Need help with weapon barrel wrap around banadages

1813

Hey! I'm looking for a tutorial or a bit of help on making a bandage wrap for a barrel of a gun. I am not really good with doing wraps and they never really turn out believable because they aren't a single piece of material wrapped around an object.

I just want to know how i could go about doing that. 

Something like this wrap around the handle is what I'm trying to do.

musashidan

There are many ways to do this. You haven't stated what packages you use so I'll just list a few general methods:

Start with a helix spline conformed to the handle, convert to geo, manually position.

Detach multiple edgerings of faces from a clone of the handle, manually position.

Use retopo tools and work your way around in a spiral.

Sculpt the detail and retopo as one mesh.

Use a curve brush in ZBrush like 'curve snap straps' Use the move topological brush to tweak.

Either way creating wraps like this always involves adecent bit of manual tweaking for best results.

1813

I'm using Maya 2013, Never thought about doing it in ZBrush.

1813

Is there even a helix curve creator in Maya?

musashidan

I'm not sure. I use Max, which does have one. Maybe there might be a Maya script floating about.

1813

Well, There is a curve for a circle. I could do it manually? then create a strap and get that to follow the curve but i'd rather do it with a helix.

Mark Dygert

In other threads we tackled similar things that might be helpful

http://polycount.com/discussion/131518/wrapping-weapons
http://polycount.com/discussion/132780/wrapping-fabric-duct-tape-around-an-object

1813

I looked at those but i'm exploring another way.

1813

Problem Solved. Use a curve then get a object to follow it using motionpaths or use a nurb in surfaces and extrude along that edge.

In motion paths, you'll have to use a cylinder as most other objects follow it unpredictably and then just delete the edges to turn that cylinder into a strap after which you'll need to rotate the bits that are flipped which isn't hard.

Compared to using a cube, you'll suffer the problem of things being screwed or the strap moving in odd directions on the curve.

It's a shame you can't introduce guidelines to prevent the screwing.