Steamboat Willie
An expressive 3D take on the iconic Steamboat Willie, newly brought to life.
Internally nicknamed “Mikey,” this avatar is based on the public domain version of Steamboat Willie, the original black-and-white cartoon icon. The core challenge was transforming a flat 2D character into a fully animated 3D avatar — while preserving the personality and vintage charm that made the original so memorable.
We identified the most essential visual traits from the classic design and carefully translated them into 3D. Another key challenge was recreating the expressive 2D facial animations as modular, atomic expressions in 3D, ensuring they stayed visually clean and didn’t overlap or distort during real-time performance.
A closer look.
The grayscale sculpt pass, staying true to the character’s black-and-white roots.
Want an avatar like this?
Every VertexFam avatar can be tailored to your brand, story or platform — from color and props to full custom builds.
