Low Poly attempts (showcased incompetence)
I have been learning around, tinkering with Blender for some time now, at first I wanted to make something mid poly, quickly I realized this was beyond my scope, not going to do it. I settled for low poly and I at least thought that I was moving towards this. 2 months have passed by and no complete project has ever been finished, no real anything.
Base models of dubious if not horrible quality are all there is, as I such I come here asking, one, after daily reading, studying and working on this, shouldn't I be better, not good, but better; the kind of low poly I'm aiming for is not even complicated, it's simple, it should be doable. Other 3D communities have told be that it was mere hours if not a day to have this running, months now.
This was the goal
Instead, keep in mind, months. I have many other failures, now non organic models have been easier but certainly not crucial.
Now, months of this, what should I do? What am I doing wrong besides everything? Should I just buy the models I want instead? I've thought of this, I lack the talent but sunk cost fallacy does hinder my decision making process.
Replies
One of the best ways to improve your art is to analyze what you like about other people's art. For example, when I look at your goal image, I see how the blocky shapes are used to create the patterns on the singer's dress. It looks like there are individual planes used to represent the layers of the skirt. The topology itself is designed to mimic the sewing patters of the clothing. Because of this, the design is able to be incredibly simple an also evocative of a real object.
The main issue I see with your model is that it's a little to generic to look like anything but a mannequin. Before you start modeling, consider what you want the final model to be and work around that. Ask yourself what kind of hair this characer has, what kind of clothes, and how little can you get away with actually modelling? This is an artstyle that greatly rewards planning and it's a great starting point for developing your skills as an artist.
For more technical advice, look at models from the late 90's/early 00's. See how the hardware constraints of the time forced them to get creative.
And remember: this is hard. My early work was absolute nightmare fuel. 3D is overwhelming sometimes and that is what makes it so rewarding to improve on.
Hey :) No need beating yourself up about this!
A clear difference from your result to the style you are referencing is the shading. If you inspect the original, you will notice it looks quite flat, the layered appearance is due to variation in colour/value applied to the faces. Either the shading of the geometry is particularly set by defining hard edges, or it uses an unlit shader ( most likely).
Aside from the shading, you probably want to learn anatomy/proportions long term. Even if the models contain very few polygons, they underwent a conscious reduction from original form keeping the features relevant to the specific character, which is the "hard" part.
Oh, so about the main issue, I wanted to make a base model I could modify into others, at low poly, that's really not an option right? This changes things then, a lot. It makes sense now, thanks.
And yeah I know the pieces, like the planes and texturing do a lot of the work here, very strong silhouette.
Yeah, the models are actually flat, just checked them out. I'll get some books on anatomy, thanks.
I give up, I simply can't do it, I tried to do something like this, and have been trying and studying and doing model after model. And I have actual sketches that I use now
But I can't? You know why? The legs and the clothing, on the legs I always never manage, if I start from a cube it's too little, if I start from a cylinder far too much at that point, if I do, If I don't...
The attempt that broke me as a person today, this, why even continue, I'll do the arms and heads and then what? I can't do the legs, I can't do the clothing, and I look at the mesh and try, nothing.
I can't do it and I'm just going to kill myself instead, .45 to the brain should fix it right up.