Destiny Fusion Rifle (Factions)
vertex
Hi everyone. Brand new to the forum. I thought I would make an account and post something I've been working on for a month or so. Any C&C would be appreciated. Hi everyone. Brand new to the forum. I thought I would make an account and post something I've been working on for a month or so. Any C&C would be appreciated.
Replies
what is this based on?
I recommend using an existing piece of concept art for the immediate future. If this was self designed off of an existing Mass Effect 2 heavy weapon design, it needs a lot more care in the concept stage for it to look appealing.
As people mentioned before, it feels like you just extruded a flat plane and called it a day for the gun, even with the separations.
You'll notice in the actual Mass Effect reference of the gun, the grip of the gun is much thinner than you have it. That the bottom "rail" from the bottom of the grip to the butt has this second "case" on top of it. You should notice that the metal is not clean, there's scuff marks, different patches of roughness (or specularity). You should notice how thin the retractable "claw tips" are by the third segment.
A lot of your gun has missed these medium level forms and proportions, not details, that could have been dodged if you spent more time blocking in the gun with basic shapes and planes before committing to high poly edge loops, etc. You texturing of the details is flat, compared to what I see in that image of the weapon in Mass Effect. You have a super uniform roughness, which further contributes to it feeling more like a toy than a weapon.
For the next time, really spend time making sure your BIG forms and ideas are nailed, because by the time you get to texturing, those will be harder to fix than the amount of dirt you find in a corner of a panel.
So seeing as modeling part has been covered in great detail, ill focus on another thing and that is the materials.
Looking at the images i cant really tell the material rifle is suppose to be made of, only sharp highlights that indicate highly polished surface, now while that does look cool, its "just" marmoset engine doing its magic. What you should focus on here is matching the materials and wear of the surface like chipped paint on edges, dirt in crevices, burn marks around the barrel/heated parts etc..
There are a lot of references online, simple google search for "destiny fusion rifle" turned out a ton of screenshots of original assets, but you don't need to stick blindly to cloning their style, generally the damages and wear on objects behave in same way.
Now another thing, went and looked at your portfolio and found revolver and grenade suffer from same issue as this rifle, something strikes me as odd with the way you do metals, they appear too dark, almost pitch black, either the environment is too dark or its in the material itself. Try looking at the substance premade metal materials and see how they are constructed, metals dont need to be 100% black.
I am aware that at this point you may very well assume that i'm just hacking away at your skills and portfolio but i assure you it is not the case, you have the skill, and just need to add that extra mileage so that your work really pops.
Hope this helps a little and good luck.
What helped me figuring out the wears, scratches and damages was looking at the photos of machinery and just trying to pinpoint exactly what is what (sort of a CSI approach
Dunno if i'm gonna manage to be 100% accurate here, and if i made a mistake feel free to correct me, but something like this:
A - Damages done by tool used to attach/tighten the valve, the edge is jagged
B - Discoloration in metal due to heating, get that rainbow blue-ish hue and some black burn marks because of dust/dirt burning if the surface was not cleaned prior to heat being applied.
C - Looks like paint but could be solder as well, now take a look at how it reflects light. If its metal its usually gonna change the color of the light reflected (brass adds yellow, copper - orange etc..) Non metals like plastic reflect the color of the light without mixing it with their color (tell me if i'm not making sense here < English is not my first language) Back to the paint splatters ( lets call them paint ) looks like they were made by accident with some sort of a brush and then and attempt was made to wipe it away with something (cloth maybe) so smears are visible and paint stayed in places where metal was rough enough for it to stick to better.
D - This is the part where hands would have most of contact with the valve, sweat/grease from hands mixed with dirt corroded the metal enough to have dirt stick onto it, plus if valve was stuck probably a tool was used to make it turn and that caused additional dents in metal in which dirt has collected.
E - Sharp angle is very prone to denting and chipping because the material here is thin ( at the tip of the sharp angle ) and is very easily damaged by tools/exposure to elements.
F - Damages at sharp angles, and dirt on "flat" surfaces, this could have happened during production, that seam in the middle of metal bit of the handle is telling you this part was made by casting the metal into mold, now, what happens during this process is there may have been some impurities in metal and or mold itself (molds are sometimes made from compressed sand) and because of that small dents may occur in final product without them being made by force/ damaged by hitting it etc. And generally these metal parts that were made by casting have rough finish and require additional brushing to reach glossy look (you can see the brush marks on valve with A and E arrows most prominent on hexagonal bit on the left)
G - Example of metal being cast into mold with all the dents and surface unevenness with dirt being caught in crevices.
H - Black spots caused by damages to the pipe with tools, again oxidation + dirt + dust + heat.
And finally about getting back to models and fixing them... that's a good idea, and its great if you can keep focus and not burn out from looking at the same model again and fixing things. You can also make a few smaller pieces just as a study, something that you don't need to focus as much on being super accurate with geometry but just take it in substance and really try to nail the materials. But this depends on your preferences, see what suits you best and do that.
Cheers and happy modeling