Thanks for breakdown on the leather Sypher. I’m quickly learning how challenging modeling traditional / antique furniture is.
Just wondering what method do you use for making those seams that protrude outside the cushion like the seams you see in the inset picture in your first post.
Both are essentially three tight loop cuts with the middle cut popped out a bit using “Shrink/Flatten” (Alt-S) and pulling it away just slighly.
Both kinds also have the outer loops creased (Ctrl-E, Make Crease) in order to really define the seam.
With the first kind (circled in red), I kept the middle loop cut centered. This makes it look like a puffy seam.
In the other kind (circled in green), I shifted the loop really far to one side by using loop slide (GG). This makes it look like a more standard seam where one piece of fabric is folded over another.
After finalizing the model, I think that I could simplify all of that geometry a bit by baking that detail down to a normal map and combining it with the base leather normal map (probably via an RGB mix node, or combine them in Gimp).
Hey thanks again Sypher, that’s a great explanation. Noticed your from Illinois. I lived in Illinois for many years … .western and northern suburbs of Chicago.