Suggestions and advice needed

[Malaclypse235]

Hi all,

 

This is the first real model I have done without a tutorial. It is based on a simple pencil drawing I did. Everything you see was done with A:M's shaders and bump maps. I like the way the model is going, but it doesn't feel quite real, and I am not quite sure where to go with it at this point. I welcome any suggestions, comments critiques or advice.

 

Oh, just to get you started, I know the trigger is terrible. I'm already planning to work on that.

 

Thank you,

 

Mal

[ZachBG]

Hi, Mal:

 

I'm not really much of a modeler, but here are a few things that jump out at me.

 

First of all, you should bevel (add a curved edge) all your end points. You've already got a bevel at the end of the muzzle, but you should add them at the bottom of the hand grips as well.

 

Second, note the seams where the hand grips intersect the body. Normally, you would want to attach the grips to the body seamlessly, via 5-point patches and hooks and so on. Another option would be to create a spline ring "moulding" to hide the seam.

 

Finally, if you want this to look real, don't underestimate the power of "dirtying" it up with decals.

 

The bump material is excellent. What was your material tree for that?

[Malaclypse235]

Zach,

 

Thanks for the input.

 

 

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by beveling, though I have heard the term before. I'm pretty new at this. If you or someone else could give me more info on that it would be great.

 

I will work on attaching the grips to the body. Attaching isn't my strong suit in modeling, but I'll give it a try. I'm also rarely sure of when things should be attached, and when they should just be "stuck together".

 

As for a spline ring "moulding", I am guessing that would be pretty much exactly what it sounds like- an extra decorative piece designed to hide the seams. Will try that if I can't get them to connect right.

 

To dirty it up with decals, would I make an image with the diffuse color as the background, and then use an airbrush tool to selectively "dirty" parts of it, then apply as a color map? Or do I use transparancy somehow (Either in the decal image itself, or set in A:M)?

 

There was no material tree for my bump map. It is a standard material in Paint Shop Pro that I converted to greyscale and used as a bump image (see below). If you need this texture for anything, let me know and I can send you a larger file.

 

Thanks for the help,

 

Mal

 

Mal

[Julian]

Beveling means rounding off the corners, like the primitives in the A:M library which were designed by Yves Poissant. He has a detailed explanation and tutorials on his site:

 

http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/bevels-intro.htm

 

Also, if you're trying to achieve realism, I'd suggest that you try to find pictures of real-life weapons and use them as rotoscopes to base your model on.

[Rodney]

It your model (coming along quite nicely I might add) so feel free to reject the following suggestions.

 

I'd consider leveling out the stock.

The person (or thing?) firing the weapon should be considered but keep in mind they have to hold the thing up and actually look through the sight. If the sight is some cool laser thingy... that might not apply as much.

 

The ejection port could easily be adjusted to add more detail too just by adding a portion of another cylinder (see attached pic).

 

I agree nice grip texture!

A pretty nice first model I think.

[Malaclypse235]

Julian - Thank you. I will be going to the beveling tutorial as soon as I finish this post. I want the rifle to be photoreal, but in a sci-fi doesn't already exist sort of way. Maybe I will try an M-16 or a P-90 next time. Modeling something real and having those constraints could be better for me at this point in my learning.

 

Rodney - Thank you also. The sight is intended as a cool laser thingy, but also as an optic that can be looked through. Possible in reality? I'm not sure, but I liked the concept. In my original drawing the stock was much lower, and I think you are correct.

 

The idea of the second cylinder is great. Not sure if I am going to be able to get it modeled, but I am deffinately going to try. Very excited about that idea. Should add a lot if I can pull it off.

 

Have a great day,

 

Mal

[Malaclypse235]

Hi all,

 

I've been working hard to incorporate your suggestions into my rifle model. I think your ideas have made it many times better than it originally was. Thank you

 

Beveling - Failure on my part. Tried to improve it some though.

 

Attach hand grips - Done

 

"Dirtying it up" - Done

 

Leveling of stock - Done

 

Second cylinder on ejection port - Done.

 

4 out of 5 isn't too bad... a B grade if I remember right. I am probably done working on this model, but if anyone else has any suggestions on what I could have or should have done with this, I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks again all...

 

Mal

[Roughy]

Now that, looks like a gun !

 

looks great!

[Malaclypse235]

Thanks Roughy.