Night Light Pulse Rifle (Destiny inspired)
vertex
Final images further below
OLD POST:
hey everyone, saw a few weapons being posted and decided to show what
i've been working on for a while. this is my Kinetic Rifle that i have
been working on during my lunch breaks. so far i only have the low
poly done which you can see below. next i will start working on the high poly
in Zbrush.
decided to switch from Mudbox to Zbrush so i need to go through some tutorials before going forward with the high poly.
all C&C welcome 
Replies
Are you opposed to redoing the gun's design overall, or do you want to just get it done as best you can?
also love your AR Sniper model
I'd sketch out your idea for what the gun will look like in the end before committing to a new 3D model.
Critiquing this current one, things that come up for me:
1) Why is the magazine so complex looking if it only holds bullets?
2) Where is the upper curvature for the tumb palm bump on the trigger handle?
3) What is that thing tube coming along the body of the gun? What does it do exactly? Why is it there? It seem out of placed.
4) How do you eject the magazine? Is there a button for it?
5) How do you charge the gun? Is there a handle for it?
A lot of these are in regards to gun design, but considerations you should really look into answering effectively to make your gun come together as one. NERF weapons, while toyified, do still share a lot of the same shape language that modern weapons have.
Why is the charge handle smaller than a penny? Most guns tend to have a charge handle that's larger than how you have it now. Can you imagine pulling back on that in real life comfortably, @wireframefox ?
There's still a lot of negative space inside the gun's silhouette that could use more medium detail to help this not feel so flat and boxy. That weapon Joshua posted does a good job of that:
And we're talking larger details than the barrel vents you have at the front cowl of the gun.
You're getting there, just need to really think about the art direction of this gun, not just "the rule of cool."
Brian "Panda" Choi for the feedback again, and all the help you've been giving! Still pretty new to the forums and glad someone is helping me on this process.
I only included the profile shot before because I didn't symmetry out the other half. But this time I have included multiple shots of where I'm at before I head off to work. Also included a first person view as well. Some parts are just blocked in now to try and get a feel for it to see if it works or not. Also the I haven't touched the handle yet, so there's still work that needs to be done there.
I guess I should have mentioned this in my original post, but my art direction is to create a Destiny style weapon.
Your rifle right now, it's difficult what the character of the weapon is, really. There's no real one Destiny gun, it's more about what the gun itself is about.
I'd recommend either really making sure your original concept sketch is cogent and has a good design because before it still needed work, or I'd get an existing concept from Destiny and just focus on recreating that.
Isaac Hannaford is one of the big ones that contributed to the more "military" aesthetic of Destiny, I'd really check out his weapon concepts.
https://www.artstation.com/artist/spaceshipguru
A few months ago I decided to streamline the idea which turned out to make the design boring, which I totally agree after looking at my original idea. So I looked at a bunch of pulse rifles from Destiny and from that link @Brian provided and took some ideas from my original drawing. Then ended up with 2 new designs that continue off the more recent redesign of my rifle.
At first I almost went with the rainbow theme cause @Brian mentioned it, but i decided to go with how I like to play in shooter games and in Destiny. So here is my redesigned pulse rifle called the Night Light. The idea I had behind it was that it's impact increases for a short period of time when you generate light. I came up with 2 designs and over time started to prefer the bottom one (as you can see with the more detail in it), but I want to see what you guys think.
How are you communicating the theme of the name in the gun? Right now, it just looks like a regular rifle.
The theme of the gun is in the light rails on the side and the effect. When a players guardian generates light the bars will illuminate for 3 mins. During this time the impact will increase, then after a min the first light bar will turn off. So it will work like a timer where every bar is a min. The reason for the name is a kids night light pushes away (impact) the darkness in the room (enemies).
Like really ask yourself in what other ways could I display three light nodes on this gun?
Could it be an ethereal fire?
A jet of flame erupting from the gun?
Or a foggy one?
Does it have to be three LED like strips on the side? Will that be clearly visible from the angle of play players will be seeing this gun most times?
H or F for me has the best shape language assertion, but I encourage you to explore how many different ways those lights can be communicated. The magazine shape of G just look awkward to reload and doesn't flow well with the other shapes.
Why do you have the charge handle ahead of the trigger, btw?
Made a few different variations of glowing areas on the gun. Also made a few combinations at the end to see how they would look. Some of the designs to away from doing the countdown part, so the glow would just stop after the 3 mins.
I vote for F, except flip the trident vertically.
The internal elements will still need some work. I'm kind of sad that you just shrugged about the placement of the charge handle; there's a very specific place it tends to be, and it's along the axis of the barrel because it loads the rounds into the chamber from the magazine. You really should look at real gun anatomy and see how bullpup rifles, like the TAR21, operate. Really think about where vents SHOULD be, where the ejection for spent casings SHOULD anatomically be. Once again, if you can't practically justify the placement of a certain element on the gun, you're not justifying its place there.
But here is the (hopefully) final design of the Night Light Pulse rifle.
C&C are always welcome!