Moving Beyond low-poly

[Jergling]

I’ve been using Blender on-and-off for a long time, and finally realized I needed to put serious work into learning modeling to ever get truly good at it, so after a few weeks of hard work (on top of years of loose, occasional work), I really don’t have a lot to show. I’ve found that I reach a point in modeling somewhere at the meeting point between low-poly shape, and high-poly complete model, where I just fall-out. An example would be this model, which I started last weekend, and thought it was promising, but just couldn’t figure out where to add more polygons.

I think the edge loop flow is actually really good compared to my earlier work, there are 0 triangles, and the polygons even line up along muscles in the chest and shoulders, but for the life of me, I cannot decide where to add another loop to improve this model. Here’s a wire-render, you can see that the legs do need to be improved:

I’m really trying to get better, and I was hoping a more advanced modeler could give some suggestions for adding detail.

[Henske]

I don’t consider myself an advanced modeler but maybe this will help anyway…

The first thing you might want to improve (according to your own “crits”) are the legs. They are indeed quite “blocky”, without any details.
I cannot tell you where exactly you should add more loop cuts but I would apply a subsurf modifier first and then concentrate on making it more organic (round-shape) and adding more details (toes, claws).

To bring out the muscless more you should add loops and the create creases. And then of course the head needs some more details too to give some character to the animal.

Again, I cannot tell you where exactly you should add more loop cuts, verts or details. You should decide this for yourself. Maybe look into a few tutorials on organic modeling to get some ideas. After that, just experiment and try different things! That’s the best way to learn IMO!!

Good luck and have fun!!