Since last time, I've textured the sword, created a small stone base and posed the character for his beauty shot.

Originally, I wanted to learn Blender 2.8's Rigify toolset in order to properly rig a 3D character for animation. It became too frustrating however, between the character's overlapping clothing geometry collisions to Blender's cumbersome Vertex Weight method. For some reason, I can't use the X-ray overlap during Vertex Weight mode to properly select hidden faces. I ended up relying on ZBrush's Transpose Master to pose him. Not what I planned, but it got the job done.

I've also set up the lighting rig in Marmoset Toolbag, ready for his beauty shot. After playing around, here's the first pass.

I need to find out how to fix the blocky shadows. If anyone could tip me on how to fix this, it would be a big help.

Below's an I-ray render of the sword and SP.

Update on the texturing. It's all been applied to a single 4K texture set. Not the final pass but most of the work is done. C&C welcome! 

Getting back into 3D character creation, I've spent the past few weeks on a new real-time character. The character is based on Marco Alveres' awesome concept design; his interpretation of historical figure Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

It's taken me longer than expected and caused quite a bit of frustation from constant tweaking and adjusting until I was happy. I also took the liberty of adding extra detail not present in Marco's concept, such as straps, the fancy helmet knot and a metal fastener in the back of the helmet ornament.

Below are screenshots the finished sculpt, and will be retopologised and textured when ready. Any constructive feedback is very appreciated.