Might as well start this off by adding some stuff I had started over the summer.
As I am interested in 3D character modelling, I started with a high-poly hard surface modelling project of some sort of robotic leg. Quite happy with the final design. I may work it into a full character in the future.
There were problems when the leg tried to bend past 45 degrees and resulted in huge gaps in the knee section. This was a problem that I should have noticed when initially drawing it up but I was in a hurry to get started. I wanted the leg to be flexible so it had to be slightly modified to allow it to turn further.
Similar to armor in the middle ages, I ended up adding two metal sections that folded into the thigh and calves to help keep the shape when the leg bends without having the sections deform.
If I find time in future, I may try to bake it onto a low poly mesh, texture and rig it.
A little bit of Engineering
Accidentally deleted the post so I'm just adding it onto this one...
Another project I was working on was a female sci-fi mechanical engineer. I had wanted to get the entire thing finished over the holidays, which included sculpting, baking normals, texturing and rigging. Unfortunately I had only got a fraction of it finished as I had started again and had been travelling a lot. After my initial sculpt, feedback I had gotten online was fairly good, however my anatomy and cloth folds on the clothing needed improving. They recommended that I start again by sculpting a body underneath and then using it as reference for sculpting on top. They also pointed me to some good references on cloth folds.
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Sculpt of the body for reference
After I went and redone it with the proper references and body, there was a notable improvement.
I had only worked on the trousers for a while and the rest was not even started but the overall quality was better than that of the earlier version.
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| Sculpting the trousers with proper cloth references |
The design was to contain a rather baggy set of trousers which tightened towards the end of the limbs, with a large jacket that did the same. I didn't manage to start the jacket.
Some useful resources
From Polycount wiki :
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryCharacterModeling
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryReferenceAnatomy
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61079
(a good thread for deformation in low poly objects)
http://wiki.polycount.com/BodyTopology
Figure Drawing :
http://www.drawsh.com/
