Complex hard surface organic shapes

Melubnio

Hi there,

I came across this awesome work by Raelsatu: https://www.deviantart.com/raelsatu/art/Gantz-H-Suit-Prototype-F-469473991
and I was wondering how you would personally approach the modeling of the following model:

For the arms, I thought it would be best to use Zbrush and then retopo in 3Ds max (at least in my case),
but for the upper circular plates, I really have no clue.

Can someone give me some directions on how to model these pieces?
I'd like to try and model it myself to practice hard surface.

Thank you in advice,
Adam

sacboi

If you're comfortable using zbrush, then use that for the entire object. Personally I'd prefer a combination of cage subdiv and boolean operands.

Melubnio

Well, I don't think going full Zbrush is the best option as I'll end up not practicing enough with SubD modeling which is my main focus for now. Anyway, thank you, I'll try with booleans for the top parts.

Alex_J

I would try to get the main forms made in zbrush using a combination of dynamesh, live booleans, primitive shapes, and zmomdeler. Once I got that feeling rihgt I would maybe retopo some pieces so that I could work on them further with subdivision levels.  Work like this requires experience working between zbrush and your 3d app, good understanding of how subD works, and how dynamesh and boolean operations work as well. If you don't already have a strong grasp of how subD works and have experience working on a very dynamic project that shoots back and forth between applications, trying something like this will be a big challenge for sure. 

The dude to check out for this kind of art is Michael Pavlovich. Check him out on youtube. His intro to zbrush series covers the techniques I'm talking about.