I am modelling a chess set as an exercise to learn proper modelling (previous post here). After having quite some issues with the simplest piece, the pawn, I’ve managed to [somehow] find my way through the rest of the pieces until this bad boy here came into play.
Any suggestions on how to model it? I am having a tough time thinking about how edges should flow in the head. I guess I should have a edge loop around the eyes and the mouth region looks much like a cube to me but I am feeling lost. A paintover of the above picture with edge flow will help me a lot.
Any other suggestions too, of course.
I have the physical pieces, may you want any other pictures of them.
It looks a lot less daunting like this, right? Keep that in mind, and focus on the forms. Keep shading flat, poly count low, forget subsurf for the time being, and just get that very basic silhouette right first.
From there, you can start to add geometry. The eyes – assuming you’re using subsurf – can simply be a square – same for the nostrils. As for the ridges that form the mane, I’d simply use a boolean if you need geometry. If you don’t, then use a normal map, which would be pretty simple to create.
Then more cleanup with more use of knife and dissolve. For the corner where the three planes of the maw intersect, I made it an “E-Pole” (five edges joining to a single point) because this will be shaded like a sharp corner.
Hey, sorry for the delayed response. Thanks a lot for the model. Thanks also @Circebeck for the tips. I am having a lot of trouble with this piece but it’s worth it, I guess I’ll learn something out of it!
Hey there, i thought this is a good modelling practice too, so i made my own take of it. You can have a look at the attached .blend file, if you want to. The Model is subdividable. The topology is i think ok, but not perfect. I started out, like many suggested, with the basic shapes. I first tried to trace all important lines and then connect them to faces. I then used the knive to get the neccessary “edge flow” for the subdivision surface. I did not modlle the cut outs on the rear side of the model. I would suggest if you want to use this for 3d rendering to get that effect with texturing trough a normal map. If you want to 3d print, you have to of course create the cut outs to. You can use the 3d model however you like.
