In terms of finding wasted polies: if you have a hard time seeing which ones do and don't affect the silouette, try removing the edge loop, going to smooth shaded without wireframe overlays and undo-redo a couple times. If you can't see a change, that edge should stay gone.
A WIP robot for a school project, i will update as i get more on it.. @ etb342 - Im not sure about the wireframe render as i can't find any good tut on how to do it. If you know any, please let me know so i can post the picture for you. :) -Tobii
can you show the wireframe for your building. Mudbox is tries to subdivide the mesh itself, you need to add edgeloops and support edges to your mesh to control how it will subdivide in max and maintain your shape. Basically apply a turbosmooth modify inside of max, and thats how mudbox will sub-d
a wireframe shot would help, as you could have the worst edgeflow in the world while still having remodeled the shape... we got a "how you model dem shapes" stickie in the technical talk forum, maybe some of the techniques described there will inspire you? but i think extruding isnt THAT off....
thanks guys, i wish i didnt spend the last week messing around and then crammed the last second. we could have finished a lot more. floating white planes in the wireframe view are the particle planes. has like subtle dust/pollen things. maybe too subtle. heh
Ooops sorry forgot to mention that the wireframe image is a little old and I was to lazy to render another. Those shoulder pads have been optimized alot and aren't nearly that many polys. A few other areas have been optimized as well. At this wire render, he was just under 4K polys.
just from the chalk renders i can see you have a lot of pinching in places which leaves me to believe that your topology isn't quite as optimal as it could be. I think if you upload some wireframes people would be able to critique the work better. Interesting concept though.
Serp - i wouldn't mind seeing the highpoly/highpoly wireframe - just seeems very smooth to me - where i would normally have problems :D or i could just steal your brain for the secrets.... nice hydrant and tex - pity about the ONLY distortion on the upper bit meh,
whoa, that looks pretty good. Do you have a wireframe shot? The only thing that is looking weird is that his face is really smooth, but you can see the faceting of not enough geometry on his hair. I would also add some little hair planes to break up the shape of the hair
Skull is too small, the thumb size seems small for the hand size, the abdominal muscles read too bubbly, and the inner thigh lacks definition. Those easily addressed issues aside it looks great. As always I would like to see a wireframe and I hope to see Skeletor fully realized.