New to Blender - am I on the right approach to modelling?

Support Modeling
#1

I’ve dabbled in Blender on and off (mostly off!) for a while and am now dedicating some time off to getting better at modelling.

As a starter and to give my basic modelling skills a workout I decided to model one of my sons old action figures:

Knight.jpg1200×1200 191 KB

It seems a decent intermediate project.

As I’m getting underway I wanted to get some feedback on whether my poly modelling was the ‘right’ approach and especially where better modelers out there would take a different approach and why.

I’m not planning on animating or rigging, and also I’m not looking for 100% accuracy. My objective is to produce a reasonably photorealistic figure.

So I started with the torso, as I felt this was the sensible place to start the modelling.

I chose to use the mirror modifier since everything is symmetrical except the hair.

After an hour or so I’ve got this far:

Knight_model_front.PNG1024×994 7.89 KB

Knight_model_render001.PNG1231×804 48.2 KB

cont…

#2

Cool that you’re investing some time to learn Blender/modeling! Modeling has always been my favorite part of the process.

You seem to be on the right track, but TBH you’re still in the pretty early stages so it’s pretty tough to say whether you’re “doing it right” or not. The technique you’re using is called “box modeling” and is pretty widely used.

Here are a couple basic pointers that come to mind that may help you as you move forward:

  • ALWAYS keep your model as low-poly as possible for as long as possible. It will make it easier to work with as you go. Your model looks pretty good in this respect, but there are some unnecessary horizontal edge loops near the bottom. If you don’t need them, remove them. You can model with a Subdiv modifier applied to give you an idea of where you can maintain the shape without certain edge loops.
  • It can be pretty helpful to have an image plane set up (you may already be doing this). Image planes give you something to check your work against.

Post again when you have a bit more work to show, and people may be able to give you a bit better feedback!