AT-AT Progress Diary #1: Primitive shapes

AT-AT

The main body of the AT-AT was achieved mostly by positioning edges. Using the connect tool to add edges to only the top face for polygon efficiency, I was able to add extra parts which I could move up to created the sloped edges seen coming from both sides. This was a quick method without the need to draw out a spline and line up the vertices.

Starting with a cylinder, I extruded and scaled out the bottom faces until reaching the bottom of the reference image to make the feet. This is a quick method but could have been achieved by drawing a spline shape over half the foot and using the 'lathe' tool for a smoother effect. To create the 'toes' I made sure to have the right number of segments to that are exactly flat at every 90 degree angle all round and then simply extruded these faces.

Using a combination of the align tool and a number of different primitives I created the straight part of the leg. The bottom semi circle was created using the 'slice to' and 'slice from' property of a tube. The tear shape at the top was a combination of an arc and splines with the fillet tool used to round them. To combine the arc and the spline I used the fuse vertices tool to line them up and weld to make them into one.

This is the progress so far using all primitive shapes shown in all views with the reference image:

Good parts:

• Mostly uses the edited primitive shapes which does not add a lot of polygons to the total count
• Though it doesn't match the reference image, modeling them completely straight will make it easier to work with when doing rigging and animation
• The 'neck' has been modeled with a cube rather than a hose to keep the poly count down. This also means only the edges needed for that detail can be added in and extruded  

Improvements: 

• Though they do not have a high poly count, the polygons on the feet are obvious and there are not enough for a smooth look
• Specific details may require different primitives or repositioning of those made at this stage. Fitting the primitives to the reference image for the main body in particular better would likely help this