There are several places to get free 3D human models. CG Trader, Sketchfab, and Turbo Squid are popular, free, and well recommended.

One tip is to make sure you get a model that is “rigged.” A rigged model is ready to be animated in a game or a Metaverse online space. You can learn to rig a model yourself as there are many rigging tutorials online. If your model’s format is obj, you can bring it into Blender and rig it.

A second tip is to choose a model wearing nothing, only underwear, only a swimsuit or something like a leotard. With a nude or mostly nude model, you can add any clothes you like, without the default clothing interfering. Try not to choose a figure wearing clothes that are made into the model if you want to be able to change them later.

A third tip is to choose a model with a good quality mesh versus focusing on the look of the texture. You want the model to be made of as many polygons as your computer can handle effectively. It’s easier to find and modify the texture than it is to improve the underlying 3D mesh. Make sure that your model can do lots of animated poses without deforming in a weird way. You can find or make high quality textures to apply to a decent mesh.

A fourth tip is to look for file types that are easy to import into multiple 3D modeling programs and game engines. Again, you can use .obj, but you’ll probably have to rig it yourself. Most 3D modeling programs can read .obj. My preferred file type is .fbx. These file types can contain rigged characters and even animations. The game engine Unity also reads .fbx files.

Lastly, while free models will probably work fine, you may have issues with the quality over time. There are a couple of ways to get higher quality model. One is the digital human app from Unreal Engine. If you are already committed to using Unreal as your game engine, this is the best source. You may have to do some conversions if you’re using Unity. That brings up a second way to get a model, which is from Unity Asset Store. The model from the 3D game kit and the model from The Heretic are available now. The Heretic is male, but the skin is high quality. The model from the short film Enemies will be coming soon, at the time of this writing; it might even be available be the time you are reading this. This model is female and will be free as well. A third way to get a high quality model, but not a free way, is to use character creator by Real Illusion. The fourth way is to use MakeHuman. While it is free, it does require some effort and skill to get a high quality character.

I, personally, use MakeHuman because it gives me so much flexibility in terms of making different kinds of characters.

If you go with MakeHuman, you can choose how feminine you want your avatar to look. Most likely, if you go with one of the first set of options, you’ll be stuck with the particular female body that it comes with, however she was originally sculpted. Another benefit of MakeHuman is that it also comes with body adjustment sliders. So, if you want your avatar to be a little more curvy, less busty or more hippy, you have the ability to choose that. At this point, you should be able to find or modify a model that is close to what you have in mind for your avatar. If you still aren’t satisfied, you commission an artist to make a custom model or you could learn 3D modeling and make your own model. One costs quite a bit of money, the other costs quite a bit of time.

Most models come with a skin texture, although it’s not the end of the world if they don’t. The probability is high that the skin texture is Caucasian. That doesn’t have to be a deal breaker either. It’s just like every other situation Black women have to deal with in the US, we have to work four times as hard to get one quarter as far. And yet, we persist and thrive. So, if you are very lucky, your model came with a Black skin tone that feels realistic to you. Having never been that lucky, I don’t know what to tell you except enjoy it while it lasts. Usually, you’ll run into one of three situations. One, your model comes a Black skin texture, but it is too gray, too dark or too unrealistic. Two, your model comes with a Caucasian or other light skin texture. Three, your model comes with no skin texture at all. In the first case, you need to know that it is next to impossible to lighten a skin texture with the brightness filter, while maintaining the details that make the skin look real. Your best bet is to find a lighter version of the same skin and use layer blend modes to combine them. In the second case, you may be able to darken a light skin texture, while maintaining the details, using the levels filter. If that doesn’t give you as realistic results as you would like, you can try creating a solid dark skin color layer and finding the right blend mode to combine them. Don’t forget to mask the palms and soles. In the third case, you have to do some prep work before you can focus on the shade of the skin color. First, bring your model into Blender and generate a UV map of the head and body. Second, find a free skin texture that you like. Third, photoshop the pieces of the free texture to fit the UV map of your model, i.e., head to head, torso to torso, extremities to extremities, etc. Fourth, blend the seams together with a healing tool. Fifth, add a solid skin tone layer with a blend mode to make the seams less noticeable.

Even those of use who are over ten generations from having an ancestor who was born in Africa still have the pride of exhibiting their facial features. European beauty standards make it more difficult to find models with African features. If you followed my advice earlier and focused on the body, you may be stuck with a model whose face is not African enough for you. There are a couple of ways to get her features to match yours or to at least reflect your standard of beauty. The most difficult way is to learn 3D modeling and and re-sculpt the face. A little bit easier way is to find a head that you like better and swap it onto your other model. Just be careful to re-rig the combined character after your merge the neck vertices. The easiest way that I’ve found is to use a MakeHuman model from the beginning. MakeHuman has face adjustment sliders as well as body sliders. I promise this is not an ad for MakeHuman; it’s free; I’m not getting paid to recommend it.

You can find some basic textured hairstyles on Turbo Squid, CG Trader and Sketchfab. The Black Simmer has a lot of hair and some of it is available in non-Sim formats. Unfortunately, most of it is in Sim format and I haven’t found a way to convert from Sim format to .obj or .fbx, yet. I mostly use the Sim hairstyles for inspiration. There are several ways to create custom hair. Starting with the most difficult, you could learn to model 3D meshes of realistic textured hair in Blender. You can see some examples of this at prettydarke.cool Afro hair database. Creating the mesh is easier than modeling bodies or faces, because the final result can be less precise, and therefore, more forgiving. In fact, modeling Afro hair pieces would be a good way to to start learning 3D modeling. There are two other parts to hair: textures and cards. After you make or find a hair mesh, you still need to find or make a textured hair image for it. You can use an image from a different Afro, locks or braids hair style and photoshop shop it to match your custom mesh. You can also generate textured hair images in Blender. If you want a more detailed and realistic hair style, you can make hair cards. They are planes that mimic locks of hair, with textures on them. The process is a bit complex, but it gives the best bang for the buck. To make things easier, while still giving me the look I want, I generally look for a mesh that has the right shape, then retexture it with braids or coils. For example, I start with a strait haired bob or updo, then retexture it with tiled, generated braids or found kinky curls.

While this information is not exhaustive, by any means, it should be enough to get you started. You can change the body model of your avatar to be female. You can change the skin tone of your avatar to be black. You can change the head of your avatar to have African features. You can change the hair of your avatar to have a textured hairstyle. Or, you can do all of the above.