AK-47
Here is my first entry into the world of modeling guns. I went for an AK-47 because, well, it's a classic and it did not seem overly complex to start with.
True to the name it is an actual late model AK-47 as opposed to an AKM, made after reference images of the type 3 AK (mid 1950s) which used a milled receiver.
Some detail shots:
Still in the high poly stage and WIP. I made a few wrong turns topology wise so I will have to redo some parts and obviously finish the rest.
Critiques and suggestions are of course, welcome.
I also have some technical questions:
1. I have some trouble determining just how much detail to give to the interiors of the gun like the receiver when the bolt is back, as well as the mag interior for example. These areas may get exposed during certain animations. And if I do what is the best way to give thickness to an object?. I attempted to use the Solidify modifier in Blender but it makes a mess with overlapping vertices and what not.
2. Is it a good idea to leave holes in the mesh where it is not visible, to save on the tri count? OR should all meshes be capped off no matter what? (I assume this would make a non-manifold mesh)?
Thanks for looking
Replies
Currently your foregrip looks a little flat. Try rounding it out a little bit.
If you can't see it, there is no point capping it. You don't need to
A lot of game props have missing faces where they meet the ground, because you will never see it. Think of a air conditioning unit on a wall, if you are never going to see the back, there is no point modelling it. Just delete it
Yeah this is a tricky one, especially since you can see so much of the internals of an AK from the right side when the fire selector is not on safe.
For my current AK-type I did include the interior for the magazine, plus the bottom cap so it can be both full and empty in animation. I also included some super basic details behind the dust cover so it's not just entirely black when the fire selector is down. But I didn't go crazy on adding the internals; maybe one day. It really comes down to use though; if it's a first person only game you'll probably never see the right side of the gun. If you can't slow time or whatever you won't notice there's nothing behind the bolt carrier when it slides back, so why include it?
As for the best way, I can't speak for blender but if you use some sort of thicken function that should do it, though you'll have to do some manual cleaning up.
Here are some of the things I think should be revised:
1. Rear sight base. It's a bit weirdly modeled - mainly, the sight elevation slope doesn't look right. Also, you are missing the gas tube locking lever. Here are some ref pictures that should explain better what I mean:
https://apexgunparts.com/images/AK47/Bulgarian%20AK47%20Rear%20Sight%20Block%20Complete.jpg
http://ak-builder.com/images/detailed/2/Used-Bulgy-Rear-Sight-Assy-v2.jpg
2. Front sling loop - yours looks a bit more complicated than it actually is. That's how it looks like: http://www.zib-militaria.de/WebRoot/Store8/Shops/61431412/5239/B193/1E6A/17D4/A791/C0A8/28BE/5FC5/0015_ml.jpg
3. The milling on the receiver is way too squared. Example: http://ultimak.com/AKReceivers/MilSide.jpg
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfdaV1Yf3bhJdt3Z0nLKZPi7Ima_A9zPpa5u8CbVajqv9iJZ7r
4. The general shape of the front sight is correct, but some details should be refined (it's missing the barrel nut/compensator lock) : http://www.zib-militaria.de/epages/61431412.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61431412/Products/100570
5.Speaking of the barrel nut, it should be flat at the front on both sides (so it can be tightened/un-tightened with a wrench):
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dDWlb6pQvqk/Txuer9iZ8KI/AAAAAAAAADc/wBJvWH1zv3w/s1600/ak47muzzle.jpg
6. The charging handle's shape is completely wrong: https://apexgunparts.com/images/YugoslavianM70/Yugoslavian%20M70%20Bolt%20Carrier.jpg
http://cf.mp-cdn.net/0e/91/6fafe23fd1180382df61715aaa68.jpg
7. Can't see much of the triggerguard/mag lock, but it doesn't look 100% correct either. http://www.zib-militaria.de/WebRoot/Store8/Shops/61431412/5239/8C55/81B9/5D87/A31A/C0A8/28BE/5FA2/0024_ml.jpg
8. Most noticeable are the missing stampings on the gas tube. Also, it almost looks like the gas block and gas tube are one single part.
http://media.midwayusa.com/productimages/880x660/Primary/162/162943.jpg
9. The mag may need some attention as well, mainly the floor plate which is currently missing.
https://apexgunparts.com/images/Magazine/Romanian_AK47_30rd_Steel_Magazine.jpg
As for interiors, personally I've just modeled the hammer and bit of the chamber, the rest would just never be seen. For the mag, I did pretty much the same thing as Bek - I added three or four rounds (with invisible polys deleted) and the top of the follower, for when the mag is empty.
I always wonder about what makes some high poly models look better than others, and seeing the geo helps lot. Plus for those more in the know, they can probably give you more/better feedback with some insight on how you put something together.
Anyway, looks good so far!
Great feedback, thanks! This is going to be very helpful.
Some of the things you have mentioned I have not gotten around to modeling yet, and some other I have planned to do in the normal map.
By milling on the receiver you mean the lightening cut on both sides? Should be easy to fix. I'll get to the other things as well.
Here are some wireframes. Some other parts are not so hot and will have to be re-done. My problem are areas where there are curvy shapes, such as the stock, or the top cover, which need a lot of polygons to look good in the low poly. If you do them by manually extruding edges and then put a smoothing modifier on top, you get creases and pinching because it's very hard to spread out the faces evenly on hand - whereas if you put even a 60 sided cylinder with SubSurf on top it will not be a problem and still look smooth, because all the faces are even.
So in the beginning I simply made objects with very little faces so that they would smooth out nice without artefacts for the high poly - but obviously those same meshes would not be good for a low poly due to having too few polygons and look very blocky.
Thus far I am sort of getting around that problem by using bezier curves for blocking out the profile (I used beziers for the top cover) then converting them to a mesh (this is great because it offers resolution control so you can fine tune the poly count). And on the grip I used lots of bevel modifiers with different vertex groups to smooth out all the sides (and the bevel modifier does it fairly evenly so the SubSurf gets no artifacts).
The meshes I make now should be much more suitable for both high and low poly at the same time and hopefully just need removal of control loops and optimization, and not a complete rework like they would have before.
I would like to know how people normally deal with this issue when making curvy, flowing shapes, so far curves and beveling (chamfer) are the only thing I found.
Thanks to everyone for ideas and feedback thus far.
That feel when you model the magazine...
And then you model the round...
And the round doesn't fit.
I had to re-do the entire mag based around the bullet this time, since I have complete mesurements for that, but not for the mag, and get it all to fit together more or less like in the pictures. It's a good thing though, because the old topology was way messy and this time it should be a lot more painless making the high-low poly jump.
I tried to simplify a bit as this area will not be seen most of the time, yet still keep it recognizable.
Whole thing's coming together a bit slowly as I'm pushing two college projects alongside, but I want to keep a standard of quality on this and not rush it so as long as it takes...
Feedback on this welcome.
Also, to keep a consistent roundness you will want to use double loops. So like the side of the mag, on the back end you've got a single loop that isn't itself supported, so it moves a lot. Just look at the distance between the edge loops on different axis to see where it is uneven.
Took my time to remodel the rear sight block and sights, hopefully they are a lot more correct now. As well as added the locking lever elements (however not sure what the correct position is for the lever in the middle when locked down, can't find good pics of that). (Ignore the charging handle I have yet to give it a proper makeover). Also, is there supposed to be such a large gap between the bolt carrier and receiver cover?
Remade the front sling loop and adjusted gas block to fit around that. Separated gas block and tube into parts. (ridges will come soon=)) Also working on adding some beveling to the retainers to make them a bit less blocky.
Remade the stock to be a bit more chunky and organic, since it's wooden..
And the front sights and barrel nut got reworked (the other details will be normal-mapped).
And finally how it's all coming together. Some meshes have smoothing on and others don't cause they are still being blocked out. Well, that's all for now. Would love some feedback on the rear sights and that area in particular.
The rear sight is mostly correct - for the "lever in the middle when locked down" position, the flat area should be more or less horizontal; Example:
The rear sight leaf is a bit different, in reality, but you can't see the area that's wrong in first person, so you could leave it, I guess.
The gap between the cover and bolt carrier is because the top of the bolt carrier should be a tad larger. Example:
However, there is always a gap, especially with these early receiver covers.
The barrel end is way too big. Just reduce the diameter of the opening. example:
On the other hand, why did you remove the vent from the lower handguard? ^_-