Okay so for couple months now iv been trying to model armor like attached in zbrush stand alone but come to the conclusion zbrush is not the best for this sorta hard surface work, now iv been tinkering with blender and got few basics down very diffrent to zbrush which I know inside out. Now I really need some advice on how you would approach these sort of armour pieces for high poly work and what techniques and tools you’d use, would even nurbs be a option? Tha k you for any advice!!
Well, the artist that originally did it, used zbrush, so as much as I love blender, you might not want to count out zbrush entirely.
That said, in blender. I’d start with a basemesh male, and then just start blocking out all the pieces and modeling them one by one. Using bevel, subdivision or multi res modifiers, would be a good idea, but there’s not really any cheap tricks for a really high quality character like that, bottom line, you’re gonna have to spend a pretty good amount of time on it. The original artist estimates he spent around 3 weeks just on the geometry, and then another 2-3 weeks on texturing and materials. He was also a student at the time, and this was his graduation project so he probably was working on it constantly for that time with little to no interruption.
Edit: Coincidentally I just saw this on instagram. Its sped up, but it basically shows what I was saying, base mesh, and then just model all the parts. He uses subdivision, doesn’t look like any sculpting involved, but of course, it isn’t quite as ornate armor. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6IDKZwoa7X/
edit2: I have extracted a link to this video file so that you can scrub and pause and observe his workflow in better detail. https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t50.2886-16/80524963_814124575704064_6252714752140071511_n.mp4?_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=104&_nc_ohc=4KLkE9uvUw8AX81OWsQ&oe=5E47704F&oh=b27a0731f2dfe8342d3a3f9ffb60a596