@Mike-Amos well, in this case i started with a basic trace of photo references, I use components, so that I can use different photos for different pieces but then the components are nested in the main assembly so they end up in the right place..

They also gave me a pretty bad photoscan, so I used that just to intersect it with a plane and extract the basic profile of the seating.
I then smoothed the extracted curve with Curvizard and normalized it with Polyline Segmentor

Then I created a base grid for the pattern with the proper real world measurements.

I then created a repeated component with Curviloft Skin

Same for the buttons

And then create a different variation of that component for the sides

And another variation for the corners

then I joined all of them together.. please notice that In this stage I try to keep the quads as even as possible, because I'm gonna deform this stuff

Then I extracted the diagonals for the sewing and used "Lines to Tubes" with quite low poly geometry.. and of course I did some cleanup with quadface tools for the overlapping geometry which will not be seen.

I then created the base shape of the seating using Curviloft ad Quadface tools.. and extracted the grid were I need the upolstered thing..

Then I use the QuadfaceTools "Unwrap Grid" feature to extract a flat grid from that.. which has the exact same lenght and topology of the seating that I'm going to replace.. and here is the flowify rig setup that I used to send the geometry to the curved surface.

WARNING: you need to use "flowify without cuts" to avoid messy topolgy and keep quads.

From this stage, it was just a matter of stitching and tweaking.. with the usual VertexTools, QFT, Artisan shenanigans

Meanwhile I also added the studs.. I used profile builder assembly to place them and then manually repositioned some bits in the problematic areas

And this is the updated version with the studs..
I hope this was helpful to better understand the process..

It's a bit different every time.. the shoe and the skatepark used a quite different process.. and the other sofas I posted before of that, is another different story..

Bowl du Prado.

The infamous Marseille Skatepark.

I''ll do some minor tweaks and a bit of housekeeping (organizing layers, purging, renaming, setting scenes and styles and whatnot)
Then I'll share this model (including the lowpoly cage, the pbr maps and a 3d printable version) for you guys to take a closer look at this workflow.
I will probably do a separate post with the download link and a bunch of screenshots to explain the main steps of this workflow.

I had to put the shoe modeling on hold because I had to do this for work today

Another free one you could look into is the "radial bend" feature from Fredoscale. The plugin also includes other really useful features such as tapering, stretching, twisting and so on..

@gabino yes I did a few test of animated objects in Unreal, but for real production I've used it only for archviz flytrough, because it has good visual quality and reasonable render time.
I managed to make it work with animated objects coming from 3dsMax both using animated/skinned fbx and alembic cached animations (mainly for particle systems, animated splines/booleans and this kind of stuff).

In real production, for animated objects I tend to prefer Unity 3d over Unreal.
I find Unity timeline interface more straightforfard compared to Unreal sequencer.
I find it easier also to keyframe objects in Unity itself (alongside with the usal imported fbx and alembic animations).
I'm not into "proper" character rigging, but I do sometimes use animated entourage people from 3dsMax "Populate" crowd system and also some Mixamo take for more specific characters with some particular animation.
I import those as skinned fbx files (with skeletons)

I also did some conveyor belts animation, one of which you can see in this video.
This was made with 3dsMax particle systems and controllers to be used in Unity, but it could absolutely be imported in UE5 with no problems at all.

Animated conveyor belts.mp4

In this post I shared a video of animated objects rendered in Unity 3d
All of this objects could be imported and used in UE.. except I find it more cumbersome and just prefer to use Unity for this kind of stuff and Unreal just for camera animations.
But probably it's just a matter of taste and habits..
You could do pretty much the same in UE.

A few models I made recently for a manufacturer that makes custom sofas to fit on yachts.

Another bunch of screenshots from the same series..
All modeled using QFT, VT2, SUbD and a bit of Curviloft, JPP and Artisan mixed in the process.
The UV mapping was done in Wrapr..

@Rich-O-Brien said in SubD examples and models:

Yummy, I'd try to resolve this area to be more uniform

Yeah definetly, I was still fiddling around with loops, but I already did yesterday after posting those screenshots, because that 3 to 1 was causing a noticeable bump after subdividing.
I also modeled the inside of the shoe, started to reshape the sole better, figured out a bit about the lace pattern and started to add tickness to the various layers of the main body.

@Rich-O-Brien said in SubD examples and models:

Does Topogun allow you to do quad patches?

It does and they are interactive, you can preview them and dynamically change the number of segments for each curve and change how the topology is arranged. You can create multiple patches at once, with 2,3,4 or more splines, join them and so on and so forth.
Once created you can't change them anymore, but you can edit them with the usual topology tools like move, extrude, draw, cut, collapse, brushes for soft move and relax and the usual stuff.

2025-05-16 14-02-28.mp4

@Rich-O-Brien yeah, in Sketchup is hard to imagine this kind of stuff working in realtime.

For simple objects sometime I do some basic retopology using Tools on Surface, or Artisan Knife or Intersecting geometry, then extract the edges, weld and run QFT "create quadfaces from wireframes".
Another workaround is to pre-triangurate (with qft diagonals) small patches and then use the "Drop To" plugin to trow/conform them over objects.
I usually do those tricks for smaller portions of models.

For massive retopology on heavy meshes like this (this model is 120k+ vertices) I usually run Topogun (whith QFT oj import/export) then import back the base topology to refine and detail it using VT, Artisan, Edge tools, Qft, fredo corner, JPP, Flowify and basically every plugin compatible with quads (and basically whatever tool and plugin as long as I use the pretriangulation trick).

I did a quick video to demonstrate this tecnique a few time ago..

@rv1974 of course you have that Retopo modifier if you have a new version of Max..
But I'm still on older perpetual version..
Btw I have quadremesher, which is quite similar (but not as good as the modifier) and of course the "classic" manual retopology tools from 3dsMax in the "freeform" panel.

There's no need for Vietnamese Plugin because with QFT exporter/importer to move quad models back and forth between SU and Max.

The reason why I use Topogun most of the time instead of Max, is actually that the dynamic patches are sort of halfway between the speed of auto-retopo and the full control of manual retopo.
If I reacall correctly, only Blender has something similar in retopoflow, but the patches are limited to 3 or 4 sides.
In topogun you can have patches from 2 to whatewer-you-need sides, and they can be changed interactively.

Let's go

Addictive..

"Work smarter not harder"
Another WIP from the same vintage furniture job, leveraging the power of components..
Most of the armchair details are reusable for the sofa.

@roximate maybe just move it to the bin and download a new one from scratch?

@majid said in Blender, or, Blender for artists?:

Considering the learning curve, I do not feel there is a big difference between Max and Blender

Of course is 100% subjective.
Both are fairly complex pieces of software with a steep learning curve.
If one is starting from scratch, they are probably equivalent complexity-wise.
But if you are accustomed to 3dsMax logic like I am, then Blender looks quite odd.
Aside from the 3d cursor thing, the whole object/collections Vs standard layers/nested layers/object/nested objects looks pretty much confusing for me, I feel more comfortable switching between other pieces of software where you find a more consistent scene hierarchy management.
But, again, it's probably mostly due to the the way I'm accustomed to work than the software itself.

@majid said in Blender, or, Blender for artists?:

it seems that all these tools will be abandoned or replaced |changed by developing AI-based tools in 4-5 years

I usually refrain from this kind of predictions, I think nobody really knows what will happen.
I doubt that they will be completely replaced, there will certainly be some kind of increasingly widespread integration of AI tools, but... we'll see

@alexpacio2013 nice to see you here Roberto.. really cool models!

@gabino I managed to import SketchUp models into Unreal and Datasmith worked flawlessly.
As @Rich-O-Brien said, the model should be decently mapped and triangulated beforehand. The model being big or small doesn't matter that much.
Regardless the size, the model needs to be clean.
Decent grouping and a modular approach could be helpful to better troubleshoot issues.
If you mind to share some part of the skp model which cause problems, maybe we can look into it too see if there are specific problems or "bad practices"

@Rich-O-Brien said in Blender, or, Blender for artists?:

SketchUp conventions are actually off piste in comparison to other modelling tools

As a 3dsMax user, I have to say that even Blender conventions are.. just to name one, that wole "3d cursor" logic is driving me crazy so bad that each time I try to give Blender a shot, I just end up closing it and do something else

@tuna1957 thank you ️

Super cool stuff..
How did I miss this post??