Grey Fox/Cyborg Ninja Helmet

[Nitram_2000]

My first venture into some hard surface stuff. I’m trying to emulate @masterxeon1001’s workflow.

I decided to choose the helmet of Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid as it looked (to me, anyway) relatively straightforward. Well, at least that’s what I thought before I began,

So, below are three versions I did.

The first one is just with BoxCutter and messing about with shapes. Pretty shoddy. Onto the scrapheap.

I then tried to just use Sub-D modelling and using edge loops and creasing, but it got very messy very quickly. Kudos to those of you who can do this. I guess it’s all about practice.

The third one is retopo’d from a sculpt that I did.

The first thing that I learnt is that my sculpting skills are also rubbish
I also did the retopology in three parts and each one got progressively better as I learnt a few new tricks with each rendition.

So for now it’s back to my sculpt to do another version which will hopefully look even better.

Any tips for sculpt/retopo/anything are more than welcome.

Be gentle

Included are some reference images that I’m using in case you don’t know what it’s supposed to be like. I’m not too worried that it looks one for one with the original, but that, in the end, it’s smooth.

[alf0]

nice work !!!
i think by far the first img is the most close !!!

[masterxeon1001]

id take it easy on this. First get that surface without detailing just simple sub-d for that smooth finish. Then apply and disect it. I feel like you might have tried to keep sub-d a little longer than needed. I always approach sub-d as a temporary thing for blocking in.

hope that gives some inside. After shaping it like i was I would apply sub-d from there and work with the surface already locked in. But surfacing + cut + surfacing is gonna be tougher imo. I would aim at just the shape and block in without cutting and simplify the work needing to be done here.

I believe in you.

[Nitram_2000]

Thanks for the advice. I’m always unsure as to when, and how much, sub d to apply.

I played around with another sculpt tonight that I’ll retopo over the weekend, if for nothing else, some practice.

I’ll give your example a run through next week when I have the time. This one will be a slow burner due to other commitments over the coming weeks.

[masterxeon1001]

dance with it daily.

[Nitram_2000]

So, after another sculpt last night, I retopo’d that today.

Much happier overall, but I’ll do one more base mesh following the Master’s guidance and then another sculpt.

When doing the retopo I didn’t bother with the shrinkwrap this time and bam, way smoother. Leaves out all of my bumps from the sculpt. I guess that’s only really used for organic stuff to get it exactly like the sculpt.

There are a few issues with my retopo, like some ngons and pinching on the edges. The edge pinching is due to having two edges join a vertex on the edge. I’ll have to work on that, but I am feeling much more confident about retopo than I did a few days ago, that’s for sure.

I just threw on a solidify modifier to beef it out, whereas in the next version I’ll try and model in some depth to join the overlaps between the plates.

I still think my overall shape is a bit “fat” for want of a better word, but I’ll try and address that on the next version.

I have to say, this was the perfect model to start this stuff on. Just challenging enough to keep me interested, but not too difficult that I get bored with it and give up.

[Nitram_2000]

Another version. I need some help with the retopo.

Please excuse the crude Photoshop. Basically, I need to go from a few vertices to many more to enable me to get in to the circular part.