Hello. Excuse me for longer post but I wanted to be specific. Sorry for possible grammar mistakes.

I would like to ask for tips and recommendations on a certain type of creating reference images for 3D models I am thinking of using. A little bit of context:

I want to start working on my first 3D video game character. I found a few tutorials on how to do this, and a large starting point are (quite obviously) reference images. The thing is, I have my character drawn from multiple views and in some poses. The views I mainly need for reference images are front, back and side views of my character. Done. I've had those for a little longer now, since I love designing characters, gear, weapons and such… On paper… And so, yes, they are all drawn on paper. I do not currently have (and in near future surely won't have) means to get a device such as a graphic tablet, and I, well, hate drawing with mouse, sorry, but it's really uncomfortable for me and I won't get far using the mouse as a drawing tool.

But I will be getting a printer with built-in scanner soon. So I was thinking: Could I use the scannner to copy paper drawings of my character into my PC and then use those as reference images in Blender ?

What I would like to ask is:

Does anyone have experience with importing their 3D model “blueprints” by scanning ? Even if not, would you consider this to be an appropriate method ? Would this sabotage me in any way ?

I will be grateful for all of your responses.

If you're working in a studio as a character modeler you're going to be given the model sheet with the front/back/profile views from the design department, so you're not expected to be able to draw your own.
If you're able to both design the character / model sheets and create your 3D model out of them then I'd say that's definitely a plus. Most people have limited time to learn skills, so it's best to focus on one thing first to be able to do it well, and only then pick up secondary skills (meaning, worry first about being able to model characters well from preexisting model sheets).

Yes, you can absolutely draw your model sheets on paper. A digital artist already has the graphics tablet or Cintiq around, so they would just use that. The benefits of drawing a model sheet digitally include being able to use undo+redo, layers, quick horizontal / vertical flipping, freeform warping and liquify for corrections, using visual guides for the perfect alignment between different views etc.
That's not to say you won't get those benefits if you draw it on paper: just scan your drawings and bam, they become digital images. You can then process them in an image software in the same way.

Here's a really old (2004) tutorial by Psionic3D where he uses a model sheet that he drew and scanned on his own:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040625090309/http://www.psionic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorials/lowpoly/gmod.html

@kryzon Thank you for your answer. Not only did you confirm it's possible, you also gave me a little bit of an insight straight into the designer job. Excellent.

Could I ask you one more thing Kryzon ? I am sorry if it sounds off as stupid one, but I am still new to all of this. I tried searching around the web but I did not find much of an answer. I probably chose bad wording…

What are your thoughts on using downloaded loyalty-free pre-made blank 3D male/female body model (from places like CGTrader) to add my 3D assets like clothing, gear, hair etc. on it ?

If this would work, I would use it for side characters that would take extra work to create. I know I should probably learn to sculpt a human body as well, but I wanted to ask too.

Thank you for your answer.

There's a couple of things I think about that:

- Using templates to save time is perfectly fine. Have a humanoid body, including a head, as a base mesh. You should have a male and a female base mesh.
Then you import that base mesh into the scene and work on top of it so it will look like your character design. If you need more details (like spikes growing out of the back of the character, or pointy ears etc.) then obviously you'll need to model these new features into the base mesh, as well as any props / decoration that's need.
For other parts you can follow the character design simply by changing the form of the mesh, like using sculpting brushes to quickly push vertices around without affecting the topology / amount of vertices, only their positions.

- If you're buying stock assets to save time, that's fine to do. But if you're buying them because you don't know how to model well enough yet and want to make changes to them, then please understand that any clothes, accessories etc. that you model to add to the character will probably look off when put together, since they were made by a different artist at a different skill level (it's actually a challenge to follow someone else's style, you have to work hard to do that).
Also, if the stock mesh already comes completely textured then any topology changes that you make on it will require you to unwrap the modified parts to fix them (as UV-mapping is done after the model is finished, it's a one-way road).

@kryzon I see. You helped me greatly. Thank you a lot, Kryzon.