The Low Polygon Struggle

In the course of a regular school week I have the benefit of working with multiple kinds of 3D software in my IT class and my CADD classes. This means that what i learn in one class can quite easily be applied to the other.

The problem I'm facing in Blender right now has to do specifically with my goals, Originally i wanted to make a box modeled, low polygon count character. The reason why i wanted to do this is because having a low polygon model makes the entire process of what i wanted to do, much easier.

Low polygon means less stress on the software and in a 3D world it is detrimental to have anything interrupt your work flow, it also makes unwrapping and therefore texturing the actual model a lot easier. Of course with a model like this there tends to be less room for detail, there are a lot of linear areas, i tend to make a somewhat basic body, focusing on certain areas like the face or hands of course, this also makes it easy to texture.

The advantages of a high polygon model are things like detail, which is of course desirable to have a smoother looking character. It is also surprisingly easier to model something if you have a high polygon "budget", for example I like to use Sculptris while on the computers at school as it is a lightweight and relatively powerful piece of software, the way these types of software play out is something akin to modeling with clay, so many artists (much more skilled than myself) find it easier to use software like Sculptris, Zbrush or Maya.

Blender even has a "Sculpting" mode which i assume is similar, of course the downside to this is that the exported models tend to have extremely high polygon counts (Enough to crash 3DSmax and Blender), as well as being more difficult to texture.

Originally i wanted to use the low polygon and therefore box modeled alternative in Blender, because I had planned on possibly making use of the model in a game engine, but now i think i will just focus on getting a model that can be textured, so i am turning to Sculptris to model my simple character, the reduce polygons brush will be a big help in this area and hopefully I can make use of the Blender unwrapping and texturing functions.