M4A1 Assult Riffle

cmtanko

This time going for hard surface modeling. Doing a gun for a first time, and choosed M4A1 Assult Riffle. Not going for 100% one to one match with the real riffle, but something good enough.

WIP#1:
hrs worked: ~15hrs

Your Crits and comments welcomed as always.

RedRogueXIII

Soften up those edges so you get bigger highlights that work better on smaller resolutions.
Rails are not fully cut and spaced, they are only cut about 45% depth of what you have now.
Upper has smoothing errors on the main tube, you probably didn't use a high enough sided cylinder as a base and had to add in extra loops to support more detail - this skews the smoothing and looks off.
Pinching above the trigger guard, left side.
Floor plate of the trigger guard is tiny, you could thicken it up so it bakes better and doesn't alias as much.
Pistol grip could be smoother and more curved.

Oniram

any reason in particular you're not going for a 100% match? its kinda hard to critique it otherwise.. everything said by redrogue is pretty much spot on, so id say address those, and maybe work on some of the accuracy issues regardless. otherwise dont call it an m4a1. :P

s6

Edit: Derp

cmtanko

Thanks guys, I'll keep that in mind
@RedRogueXIII:
Will soften the edges a bit more, and fix mentioned parts.
@Oniram
Only reason I said, wont go for 100% is I got the reference images from here https://www.google.com.np/search?q=M4A1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.49478099,d.bmk,pv.xjs.s.en_US.c75bKy5EQ0A.O&biw=1366&bih=705&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Ve3sUYOjL4W3rAfHjoHICw
And none 2 looks exactly same, and I dont know which one to follow, So, what I did was did some part from 1 image and other part from other image.

@s620ex1:
Sorry if the image miss leaded you, since I used Zbrush only for rendering as I dint have to worry abt lighting and rendering in Maya. I did all the work in Maya, but will be doing all the small details as screw and texts like that in Zbrush now.

Again, thanks alot for your time, It does help.
Btw, Should I post gun's part separately ? So, people can see more detailed ?

joeriv

Don't have to do the parts seperate.
Just got some more closeup shots, like in these for example:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1375760&postcount=177

That zbrush render is a bit unappealing, and rendering out a highpoly isn't exactly hard (just a basic material, bit darker diffuse, some spec/gloss, add lights, do some basis render settings (resolution/aa/etc), takes maybe a couple of hours if you never done that before, but then you can just reuse that scene/setup for all the other works you do).
Presentation does a lot more then you think, especially if it's for your portfolio, go that extra mile


on the model, usual stuff, get more ref and be critical when modelling from it.
Some more proper reference then random google search images:
http://deicidenbf.thanez.net/ASSAULT%20RIFLES/
(the M4 bushmaster is a good set, same with the SDI)

Ich 666

The barrel seems to be a bit long to me. Could it be that you used an M-16 as reference by accident?

EDIT: Forget what I said, i got confused because of the rails, which made it look like its longer than it really is. That said, it might be a a small bit (2cm) long, but not as much as I thought it was. I suggest you check your references in that case.

Shrike

The barrel looks too long, while the stock and the visor look too small. Also maybe revise the holes in the muzzle brake, for the first time its pretty neat

cmtanko

joeriv: Thosee reference are just awesomee, ref. for every part.. Nicee
Had been busy with some other work but back to business now.
Did few changes like, changed the RIS, soften the edges, and few more details... More Parts had to be made/fixed, but for now here is the current update

cmtanko

Wasn't able to do lighting as or anything like http://www.polycount.com/forum/showp...&postcount=177 , so, just a AO pass

cmtanko

did a small work on it. Now what you think ? I'm going to do the small details with nDO 2 , Is ZBrush from small detail better option ?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Depends on the details you want to make. ZBrush is good at several things like noise generation, treating an HP like a sculpture, etc. Decide what you want to do, and see which programs can do that.

cmtanko

I am afraid of using Zbrush for small details in this case as it will be very heavy and then hard to make cage match the HP. Also I think nDO 2 will do the same task easly and less baking error too , right ?

woot

small thing, but im not sure if you have the top rails correct. basically, its like a hexagon, but the bottom half of each rail is joined. on yours it just looks like youve placed the top half of the hexagon seperately on the top reciever.

try making them more like this

cmtanko

Work on the notes and did a few more changes and added lil more details. Here it goes.
I'm aalmost happy with the model.. Feedback welcome if you think some part is wrong or something.
Will be soon starting with the lowpoly and baking.

Stormfreek

Hey man this looks really good! Are you going to make a game res model of this? I have a feeling your render set up may be making your edges seem sharper than they really are, could we see a few viewport shots to see if your edges are too sharp?

cmtanko

Thanks man,
Yes I am making the game res model too and I did try to smoothen the edges (might have missed somewhere though).
Here you go in viewport render.

cmtanko

Here is the Baking result, Need to fix few things from PS.

cmtanko

Started texturing, Basic Metal texturing for now. Will continue tomm
WIP till now.

Quack!

Metal is defined by how reflective it is. The M4A1 has an oily metal sheen to it. Right now, your spec and diffuse combo is creating a very stonelike rendering. I highly suggest that you remove your diffuse map out of the equation right now, and focus on your spec to start. It looks to be to low contrast and to low of a value right now. The light 'dances' across metals like this and has a very smooth highlight, most of the disruptions are caused by smooth, oily gradients.

http://i26.tinypic.com/w1yxpi.jpg

cmtanko

I thought it looked like metal until you said it looked like stone.. it does look stone like.. Phew, will work on it.. I'll how to do that...