how the fuck do people get so good at knowing where to cut and

>>506935
Practice. That's all really.
At some point you've created hundreds of different topologies to solve your modeling problems and you know how different edge flows tend to behave when subdivided.

Git gud at 3d you dumb fuck

>>506936
i been jumping back and forth between zbrush and max for the past 2 years. sculping is so much simpler to me than hard surface modeling. i still cant get the hang of it. shit sucks, cant even make a simple sword

>>506938
Mate, I've been doing subdivision modeling for 5 years now and I still don't think I know half the stuff I'd need to know. It takes time, don't worry.