmn96r.png

I also hate rigging and skinning but I do want to be able to have little idle animations playing. I also don't want the wings to be stuck out at all times, even if the mesh is static. So I VERY quickly made a little test in unreal with a cloth sim running on the wing membrane. I think it's pretty successful - although I won't speak to optimisation - but it's good to know it's a possibility rather than spending hours weight painting the membrane

HarlequinWerewolf · 4:16PM

I wanted to leave the sculpt alone for a bit and think about some other stuff, so I decimated the mesh, got some auto UVs, painted in some rough markings and threw it into unreal. I set up a material where you can switch markings on and off dynamically and change colours. Basically a proof of concept of what I'm wanting when I get the final model in engine. I don't know how you link all this material stuff up to a blue print or UI, but if the parameters are exposed, it shouldn't be hard, right?

https://youtu.be/VHUlegc8A6Q

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/tg/idzcmrcwz6hd.png

Eric Chadwick · 6:14PM

This is a cool idea. I wonder if you could make a couple looping animations for it, so it's breathing, scratching itself, stamping its feet, etc. Would definitely make the character creator interface more interesting. I always love it when a configurator has some life.

HarlequinWerewolf · 6:28PM

Thanks Eric!

Eric Chadwick said:

This is a cool idea. I wonder if you could make a couple looping animations for it, so it's breathing, scratching itself, stamping its feet, etc. Would definitely make the character creator interface more interesting. I always love it when a configurator has some life.

And yeah, I would like to get some little idle anims playing eventually.

To that end, I think my MVP as it stands is:

A rigged dragon mesh
A UI with options for body materials and different body parts that can be changed
3+ markings that a user can switch between and/or stack
3+ horn choices that a user can switch between
3+ body spikes choices that a user can switch between
3+ tail spikes that a user can switch between
2+ wings that a user can switch between
1-2 idle anims

[WIP] Dragon Creator

Replies