Hi, I’m trying to model this frog character by adrien_ltn. I’ve already placed the reference images inside Blender, but I’m not sure about the best approach.
The character looks simple at first, but the mouth shape and the topology are confusing me. Would this be better done with traditional poly modeling, sculpting, or a combination of both?
I’d appreciate any advice on how you would approach making a model like this. Thanks!
What have you tried so far? Not knowing your “experience level” and just showing some “result” will not help you at all 
Adding a cube and 3 levels of subdivision surface and adding loopcuts, but looking at the topology in the reference, I’m perplexed by the topology and connecting the mouth and limbs. As for experience, I’ve been in tutorial hell for a relatively long time, and this is probably one of my first attempts at creating something without a tutorial.
This is completely a poly modeling situation. There’s no reason to get sculpting involved.
Wouldn’t you use any sculpting tools, like the Grab tool, to shape the mesh at all?
Also, what criteria do you use to decide whether something needs sculpting or not? And how do you handle the topology and the shape at the same time while modeling?
I don’t know how much you can model.
There are many methods, and there are many different levels of modeling.
I think the videos in the link below can suggest a way to try it.
Try it and ask questions if you have any difficulties.
The grab tool is certainly an option, but when you’re modeling with polygons you can also just grab the vertex themselves and use the move tool to move them.
As to just knowing which technique may be preferred – that just comes with experience. Same with the topology layout. You just need a lot of practice and time in the chair doing it, and it will slowly start to make more sense and you’ll start to do it with less thinking and more instinct.
Depends upon what you are comfortable with and your experience level. If I was doing this, I would start with some Metaballs and work with them to give me a rough shape.
The arms and legs I would just do as stubs during this process. When the re-topo is done, I’d just model them in.
Just my thoughts,
Randy
I’m actually trying your method now because it sounds fun! But how would you later lengthen and shape the limbs? Would you use sculpt mode brushes like Snake Hook? Also, is the Skin modifier method similar?
I would just model the limbs since they are pretty much just round and long shapes. The hands and feet are also pretty simple shapes and I’d just model them as well.
No, it’s totally something else -
I was also kind of vague on parts I wrote, let me fix that -
So I started with a Capsule metaball, then added Ball metaballs to give me a rough shape. Once I have a rough shape, I’d join all the metaballs into 1 object, and convert that into a mesh object. This will give you poor topology -
It’s kind of rough looking, but it’s a suitable base to start with. A couple of minutes with a smooth brush in sculpt mode will fix things up and smooth it out. Then I would probably add a Multi-Resolution modifier to it and increase it a few levels and sculpt in the details.
Create the character in a T-pose, because I assume as some point in time you’d like to pose the character.
Randy
@revolt_randy I’m trying to form a base shape with metaballs, but I noticed all the metaball objects use the same data. I can’t, for example, change the resolution, set one of them as a negative metaball, or change the influence threshold individually. They all seem to be interconnected. Is it possible to make some of the metaballs use their own data instead of sharing the same data?
How did you block out the base shape for the head and body? Did you use a subdivided cube?
Hello !
There are different approach to modeling these simple characters, I’m a bit old school so I keep poly modeling them, I think when the model has simple shapes this approach is still relevant !
Here you can find an old tutorial that explains the technique to block out character first then add details (toward 1mn30) :
Here another examples of block out + final model :
In general blocking is a good habit since it allows to get the big picture very fast,
In a few hours you can get a feel of the final and see if it works and then you can spend the needed time to work on details…
I encourage you to start with that for models or image composition… And when it comes to modeling, if your blocking is good it can serve as a basis for modeling, but sometimes it’s also ok to remove parts of the blocking and build them from scratch…
Anyway, the best approach is what you’re the most comfortable with, especially when you learn , what is important is the end result, and time it takes or technique is secondary to that…
And later if you want to be specialized in characters you obviously need to be comfortable with different approaches…
You’re overthinking it, go ahead and dive into it. Polygonal modeling is the best approach for this, I’d even say this character looks like great learning material. Go ahead and report back when you feel too lost.
I agree with @Hadriscus , you are over thinking it. When I mess with metaballs, I just move them around, scale them, rotate them, and play with them. Don’t be technical at this stage, just go for a rough shape. At this stage, I’m doing what @sozap talks about, blocking in the character. Just getting a general shape is what’s needed at this stage.
I don’t know how @Webslinger_616 came up with the base mesh, but yes, you can start with a cube. Subdivide, loop cuts, scale parts, extrude other parts and work at getting a basic shape of the character. Doesn’t really matter how you come up with a base mesh for sculpting, you just need one.
Also think about just poly model it as suggested by others. Give it a shot!
Randy
I’d sculpt it mostly with the Grab brush then QuadRemesh it and Retopoflow.
This would be quicker and more powerful than box modeling to make it looks like the reference.
Blender users tend to automatically rush on box modeling and avoid sculpting
