Highschool Iron Man Reflection

I learned a lot in the making of this suit like hard-surface modeling, rigging, and texturing. Looking back now I feel like its an impressive piece, and I still feel comfortable with it in my portfolio. I view this render as a means to show where I was and where I am going.

I had never created something as complex as this before so it was quite a task. I remember being very proud of my edge-flow of the helmet and chest. This was my first time rigging anything, I used a ‘default’ human rig. This was NOT the model to use to introduce yourself to weight painting but I did and it was hell.

Looking back I am very proud of having made this during high school, but there are glaring mistakes I would not make now. First, UV’s, all of the texturing for this project was done by applying textures at a face level and it not only was a missed opportunity but plays into my next point. Nothing is smoothed, I could not smooth anything that wasn’t entirely one color or the new faces would change the borders between colors. I look at the tip of the foot or the underside of the thigh and I see the jagged edges of a low poly model. and don’t even get me started on the hands!

If I had to do it over again I would have started with a more fleshed out goal, this project was more like a series of projects over several months and I wasn’t intending to make a fully rigged and colored Iron Man when I first started with the helmet. However that journey of trial and error as I figured out how to change edit my previous project into one with a slightly bigger scope, that was an important learning experience for me.