G56 concept assault rifle + accompanying video series
insane polycounter
Hey everyone. I'm doing a side project right now based on a wonderful gun concept done by Alex Jessup:
It seemed like a great opportunity for making a video series showing off my process for making an FPS gun, so I've been recording as I go. It's sort of like a tutorial, but a little more high level. I don't explain specific actions so much as the overall thought process that goes into making something like this.
I just finished the first video in the series, which covers the initial blockout.
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbpplPXgA74"]Weapon Creation Demo: G56 - 01 - Blockout - YouTube[/ame]
More on the way over the next few days
All feedback is appreciated.
Check out more of Alex's stuff on his blog here: http://alexjessup.blogspot.com/
It seemed like a great opportunity for making a video series showing off my process for making an FPS gun, so I've been recording as I go. It's sort of like a tutorial, but a little more high level. I don't explain specific actions so much as the overall thought process that goes into making something like this.
I just finished the first video in the series, which covers the initial blockout.
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbpplPXgA74"]Weapon Creation Demo: G56 - 01 - Blockout - YouTube[/ame]More on the way over the next few days
All feedback is appreciated.Check out more of Alex's stuff on his blog here: http://alexjessup.blogspot.com/
Replies
The one thing I noticed is that the receiver section where the switch is, is that it is actually protruded more then the body part in between the reciever and the magazine holder. The section in the concept shows the opposite
Do you plan on making the modular pieces?
I'm proclaiming myself as your most devout fan so obviously this has me excited :poly124:
(I was actually looking at your portfolio just before; wondering about some modeling and texture stuff re: the AKM, so it'll be interesting to see how you approach this model. Texturing is definitely something I'm looking to improve upon so I will be following this closely. I have no idea why this is in brackets.)
Now that I've watched the video; some thoughts:
Good explanations; it was interesting to hear why you chose to deviate from the concept slightly in some parts, and how you consider first-person view and animations when blocking out.
Having a detailed blockout as a sort of mid-poly is interesting, I've thought about that process before (rather than going from high to low) and I might try it sometime soon. It requires a bit more initial planning I think but the time saved later on make it worth trying.
You mention that the rails will be floated to save geo; that's certainly true but there are some reasons against doing so. Good to consider anyway on a case-by-case basis.
Oh and for the rails; what I would do in modo is model one of the repeating parts and then instance it along the model, so if I ever have to go back and adjust it, I only need to tweak the one part. Then it can be collapsed/verts merged for the high/low.
Going to try taking the idea of doing a more detailed blockout myself next time, cause it does make sense.
[ame="
I'll be making the modular pieces as long as I don't run out of energy. I'm going to be focusing on the core gun at first, but I'll be unwrapping the lowpoly to a few sheets so that later on we can swap out parts.
Right now I don't have a great microphone for recording, sorry! I'm planning to get one but for now I'm using an integrated mic in a laptop.
As for your microphone (I think it sounds fine) you could try boosting the audio in Audacity then removing some of the static sound that will likely be created from the audio boost. I'd imagine that would improve it for others. It should only take like 5 minutes to do at the maximum if you want to give it a shot.
And love the movies, always nice to see someone else's approach/thoughts on certain things, always a lot to learn from it, hope you keep doing them for the rest of the process.
How did you set up your side ref in Max 2014? Autodesk intentionally broke the method I used to use, so I don't know a decent way to show an image plane + work in wireframe mode at the same time.
Or apply a material with 0%opacity to the model and see it in wireframe all the time.
Or, set some keygframes and have the opacity of the material in diferent values for diferent frames.
100%opacity at frame 1
50%opacity at frame 2
0% opacity at fame 3
and cycle through the frames.
Did you previously use viewport backgrounds? That was my method for years, but it's completely broken in 2014
What I do now is put the ref plane on its own layer, set the layer's Display type to "Shaded" rather than "Viewport" (inside Layer Properties), and then set the Display Properties (inside Object Properties) to "By Layer" instead of "By Object". This way it works the way viewport backgrounds did, you can go into wireframe mode and the ref will remain shaded. You can still hide the ref by hiding the layer if needed, and you can set the layer to not be renderable if you don't want it to show up in...renders.
They might, I dunno. I might bend them or something still.
Yeah - that's how I've modelled in Max since R3, and for some reason they just remove that option. Video Post still exists, but their priority is to break useful features. Bah.
I did know a workaround using Layers but I was adjusting the object I was modelling to wireframe every time I needed to do something. Your way makes a lot more sense!
Oh, and cheers for the tutorials - I'm not used to modern workflows so it's good to get an idea of how people work.
Looking awesome man
[ame="
Faster way to clean up booleans: http://www.shiva3d.net/?page_id=71 "Vertex Cleaner". Works a treat
If you don't know of the tools, Check out dot ring and dot loop. I saw on a lot of your cylinders you loop and then deselect. Bit quicker to use the graphite modeling tools. Unless they got rid of them in 2014. Which would be a bummer.
All in all it's really interesting to see how you go about the process. I appreciate you taking the time to make the videos
Looking forward to texturing.
A quick way to get the supporting loop to line up with the outside shape is, with edge constraint on, move the loop against the curved surface, release, then move it back, and it will match perfectly:
Not all that necessary for simple shapes, but it gives a perfect result for more complex stuff.
I have a couple of questions though. When you have cut in some new edges or moved verts around manually, I'm not sure if I missed it in the video but it looks like sometimes you just do it by eye and leave it. As in you didn't align it to another vert for perfect edge loops or flat quads. Are these just examples of not being too perfect when it doesn't actually matter as you would in fact be wasting time or is it because you were recording so wanted to get through it?
My second question is what sort of key bindings are you running? You rarely go to the side panel so I'm wondering what you have set up on your keyboard or mouse.
Cheers, and I hope to use some of these tips soon
thanks! someone actually recommended me that script recently. i think i've found a pretty good solution within proboolean itself, for now, which i mention at some point in the latest vid.
yeah that's a good recommendation. unfortunately i've never made the time to go through the graphite tools, because the first thing i do on a new max install is hide that giant ribbon interface. i should really go through all the functions it adds and hotkey the useful ones.
thank you
good tip!
glad you're finding the videos helpful. i'm not a huge stickler about slightly imperfect edge loops, nonplanar faces, or bad geometry in general unless it actually significantly impedes the form or shading of the model from a commonly seen angle. sometimes i will do things that are technically sloppy if they're fast and won't have a negative impact in context. of course, whenever something can be done both quickly and correctly, that's my preference.
my Q-T, A-G, and Z-B keys are fully loaded up with hotkeys so that i can do as many actions as possible without moving my left hand. i have some lesser used ones on Y, H and N as well. i don't have anything to the right of those keys, which includes having remapped Delete and Remove. there are a few things i've yet to hotkey either because i can't find the exact function in the hotkey editor or because i just haven't gotten around to it yet (slice plane).
i would highly recommend this thread for anyone interested in hotkeys: 3ds max keyboard shortcuts
thanks
[ame="
By the way, where the hell is the delete and remove hotkeys? Like what is the action name? I tried assigning a shortcut to the delete all actions and they didn't work.
Anyway I'm looking forward to the rest of your vids man, they've been very helpful.
Is there no way in max to select the next edge in a pattern (like select one skip one)? There is in modo and it makes reducing cylinders quite easy—having to select every second edge by hand would drive me crazy. Well, crazier.
Also is it just habit that you fix triangulation by removing polygons and then creating new poly/welding vert to a point? Like you'll delete an n-gon then create triangles; other times you'll add an edge then join the verts. I usually remove edges then connect verts (select them and run a join command; which is bound to a mouse side button) which seems quicker?
Pretty interesting to see how other people and other software works. Looking forward to the UV/texturing videos. Also at some points your voice gets slowed down, did you change the speed after adding the audio perhaps?
Yeah s6 mentioned above you can use dot loop and dot ring http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1963799&postcount=27
Also thanks for answering those questions Amsterdam Hilton Hotel, I remember seeing that link a while back but never got round to trying it.
Looking forward to the next part
Thats putting it mildly (imo). It just one of the things that alone tells me there is very little passion for 3DS Max development (as a whole) at autodesk (again, imo).
Edit: Oh crap, i didn't realize this thread was so old or i wouldn't have replied, sorry...