Hard surface (armor) modelling+texturing+rigging advice

Hi!

I would like to get your opinion on the approach I should take on creating a rigged model of a museum armor for a interactive 3D app. The app is based on MS Kinect, so the armor should be rigged to animate it in real time in my app (you probably get the idea, since this is what most Kinect apps do).

I have years of experience in software engineering but have rather limited experience with 3D modeling, and I’m on my own on this project - so what I am not sure is what approach I should take with creating the model (if I should do it myself at all).

I do have lots of experience in design, photoshop, illustrator, but haven’t done any sculpting, so please bear with my newbness if I write something completely stupid.

Now, I know of these three options, but am not sure about their pros and cons:

  • I can start by creating a 3D model from 2D images using something like VisualSFM/Arc3D.
    This looks like a relatively fast way to get (some) results, but I have a feeling I will still have to create a low-poly model manually, almost from scratch, to be able to rig/use it in a game? Am I right, or is this actually a good starting point?
  • I can try sculpting from scratch in Bender. This is what I believe a pro would do, but since I am only starting to use Bender I am not sure how much time this will take.
  • Hire someone to do it. This is also a viable option, but I have no idea whatsoever how much time/money this would take. I’ve seen hard surface/armor tutorials for Bender (or Zbrush, or whatever) where artists create amazing results rather quickly, so I am not sure how much time a project like this would take. If this is something I will need 50x longer to do myself, then this is obviously the option to go for.

The armor looks something like this (don’t have the pictures here, I just found something similar on the web, but I can get create DSLR images from all angles):


What are your opinions? Regarding point 3, I could gave posted this in the Jobs section, but since I might try doing it myself, I didn’t want people to waste time creating offers while I still don’t know how much effort this might need.

Thanks a lot!

may be a little bit of sculpting for buttons and the foot’s top !
but again possible to do model it too!

almost 99 % mirror model
except right shoulder !

you could begin one piece at a time and get it done
might take you like 2 weeks to complete it
but then it is yours!

for game yes well you could use normal map for the buttons
but still difficult to get super low poly
so many simple pieces !

have fun

happy bl