I’ve decided to take this course to another level by creating a side by side view of a low poly model and a high poly model, separate from each other. Unclear at the moment if this will affect the high poly model when it is time to lower poly count within the course, but it’s worth a try.
I reviewed some modeling videos and changed the “Bottom Face” look by turning it into triangles or 4-sided polygons. then deleting the interior face and using a option called “Grid fill” & changing the offset to fit better within the face more evenly. If I understood the how-to correctly, this process allows the user to control the distribution of geometry on faces, in most cases, that “wont be seen”.
For the high poly model I subdivided surfaces by a factor of 3/ render of 3. allowing for a very smooth and continuous surface. After this i then selected all and added some depth to the model using “Extrude Along Normals”.
Following this, I proceeded with another technique called “Triple edges” on the top most and bottom most edges. This allows the user to mimic a harder surface or sharper transition giving the effect of a “Hard Surface” instead of a smooth transition. You can see the effect slightly on the pictures below. (Hard to see on nontextured or non material objects)
I will be continuing the double models throughout the course to accomplish two goals: (Excluding the Time Factor associated with either)
1- understand the differences of low poly and high poly
2- to see the differences between converting a low-poly -> high-poly and/or high-poly -> low-poly
Cheers!
LOW-POLY: [EDIT: This is still a higher poly model then needed- see further down post for updated pictures]
(I left these in original post to show others what @bOBaN was referencing in reply )
HIGH-POLY: