This is the antique Hammond typewriter prop I made. This is definitely the most exquisite model I made during my university years. Hope you like it! I’d deeply appreciate honest and constructive feedback, and I will try my best on my next 3D work
For this specific example you could make it by hand in less than an hour using normal modelling techniques - which would certainly be quicker than looking for a magic bullet
I'm not aware of a general algorithm that would get the correct end result from that starting point - this stuff is hard. @Klunk might have some ideas though
I just finished these two busts! Both were created in Maya, with the linework done in Substance Painter and final touch-ups in Photoshop. You can check out a full breakdown and explanation on my ArtStation!
imho, Just bake HP to cylindrical LP arm - easy to manage and tweak, clean loops. If you want to pump it up, go for parallax occlusion or even displacement. Making each individual scale would be a pain to model, skin and animate while you probably won't even see it in game, apart from close-ups in cinematics.
Personally I would stay away from real thickness of garment. It would probably intersect itself a lot during animation/simulation.