xyz I wasn't talking about modeling, but simply about designing or rough visual prototyping if you will. Not sure if you're aware of the distinction here.
well I just have my workflow that I've used for so long, I'm always trying to improve, but some habits are difficult to get over. I am using some blocks for this, but it's mostly for the body, like the shoulder and arm had blocks, for the rest I use the skeleton as reference. What I care about is making sure the joints can move correctly and I make the rest up as I go. I do this when drawing too, I've tried using circles but like with this, it just feels like an extra step.
You are right, I should start doing visual prototyping beforehand.
xyz why do you need seamless meshes for hard surface stuff?
the vertex shader I use becomes broken at the seams, so those have to be avoided. for something like a box there's no problem, but if I have like three blocks that form the ear, It becomes more difficult to cut them precisely and maintain the shape. But I'm getting better at it, I'm ashamed to say that I just now started using some tools like normal based translation, and has sped up modeling for me, and that comes with using more odd angles that results in better looking models, going out of your comfort zone you discover new things and get better.
xyz For a mech, it's enough for a vertex to be affected only by a single joint without any weighted blending whatsoever.
yes, that makes it easier to make joints and rig the mesh. I was referring to non-moving parts that make up a shape, like the ear. subsurf solves this problem very quickly but the result is too simple.
Maybe I'm just too rigid in my modeling trying to get all the quads to be flat.
Tomcat huh, weird. well I see the thing now.
Anyways, I made more of the arm, I'll work on the head again later. Now it's just missing the shoulder and legs:
The "hands" need some more work too.