@count23 Correct. Extruding and rotating the new edge into place ensures that the longitudinal edges remain parallel, until they are joined with the surrounding geometry. Constraining the scale operation by length and height ensures the width remains consistent and this helps prevent unintended surface deformation. Without…
@rogi92 Manually extruding and filling polygon strips can be a viable modeling strategy but some of the shapes in that mask could make it a tedious and time consuming process. Since you already have a solid start to outlining the shapes: consider streamlining this modeling strategy by using Blender's curve system to layout…
@jdellinger98 Overall you have the right idea: using instancing, mirroring and other modifiers will reduce the workload and speed up the modeling process. Try to maintain a consistent shape transition when working with intersecting geometry on curved surfaces. Using a single base model for the high poly and low poly. It is…
@IronLover64 You have the basic idea but the difference is that Wirrexx's cage mesh has support loops. Here's a breakdown of what happens to the shape when subdivision smoothing is applied: The basic shapes look fine on their own but when subdivision is applied the smoothing effect deforms the mesh and the shape melts…
@tatertots You're welcome and thank you for sharing your results and followup questions. Example images in my previous post only show the initial block out, the final topology with a smoothing preview and the final subdivision model with a shiny material to highlight any artifacts. Only showing the starting and ending…