3D Modeling Styles or "Looks"

I'm not sure about you, how you model in 3D, but me, I tend to lean more towards what I term photorealism. I don't mean to, it just happens that way. It's sort of like a curse. As a budding screenwriter, my first screenplay was over 270 pages long. My first animated movie, which was only supposed to be 1 min long turned out to be over 3 minutes long, and I used a symphony for the music. My instructor actually thought my intro was the project - LOL! 

Anyway, like I said, I tend to get too detailed and long-winded (like this post) when I create, and I am trying to dial it back a bit, which is why I absolutely love low-poly modeling as a style or a look, if you will. 

Currently, I am working on a new project that started out low-poly, but as I go, the look is starting to lean back toward more of a representational style, or a literal style...

So, that got me thinking. How many different styles or looks are there in 3D modeling?  Let me see if I can name them all...

  1. Digital Sculpting - could be extremely detailed (e.g., anatomy) or it could be abstract, I reckon
  2. Low-poly modeling
  3. ...

Well, that's as far as I got. I looked it up online and there's something like 20-different "styles" of modeling, but I'm talking look not method. 

Can anyone out there give me a list of the different looks that can be achieved in 3D modeling?

Thanks!

  • Jonathan Lampel replied

    I don't think there's ever going to be a complete list, because the amount of possible looks is unlimited! Change one variable and you have a new look. So I guess the question is more about what popular looks can be achieved? Either way, they all seem to fit somewhere in the triangle Hjalti outlines in this talk, which you might find useful:

     


  • adrian replied

    That is a really interesting question jdeclanflynn , thanks for bringing up this topic,

    and a really interesting answer @jlampel , thanks for sharing the video.

    I will forever have a little smile whenever I take a trip to the store 🙂 

    I just hope I don't loose my grip on reality and make a fool of myself 🥴

  • Declan Flynn(jdeclanflynn) replied

    @jlampel 

    Great video! Thanks for sharing it. I suppose that, as an artist, it's up to me to decide the "style" that I want to use to convey the look and feel. It's part of the creative process. It's only sometimes, I start simple, but then things start getting too complicated, and I start losing the style I wanted from the beginning. 

    Anyway, thanks for dialogue. I appreciate it. :)