I have been doodling some guns lately, figured I'd put them in their own thread. Finished up a speedmodel rifle in about 3 hours, and now im doing a rocketlauncher, which I'm spending a bit more time on.
i think you are one of the best 3d artists ive came across my opinion.. spent hours looking at pictures on your portfolio site so much inspiration in one place! this is awesome like all your work but you know that already :P
Thanks everyone! : )
woot: yup, rendered in modo.
Zepic/Kaine123: Im not using meshfusion though, I'm using their smooth-edge shader, which is even more powerful than mesh fusion imho. This + meshfusion is a good combo though
I really enjoy the renders, would you mind sharing your light setup ?
The rocket launcher looks pretty cool (although very massive and blocky imo for that its function is just to be pipe that propels a rocket with a scope),
but the rifles design is very weak, many things are counterproductive and would hinder the gun at working. The picantinny dosnt work without a big extension,
the handle would interfer with a scope, the weight is heavily frontloaded, magazine on front would give it the range of a pistol but having the weight of an LMG, the ironsights have accuracy of a RPG launcher, not to mention all the useless parts and the proportions which are not in visual balance -
the problem is that the designs ignore the #1 criteria for design, form follows function totally, and the design as a cause is not convincing, very aesthetic or practical
You did really great execution of the design, the edges and shapes are very well done, the materials and setups are very nice and those things carry hard,
but just modeling a shape that comes into your mind while modeling and that is convenient at the very second dosnt lead to the results you want and deserve, and will not offer you any new modeling challenges on top. Real life weapons
look so crazy because they are exactly just what they need to be
to function. They are so authentic because they follow that rule so hard.
Its not meant negatively from me, I just want to help of course : ) Nobody seems to dare say anything negative again and that dosnt help anybody (and sorry for the formatting, but polycount destroyed it somehow on firefox here)
Look at the size of his hand and the grip, (he can put his fingers around the whole launcher) Yours is 30% larger at least, would have 3x the weight and probably x times the cost, with no practical advantage, aside of the scope and being nuclear bomb proof i guess ; )
The launcher he is holding is 4 tubes with a rectangular casing, just enough to propel the rockets and have low production cost, plus some clips for belts and so on, but still has a very iconic look and charm which result from the bare requirements of the object. Everything on it has a purpose. There is no real tech inside, and if any, then inside the rockets. Its just an array of tubes. Your launcher is fine too, just a little bulky but makes sense for most part, the SMG just has lots of issues, just think about why you would need each part and how it would work and it will work out just fine : )
Damn, these are awesome :O <sobbing here as well>
I picked up Modo earlier this year inspired by your streams, started to love it after assigning every possible hotkey combination on a keyboard Keep up the great work man!
Yes, it's funny now that MeshFusion is sort of getting put to the side because we're realizing you can get similar results with super light geometry using booleans and the rounded edge shader. :P Add in some edge weighting and ... what else do you need?
Well to be honest, Meshfusions strength is in rapid large shapes and iteration on that, its GREAT for stuff like designwork and making quick designs and designchanges. Making bulgy mechs have never been easier! But for smaller/harder details this kicks butt so hard.
..I'm confused (only opened up modo twice or something)..
But isn't it about the end-result in a game engine like UE not how pwetty it looks in modo with a shader? :P
Hey, nice broadcasts , I have some questions though, what addons are you using for making booleans that quick ? Seneca ones, or others ?
And can you upload the broadcasts ( and those old ones that were deleted by twitch ) on youtube or vimeo because I really want to see them again. They were great.
Not all streams are there, but some. I'm trying to put more of them there, but mostly the ones im happy with and where i dont fuck things up (like my butt-ugly rifle i made the other day)
My first reaction was: 3 hours? fuck off -sob-
My second reaction: shit I really need to learn modo
I do agree with shrike though. Although it looks pretty the launcher design doesn't make sense. I mean, it has the rear support leg like a sniper rifle, but are you going to lie down with this? If so, how are you possibly going to support the front? Also not sure what the front heat shield is for.
I'm yet to try Modo due to being knee deep in a project... but I'm wondering. Would you say that Modo makes hard surface stuff significantly faster? Or is it just preference? Because I'm looking at that rifle and I can't imagine doing something like that in 3h in 3ds Max. I know you have crazy experience already but that's just mad.
I know Modo has some great features, but does it really make THAT much of a difference? Because it looks like I would be insane to work on hard surface and not use Modo. :poly124:
Well, I love modo so of course i'm biased like crazy, but I do feel like its significantly faster. You can probably replicate alot of what I'm doing in max aswell, but thats just my assumption. I just feel like modo makes it alot easier : )
ghaztehschmexeh: to be fair, im not sure. The rear support and handle locations I just ripped off from a MAAWS : )
Thanks but i don't think Snefer's Smooth-Edge Shader workflow is the same as the SubD modeling one in Maya,right ?
When looking at the rocketlauncher video i don't see any support edge loop or only a few,i've barely seen some Ngons here and there but when rendering everything seems like it was made with a SubD workflow with many support edge loops and so on (which is basically Maya's hard-surface workflow) .
Modo seems to be such a crazy software when you know how it worksO_O"
Well, I love modo so of course i'm biased like crazy, but I do feel like its significantly faster. You can probably replicate alot of what I'm doing in max aswell, but thats just my assumption. I just feel like modo makes it alot easier : )
ghaztehschmexeh: to be fair, im not sure. The rear support and handle locations I just ripped off from a MAAWS : )
I feel like with the scope placement on the MAAWS and the longer support/overall proportions lend themselves much more to a two-person kneeling launch. Which is how they are used as far as I'm aware. You'd probably really hurt yourself using one standing up.
I can't see how you'd fire yours standing up or kneeling. Both would hurt!
I feel like with the scope placement on the MAAWS and the longer support/overall proportions lend themselves much more to a two-person kneeling launch. Which is how they are used as far as I'm aware. You'd probably really hurt yourself using one standing up.
I can't see how you'd fire yours standing up or kneeling. Both would hurt!
Hmm the proportions are the same as the MAAWS and the placement and length of everything is the same, its just that mine is thicker upwards and a bit shorter, otherwise its the same. I literally modelled out the proportions on top of a MAAWS so the proprtions wouldnt be off from a real launcher.
More bevels! Also more shaderstuff, starting to explore some more stuff I can do in modo with my highpolys that I can transfer over to the lowpolys later.
Ok I'm now looking into getting the student version of MODO and MeshFusion. As far as a "Smooth-Edge Shader" in Maya, there's a smooth preview by pressing 3. Then you can permanently smooth it with the Smooth option. I believe the counterpart of that in Max is called TurboSmooth.
I assume the 'Smooth-Edge Shader' in Modo is similar to the mental ray 'mi round corners' node in Maya. Mi round corners uses some bump mapping tricks to render bevels on corners without the extra geometry. The problem is that you can't bake a normal map using mental ray in Maya. (I think I remember seeing a workaround to bake mi round corners in Max though.)
Awesome work in the this thread Snefer. I'm no firearms expert so I won't comment on the design, they all look cool to me.
Replies
ill just be over here, crying in a corner :poly134:
awesome work as usual, i didnt expect anything less
EDIT: are these all rendered in modo as well?
Amazing! Love the rocket launcher.
I need to keep practicing.
About your process; are you using a special plugin for Modo? One that merges / booleans the pieces together?
http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/modo/plugins/meshfusion/
woot: yup, rendered in modo.
Zepic/Kaine123: Im not using meshfusion though, I'm using their smooth-edge shader, which is even more powerful than mesh fusion imho. This + meshfusion is a good combo though
The rocket launcher looks pretty cool (although very massive and blocky imo for that its function is just to be pipe that propels a rocket with a scope),
but the rifles design is very weak, many things are counterproductive and would hinder the gun at working. The picantinny dosnt work without a big extension,
the handle would interfer with a scope, the weight is heavily frontloaded, magazine on front would give it the range of a pistol but having the weight of an LMG, the ironsights have accuracy of a RPG launcher, not to mention all the useless parts and the proportions which are not in visual balance -
the problem is that the designs ignore the #1 criteria for design, form follows function totally, and the design as a cause is not convincing, very aesthetic or practical
You did really great execution of the design, the edges and shapes are very well done, the materials and setups are very nice and those things carry hard,
but just modeling a shape that comes into your mind while modeling and that is convenient at the very second dosnt lead to the results you want and deserve, and will not offer you any new modeling challenges on top. Real life weapons
look so crazy because they are exactly just what they need to be
to function. They are so authentic because they follow that rule so hard.
Its not meant negatively from me, I just want to help of course : ) Nobody seems to dare say anything negative again and that dosnt help anybody (and sorry for the formatting, but polycount destroyed it somehow on firefox here)
regarding size of the rocket launcher, arnold have a thing or two to say about that!
Excellent work as usual man, I've real got to make the move to this modo business.
Look at the size of his hand and the grip, (he can put his fingers around the whole launcher) Yours is 30% larger at least, would have 3x the weight and probably x times the cost, with no practical advantage, aside of the scope and being nuclear bomb proof i guess ; )
The launcher he is holding is 4 tubes with a rectangular casing, just enough to propel the rockets and have low production cost, plus some clips for belts and so on, but still has a very iconic look and charm which result from the bare requirements of the object. Everything on it has a purpose. There is no real tech inside, and if any, then inside the rockets. Its just an array of tubes. Your launcher is fine too, just a little bulky but makes sense for most part, the SMG just has lots of issues, just think about why you would need each part and how it would work and it will work out just fine : )
I picked up Modo earlier this year inspired by your streams, started to love it after assigning every possible hotkey combination on a keyboard
But isn't it about the end-result in a game engine like UE not how pwetty it looks in modo with a shader? :P
Ur stuff looks great btw, no comment there
Love the guns; super interesting to look at.
And can you upload the broadcasts ( and those old ones that were deleted by twitch ) on youtube or vimeo because I really want to see them again. They were great.
Thank you
My twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/torfrick/
My youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Askguden
Not all streams are there, but some. I'm trying to put more of them there, but mostly the ones im happy with and where i dont fuck things up (like my butt-ugly rifle i made the other day)
Btw,any idea if there is something similar to the Smooth-Edge Shader in tools like Maya/Max ?
My second reaction: shit I really need to learn modo
I do agree with shrike though. Although it looks pretty the launcher design doesn't make sense. I mean, it has the rear support leg like a sniper rifle, but are you going to lie down with this? If so, how are you possibly going to support the front? Also not sure what the front heat shield is for.
Very nice work though.
I know Modo has some great features, but does it really make THAT much of a difference? Because it looks like I would be insane to work on hard surface and not use Modo. :poly124:
ghaztehschmexeh: to be fair, im not sure. The rear support and handle locations I just ripped off from a MAAWS : )
Spat water everywhere. 10/10 need a new tablet.
OP, brain transfer with me please.
Thanks but i don't think Snefer's Smooth-Edge Shader workflow is the same as the SubD modeling one in Maya,right ?
When looking at the rocketlauncher video i don't see any support edge loop or only a few,i've barely seen some Ngons here and there but when rendering everything seems like it was made with a SubD workflow with many support edge loops and so on (which is basically Maya's hard-surface workflow) .
Modo seems to be such a crazy software when you know how it worksO_O"
I feel like with the scope placement on the MAAWS and the longer support/overall proportions lend themselves much more to a two-person kneeling launch. Which is how they are used as far as I'm aware. You'd probably really hurt yourself using one standing up.
I can't see how you'd fire yours standing up or kneeling. Both would hurt!
:P
Hmm the proportions are the same as the MAAWS and the placement and length of everything is the same, its just that mine is thicker upwards and a bit shorter, otherwise its the same.
Can someone link the stream please? Esdit: ooops, I'm dumb. Didn't see there was a second page with the links xD
I assume the 'Smooth-Edge Shader' in Modo is similar to the mental ray 'mi round corners' node in Maya. Mi round corners uses some bump mapping tricks to render bevels on corners without the extra geometry. The problem is that you can't bake a normal map using mental ray in Maya. (I think I remember seeing a workaround to bake mi round corners in Max though.)
Awesome work in the this thread Snefer. I'm no firearms expert so I won't comment on the design, they all look cool to me.
it's the brain not the software