Looking at the example in the .obj it seems like you can just select the cylinder faces, extract them (leaving the original geometry intact and creating a new object) and then push the polygon normal outward.
I agree do whatever is easiest to work with. Your bottom example would be a pain for me to work with because I like loops and rings. Also... Quad Cap? http://www.mariussilaghi.com/qcap.htm
This didn't get much attention, thought I'd bump it just in case. TL;DR; Is there a way to export Blinn-Phong (as opposed to GGX) PBR textures with SPainter (that look accurate in Sketchfab for example)?
Here is a super quick example. Sorry about the bad quality, I am not at my computer and had to try and use MS paint. Hopefully you can see what I mean.
A specific goal for a specific reason is much better than "I want job." For example: I'm learning Houdini because it will allow me to create technically complex assets that I can sell for $$$.
lots of buildings are made this way. There's quite a few buildings like this in the gears of war series. And there's some cliffs made like this. for example http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildingsTutorial.html http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildings.html
Do you have any reference images you're working from? The legs seems short, but this depends on the chair style. A shaded wireframe would help people to critique your modeling. For example.
I would imagine that it is merged from 2 cameras in one scene - theres a lot of documentation about this online, have a look at 3d games like the little big planet demo for example.
Thanks for the kinds words you guys!! James: Generally yeah Sculpt -> Retopo. For some pieces I build them in 3dsmax and fire them through to zbrush - like the belt buckle for example.
I agree that would be ideal but it isn't always an option for things like this. For example if you use a tripart mesh to create hair planes in zbrush, you'll have to UV them after the fact.