3DS Max First Model - Dalek

As part of our game production module we were tasked to model a Dalek in 3DS Max to learn the basic modeling tools and how to stay within a triangle limit. Here is the brief of the project and the reference images we had to work from:

I struggled at first with the layout of 3DS max. In college I used Cinema 4D in which the layout is far easier to use and navigate. After spending a night modelling the Dalek and following some basic tutorials I started to learn some of the functions of the buttons in the program and managed to navigate and model fairly quickly afterwards.

I worked on the model until around half three in the morning, this was because when I modeled it initially I underestimated how quickly the tri count can increase to high levels where the model weighed in at around 2800 which was way over the limit imposed on this task. I spent a couple of hours remodeling and optimizing certain parts of the model so it eventually weighed in at 1499 tris, this taught me a lot about optimization and which details matter.

First attempt - 2727 Tris and missing some important details.

Dalek Model - 1499 Tris

I considered this my final for a bit until I was told that I forgotten the skirt section just underneath the neck of the Dalek. Also I figured out what was increasing the tri count: A small sphere. So I fixed these issues and added a ring around the eye piece to finish.

Dalek Model final - 1485 Tris