Primarettas project

Hi everyone!

This work not affiliated with Games Workshop, it’s a fanart and study project. I am not planning to produce and sell STLs of them, don’t ask.

Read this article for more detailed breakdown https://slipgatecentral.substack.com/p/primarettas-recap

Sharing my latest study/fanart project, “Primarettas”. Name coming from ‘Primaris’ marines by Games Workshop. Really liked the design, and tried to fit it onto a female body. 

The whole purpose of this project was to study generative AI tools, both 2D and 3D, and see how far they progressed over last 3 years since I first dabbed into Stable Diffusion. Short answer: pretty far.

I really wanted to see how latest workflows and tools can be applied to something more grounded, something more close to real production. I haven’t tried building anything serious yet, apart from various disconnected tests. 

Why female space marines? I love W40K universe, it is well known, and aesthetics are instantly recognizable. Huge art fandom. Trying something new nobody seen before is always more fun, especially if executed on a good level.

One may ask - what’s the goal of this? Well, it’s a visdev work, think of it as of a high level concept art. Neither 3D or 2D, new kind of mixed media that doesn’t have an established name yet. Character design information is stored in high-res AI renders, video turnarounds: all that can be reused indefinitely with AI tools. Main thing is that character base is built with 3D models, which keeps consistency in check and AI have less chance to break design in renders or animations. No need for optimization - we’re rendering static models, the only goal is to produce good looking, distinct shapes, so AI can read it without mistakes.



Next thing I really wanted to try, was the AI kitbash. I was looking at examples of this workflow back in 2025 but 3D generators were still too early. Right now they’re in a very decent state, at least for this kind of work. Haven’t tried low poly generations yet, will do later. Anyway, the 3D generators are really good for kitbashing 3D art, so much so I will never ever visit a stock marketplace ever again. We’re talking about dozens of hours of saved time on this particular project. I personally value this alot, as it allows me to spend more time on a larger vision and more importantly - body proportions, face, hair, all things important for character charisma.


I want to do a more detailed breakdown later, but If described briefly, workflow looked like this:



-start with base body and armor models


-find references, extract concepts in Gemini / NanoBanana Pro


-generate 3D kitbash in Tripo and Meshy.


-Add to Zbrush scene.


-Generate curvature mask in Zbrush


-Render in Toolbag with no

-UV curvature workflow.


-Use these renders for AI pass

-photorealism, damage, wear, etc.


-Use AI renders to compose scenes and animate with Kling/Veo
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Please be respectful in comments, I know this is a controversial topic and I will gladly answer your questions, if they're polite. Thanks!

Since Artstation makes it REALLY hard to attach or upload videos to artstation posts, here are links to other places with videos of Primarettas:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX7dMyEiYPJEXgHruzZjiRcSoqaKrLG1G

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https://www.tiktok.com/@slipgatecentral_art

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https://www.instagram.com/slipgateworks/

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