3D Workflow.

Incomitatum

So I am working on a self imposed project for my portfolio to show that all the stuff I have learned over the years actually stuck. Gonna do some hard surface modeling as well.

I have a mental hiccup in my workflow. So far I am box modeling, and applying turbosmooth now and then to see what It will look like when subdivided in Mudbox.

---Workflow---

With a Medium-poly mesh, I will head to Mudbox, via OBJ and add more details like rivets and paneling.

I will then export as a high-poly Obj and run it through PolyCruncher to get my Low-Poly cage.

I -then- UVW-Unrwap the LowPoly, and do the comparisons from High to Low -in- Max to get my Normal Map, and AO (I could do a color map here too).

Lastly, I can take the Low-Poly -back- to Mudbox and do texture Painting, doing touch-ups in Photoshop.

---

So am I choosing to do the UVW-Unwrap at the right time?

ZacD

For hard surface modeling? I'd use mudbox/sculpting apps as little as possible.

Incomitatum

So, for minor surface details like scratches, rivits, and panel-grooves stay -out- of mudbox?

pior

if you want to get better at real hard surface, stay away from sculpting packages for some time and see how far you can go the regular way.

There are indeed some tricks and hacks you can use to somehow using sculpting hard stuff in sculpting app, but it doesnt work for everything. Imagine yourself being asked to model a car on your first day at the job.

Also, such tricks still ask for a solid understanding of how regular hard surface modeling works so you really need to go through that step.

HOWEVER!
Regular hardsurface modeling does not always require crazy complicated subdivision work. I have been doing some hard suff recently without using any subdivision at all, just using oldschool CAD-like principles (rounded chanfers...) and it works out perfectly too.

MRico

I dunno what they pro's will say, but I wouldn't get my final low poly from something like Polygon Cruncher or Decimation Master....I'd rather model a low-poly ontop of the high-poly to get me loops the way I want them.