PC-CSGO | Aeon (AK-47 WIP Thread)

Ezikyl

(Copied from my other post on the CS:GO forum)

I was pretty Excited when I heard the theme for this competition - I've had a fascination with 70's and 80's Sci-Fi for some time now, and my earliest interest was definitely Star Wars. Researching the guns from the original trilogy shows that many of them were in fact modified from real guns that the time - all manner of pistols and sub-machine guns were converted into Blasters by the prop-makers to arm those dozens of storm troopers. Other inspiration for this project comes from films like Blade Runner and Alien (and of course Aliens), Movies which defined that era of Sci-Fi cinema.
Above is my initial proof of concept, and it's a bit rough around the edges, but I'm liking the direction it's going. Rather than the usual gritty style of the darker films like Blade Runner and Alien I went for a brighter, much more flashy style with polished steel to go with a Corporate marketing vibe - a bright, shiny future should have flashy chrome guns to go  with it after all.

Improving on this prototype, getting rid of mistakes.

The latest prototype, featuring changes such as more rubber looking grips, additional detail on the magazine and knurling by the front grip. At this point, I'm starting to acknowledge that this finish may not be suitable for the Covert tier that the AK-47 is intended to fill, so I will likely have to work on making the design somewhat more complex and exciting, however I will likely also submit a version much more subdued, similar to the current look.

Ezikyl

Update: I've been working on making the gun a bit more complex, and putting some detail where there was previously empty space. This is where I'm at right now, click to view it in full size:

There is still plenty of work to do however. I've noticed an issue where the screws and bolts appear to be custom painted before wearing off, which I will address in the future. I'm also wondering if I should add some sort of texture to the handle, grips and stock - something like molded plastic to give it a more industrial feel. I've also played around with the Patina buildup, giving it a suitably industrial grime and soot buildup.

If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it!

kingfisher_ws

sweet looking 

William_Grell_Bovin

Is that gunsmith style?

Endritv

What settings do you use for your gunsmith style, the lighting looks so nice or is most of the lighting painted? Would love to see the settings.

Ezikyl

@William_Grell_Bovin it is indeed! @Endritv The lighting isn't at all painted on. I'm using a custom phong exponent texture made by inverting the RGB and altering the brightness and levels, which is then pasted into the alpha channel. The lighter areas get a lower phong exponent, so the highlight is larger and the darker areas get a smaller highlight. It's by no means perfect, but it's a very quick way to produce good looking gunsmith skins, at least in my experience.

William_Grell_Bovin

@Ezikyl Thanks for the advice, I will probably try that technique Do you know if there is a way to choose which parts that should have metal(patina)  finish?

amazon350

Looks nice! had a similar idea for an m4a4 skin

Ezikyl

@William_Grell_Bovin you can't choose what areas are patina and which are painted unfortunately. 

@amazon350 Thanks!

Ezikyl

Update: the past few days have been days of very slow incremental progress, however I feel I've done enough to merit an update here. The most apparent change is to the fore- and pistol grips, where I've added a knurled texture at @Gaunt 's suggestion. In addition to this I've added  metallic knurling to the gas piston tube above the barrel, and to one of the lower fore-grip base. I need to figure out what to do with the Stock - while the texture I've been using on the pistol and fore-grip would probably look good there, I'm not sure that it makes any realistic sense to add roughness to that area. I might just do it anyway,  but if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Feel free to give me some feedback!

Ego_Death

Oh manm, this is looking really nice, it's so clean, and chrome! This is going to progress nicely

Nolt

Clean, nice! It's a fun look. Feels kind of heavy metal-ish.

dcneil

What settings do you use for the workbench gunsmith? It's looking really sick!

Ezikyl

Thanks for the kind words! @dcneil for gunsmith settings I use a phong albedo boost of 70 IIRC, with a low phong exponent on the chrome elements and high on the dark areas. I'm using a custom phong exponent texture that I made by inverting the RGB, altering the brightness and levels, and then pasted into the alpha channel.

Ezikyl

Update: Further, incremental progress. I ended up putting the knurled texture on the stock, as I thought I would - it doesn't look too bad, even if it makes very little sense. I've also changed the shape of the textured part of the pistol grip to fit in more with the fore-grip and stock. Other than that, small details and fixes. At this point it's mostly just in need of polishing up, all going well I could publish this tomorrow.

Topier

Its a nice weapon, but to work as a covert skin you'll need to add finer detail (Ak 47 Cartel) or add some color to it. For this weapon I would suggest that you add more detail like welding marks, a logo or maybe some metal plates. 

"Weapons with bright colors and designs that perfectly complement a weapon’s geometry end up in the upper tiers. Weapons with more subdued colors and/or more randomization in the pattern application end up in the lower tiers."

Hope I could help

dcneil

I agree with @Topier on this one. You do need more details, but it's looking sick so far!

kingfisher_ws

Front grip looks so slick, and the fine metal details, mmmmm

Ezikyl

@Topier @dcneil Thanks for responding! I'm aware of that issue, will likely make more than one version - one that looks more minimal as it is now, and one with more detail and colour to fit with the more traditional Covert look. There's no rule against submitting multiple versions.

Topier

The good thing is: even if you don't succeed in this content you can still try to upload it to the workshop. ( I would vote for it )

Ezikyl

Update: I think I'm done with the chrome version of the design - or done enough that I can leave it be for now, to tweak and publish later. As for the alternate version, up until this point I've been dissatisfied with what I've tried in the Gunsmith style (see here and here for the failed experiments) so I've instead decided I'll make a custom paint job version. As you can see below, it is essentially a heavily modified version of the initial AEON design, with the colour scheme, um, borrowed, from Gaunt's Void Hawk Magazine. I do much prefer the Chrome design, but the general consensus is that the design needs more colour in order to be considered covert, so I'm giving this a shot. I will likely add some white hazard stripes around the design, but until then I'm satisfied with how this looks as a start. As usual, feedback is greatly appreciated.

kingfisher_ws

Im loving this new colour scheme, definitely heading in the right direction now !

hollandje

Awesome stuff dude!

Ezikyl

Update: Have made some changes to both the gunsmith and custom paint versions, and for now I'm dubbing the custom paint version Aeon: Rebuild. In that version I've added additional white details to make it look more interesting and adjusted the wear mask so that the dark parts do no wear, keeping it looking like a modification that is more than just skin deep when it's battle scarred. The gunsmith version has now got dark metal on the side mounted rail, among other things. That's basically it. Not getting this out as fast as I had hoped, but getting there regardless.

Click on the images for HD!

Ezikyl

More or less finalised. Have an ad.

If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it before I publish.

K_A_S_I

As much as I like the skin I don't think it is covert.

kingfisher_ws

I love it, although I think the same, it needs more Mars technology

Ezikyl

Update: A three skin solution
Throughout the time I've been making this skin and getting feedback for it, it's been quite clear that I need to make some changes in order to make this skin more "Covert" looking, and I have been doing my best to make changes that both fit the brief and my "artistic vision". I've also not wanted to abandon the more minimalist look that I first created, so it's clear that I'm going to have to release more than one skin based on the same look, so here are "the three that made it." (May those that failed rest peacefully in the depths of my HDD)

As "Covert" as I'm willing to go: This was where I came to with adding additional colour. An industrial orange, white flair and the rubber grips of the original, with a blue "power spine". I dislike fake glowing effects, so while some might suggest that I add a glow around the blue, I'm going to keep it like this quite deliberately. The only other changes since the last update are in terms of overall polish, changing the small logo to something vaguely reminiscent of the Weyland-Yutani logo and changing "Caution: Explosive contents!" to "Caution: Reactive Ammunition!"

20 minutes into the future: keeping it a bit more subdued, I find the ribbing looks better black. other than that, no changes to the above.

AEON: The original concept, with all the improvements from the Industrial Orange version. I decided not to try to carry over details such as "Mars Heavy Industries" in favour of a simpler finish.

Now all that's left is to publish.

SidMachinery

Seriously dude, keep the metallic design
I showed this and 3 other cool AK-skins to like 5 friends and 3 favored your silver version. Me aswell so that was 4 out of 6 votes
I should give you bad tips, cause I'm working on an AK aswell haha

But seriously, this is really really nice work! Good luck.

Sid

SjiZzZLe

I like all of them but i think i like the middle one the most.

SjiZzZLe

Is the logo a wink to Wayland Utani by any chance?

Ezikyl

@SidMachinery it's my favorite as well, glad you like it. Going to publish all 3 variants regardless. Good luck with your own AK!

@SjiZzZLe thanks, and it is indeed!

"Building better worlds"

Ezikyl

Update: I've published the first of the orange versions, which I've decided to to name Mars Frontier Mk. 1. You can see it both below, and on it's workshop page here.

I'm going to hold off on publishing the Chrome version for a few days as I develop it further, as you can see I've made a major change to the magazine, and was even able to eliminate some very frustrating artifacts on the darker areas of said magazine. Besides that, small changes and corrections.

Ezikyl

In other news, I've published the Chrome version. Link is here. I'm done for the night.

dcneil

Nice stuff, voted!

Ezikyl

@dcneil Thanks!

danidem

Love it, it came out great! I'm a fan of the silver version

Ezikyl

@danidem Glad you like it!

Ezikyl

I made a work in progress Gif, for the hell of it.

Endritv

Looks good but like @K_A_S_I said this doesn't fall under the covert category imo. I can see it getting added in the future though!

Ezikyl

@Endritv You can't win em all. I had fun regardless, might see if I can get another skin out before the competition ends!

Endritv

Ezikyl said:

@Endritv You can't win em all. I had fun regardless, might see if I can get another skin out before the competition ends!

Definetly! It's a great skin nonetheless, I can definetly see it getting added, looking forward to see what else you can come up with if you decide to make anything else

enzYm

Great skin, excellent presentation and a very cool WIP progress.
Might not win the covert entry but as a low-mid tier skin: absolutely!
It has a very simple but elegent charm and the design works great for the AK.