The USD Team at Autodesk has just open-sourced the 3ds Max USD Plugin on Github. We look forward to those starting their USD adventure to share feedback and help participate in the future of the plugin in Max. We hope you enjoy!
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.