Did not get low-poly finished as soon as I’d hoped, but it’s here now.
And then I UV-ed and quickly baked to test them.
Things seem to be on track so far. Hopefully we can avoid the usual issues of things going pear-shaped when I start texturing for real after a weekend off with family.
Incidentally, I can’t help feeling like I ought to take a stab at defending my decision to take such a glacial pace with this prop. On the one hand, I know before I’ll be willing to call myself a “professional” artist (and, if I had to guess about a pace that’ll be necessary before anyone will give me the paychecks that indicate they think I’m a professional…), going-on-3-weeks for a prop like this will not be acceptable. On the other hand, I think there’s something to be said for, when your confidence is as shaken as mine was before I started off on the chair, easing yourself back into it.
I lost count of how many times I got disheartened trying to hold myself to some sort of short deadline without having the underlying skills necessary to actually make something that looks good. A week for a prop or a month for an environment sounds like a great plan, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet, and I have a long list of unfinished projects to prove it. Given a week for what should be a simple sculpt, that friends of mine might knock out in a couple hours, and I happen upon one of the first times I’ve felt like Mudbox wasn’t working against me and that I’m *gasp* getting a hang of this. If the same holds true with making these textures work finally, I think I’ll be ready to turn up the speed and difficulty a setting or two soon.