To begin with, I started to block out the asset in 3DS Max and the mesh for this asset is actually really simple. The highest priority for me at this stage with such simple geometry was establishing the scale correctly and making sure that it has that kind of ‘weight’ to the asset. I usually start with a un-optimized mesh which is used for the high poly model; I make sure that the edges are nice and loose in my high poly to allow for a smooth bake. Whilst a lot of people tend to make a new mesh for a low poly, I try to cut a few corners to make the process as fast as possible which is quite a high priority when working with large scaled environments. In which case I just add a turbosmooth modifier to my mesh without collapsing my stack before duplicating the entire mesh. This way I already have the mesh that I need and I can remove the turbosmooth modifiers on each element and just optimise the mesh as low as possible without losing the silhouette that I have already made. Once the low poly is finished, I again duplicate my previous mesh with the turbosmooth modifier on and collapse to solidify the high resolution mesh – no going back from there! Which is why I always keep a version handy just in case I change the mesh.

There are a large amount of methods and approaches to creating a high poly model as a lot of extra details can also be added in ZBrush, and for some people this works great! Saying that I am a huge advocate of trying to achieve the same results but in the shortest amount of time, and so a lot of the details that I could otherwise get in ZBrush, I know that I can either use Substance Painter or Quixel to get the same result in a shorter amount of time. If the model is more complex and requires organic elements then I would take my mesh into ZBrush for that level of detailing in a high poly, but for the sake of this asset I can just get the same results in Painter.