#✅ - Making a "plated" armor look

26 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

humble crag
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I'm working on this custom Batman design that has a plated armor look (a la daredevil, captain america, black panther). I've been trying to keep quads consistently sized and maintain edge flow, but it's been getting a lot tricker when I start putting details in, some details taper in (like at the nose) and some of the mesh plates are starting to get larger (like at the sides) so it's going to be a lot harder when it comes to bridging those edges.

At this point, I think I need to re-topologize the model, especially since a lot of the plates have pinching at the corners (you can really see it in the front view). But I don't know if it would be better to start with the sharp edges of the plates (I used mark seams to highlight them) or try to add them in later after I've got the base of the helmet modeled. I'd appreciate any advice on making edges for plated armors.

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jolly surgeBOT
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Hey @humble crag, thank you for contributing to this forum.
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humble crag
proper needle
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how are you trying to bridge it

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should there be an indentation like a detail line ?

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or how is it supposed to look

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asking because there is different methods to go about it, depending on how you want it to look

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.
i have a tipp that will not help right now, but the next time you do this:
dont try to keep the facecount the same, just copy the edges instead

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for example i like to start with doing all the edges first (only the edges)

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and then copying them to do the indentation, like shown in the video

humble crag
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Yes, it's going to be bridged and then indented with a detail line. Your video was spot on.

I've been going through and dissolving some edges to get my edge count the same. I'm realizing that I probably jumped the gun by starting with too many polygons trying to have edges where I wanted details to go,... but it backfired and now I've got a mesh with a crazy number of polygons that are going to be a lot harder to smooth out and line stuff up.

proper needle
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you can change that if you want

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go dissolve them the same way

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Yes its true, having too much details in the initial modelling phase will backfire since its more work to edit.
Its good to have the least amount of details necessary for it to work. You slap on a subdivision surface modifier anyway

humble crag
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Yeah, dissolving some of the edges and mapping these panels together is helping tremendously! Definitely learned to not get overzealous when it comes to adding in the details. The face count went down from 55 down to 17, WAY more manageable, and going to be WAY easier to make any necessary edits. The panel lines will come in once I've got the basic shape down and applied a subdivision. Appreciate the input!

image.png
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Just for future reference, when it comes to adding details, do you think it'd be better to get a basic shape down, apply 1 subdivision and add what details can reasonably be added with that level of subdivision, apply another subdivision and add those details, and so on and so forth?

proper needle
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adding details always has to be planned (at least thats how i do it)
because depending on the details, it might be better to just boolean them in at the end.

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for example the detail lines you are doing... they follow the geometry of the model so you would add them normaly in edit mode

but lets say you wanted to have some holes on the forehead for some reason. you would add it with a boolean at the very end of the process since that would just be way easier.
and booleans destroy your geometry, thats why you always add them only at the end and probably keep a backup incase something doesnt work out

humble crag
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Gotcha! There are a few holes here and there, which I'll probably end up adding with a boolean, but right now I think this'll help get some of the more basic shapes down! Appreciate it!

proper needle
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nice, youre actually doing so good dude

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dont think i ever modelled something as complicated as this from scratch

humble crag
# proper needle nice, youre actually doing so good dude

Thank you so much. I've been dissolving the edges and bringing them in, face counts down to about 600 (mirrored so closer to 300) from 6000, so it's been a LOT easier to make those changes, line everything up and have nice smooth topology. Appreciate the help so much!

jolly surgeBOT