Deus EX: HR - Zenith 10mm pistol (WIP)

Prime8

Hi Polycounter!

I recently came across the Deus EX: HR Zenith 10mm pistol here on polycount and thought it's a great concept art and I would like to use is as well for practising. 
I haven't done anything with UE4 so far, therefore it will be my final goal to bring it into UE4 and ... look good of course.

You can find the concept on the website of Jim Murray, all credits go to him of course.
http://jimmurrayart.blogspot.jp/2013/03/deus-exhr-stuff-part-1-weapons.html


So far I finished the highpoly model and would like to have some feedback before I proceed.
I don't know a whole lot about firearms therefore I hope I got the mechanics believable. I tried to stick very close to the concept, for the magazine however I made an alternative version which fits a bit better to the grip, the look is quite different though, not sure yet which one to use finally.

I'm trying to find a good light and material setup for highpoly model presentation as well, which I can use for basically all models, or at least most, to have a uniform appearance in the portfolio... which I don't have yet.

Critiques are highly appreciated


 

Doomathon

Hey this looks awesome! One thing I noticed was that the edges on the gun, for the most part, are pretty crisp, which may lead to some baking issues. I would even do a test bake on the grip details to see if that will bake well too. For the clip, I think the curved bottom part fits way better and overall looks more interesting shape wise.

Keep at it!

CarlK3D

daaaamn Looks great to me. I also had a look at the edges most main 45 degree edges seem smooth enough to me. 

Pedro Amorim

The only thing i would say though, is that you could probably loosen up the edges on the front rubber part, since that part is suposed to be softer.

Prime8

Many thanks everyone!
It is my my first firearm so there is a lot of new stuff I need to learn. I read a couple of things beforehand and know that I need edges that are not too sharp and bake well later.
Though I don't really know how big/small the bevel has to be, therefore I used a bevel modifier for all the sharper edges instead of beveling the edge directly.
In case it doesn't bake well as it is right now, I can easily adjust the bevel profile (width might be an issue in some areas) to make it less sharp.

Pedro Amorim said:

The only thing i would say though, is that you could probably loosen up the edges on the front rubber part, since that part is suposed to be softer.

Thanks Pedro, you are right, that was supposed to be smoother, I found bevel was not working as I wanted it on that part.
The vertical edge is supposed to do a kind of transition from a smaller bevel in the front to a bigger one, but it's ignoring the higher values and taking the smallest for the whole edge...need to figure out why that is, or just add that edge manually without bevel.

Looking at it again, I wonder if the grip is not too slim, should it be wider?
I don't actually know what some of the levers are supposed to do and the chamber area would most pobably not work on a real weapon, but I assume that can be ignored right?

LaurentiuN

Looks nice mate, go now and do it awesome!

Pedro Amorim

yeah, the grip could use some fattening.

Prime8

Alright, next step, fatten the grip and smooth the rubber, after that I make it awesome (= not screwing up the textures)!
Thanks again!

Prime8

While working on the rubber parts anyway I added the pattern, first thought of doing that on the normal map but this way it's good and easy as well.

MmAaXx

congrats, very polish model!
 maybe I would add some little volume/emboss in some chosen parts. Just to have more consistency on the lowpoly too.

The Rizzler

Interested in how you're applying that pattern, it looks like you have a bit of disparity between the two sides, unless the perspective is throwing me off and there really is perfect symmetry? Great modelling though 

Prime8

MmAaXx said:

congrats, very polish model!
 maybe I would add some little volume/emboss in some chosen parts. Just to have more consistency on the lowpoly too.

Thanks MMAAXX,
Not 100% what you mean by "add volume, to have more consistency on the lowpoly", can you explain that a bit more please?
I will add the embossed text to the normal map later.

The Rizzler said:

Interested in how you're applying that pattern, it looks like you have a bit of disparity between the two sides, unless the perspective is throwing me off and there really is perfect symmetry? Great modelling though 

I created the pattern fairly simple, patches of quads with a shrink wrap modifier and DupliFaces, not sure if DupliFaces is Blender specific, it just places another object (the knobs) at the centre of faces aligned to the face normal. 
The pattern on the grip is exactly mirrored, the front is slightly different because of the button on the right side.
Thanks a lot as well!

Prime8

I'm just starting with the low-poly now and was wondering how one would usually approach the ammo which is visible through the slit and holes in the magazine.

My ideas are:
1. just model the empty magazine and fill it up separate instanced bullet models. Results in more objects and lot of triangles. Probably it's good to have a single round as a separate model in any case.
2. just model the empty magazine and fill it up bullets, added to the mesh. Results in lots if tris too, but I could cut the bullets off from the shell since they are not visible inside.
3. fill the inside with a simplified bullet stack mesh and bake it. obviously less tris.
4. just close the hole and bake the inside on flat plane. Lowest polycount but might look like crap. Of course that way I have a bit of an issue if I want to include an empty magazine model.

Planning to use a separate texture for the magazine including bullet variants.
I'd appreciate some advice.

Prime8

Here is a little update.
Unfortunately I don't have much time to spend on this, therefore progress is pretty slow.

Finished most of the bakes.
Added a the embossing to the Normal map, came our quite okay, can start texturing now.

Prime8

Here is s first material preview, trying to stick closely to the concept as well.
Critiques are very welcome.

Shrike

try making the rubber darker, the materials look a bunch more separated on the concept and its missing some contrast, aside very nice modeling. If it is supposed to say clean without edge definition and everything, Id suggest making an offline render with good lighting to make up for that and get a most possible realistic look

Prime8

@Shrike
Thank you, you are right, the rubber should be darker.
I was wondering about this before since the albedo is close to complete black and thought it is kind of normal. After have a quick look at the material I found that with the current roughness, rgb=179, it lightens up quite a bit, increasing and decreasing roughness makes it appear darker, though it looks pretty shitty with too much gloss, have to tweak it to find the sweet spot.

I didn't work on the wear yet, this step was just to define the base materials.
My idea is to achieve a look of a used gun in good condition. 

I will consider using an offline render as well, haven't done that yet for a low-poly model.

Prime8

Finally some results...took me long enough.
I'm quite happy with it, basically finished, just need to setup some nicer renders. 
Critiques always welcome, I can still make changes