South African Assault Rifle (Finito! But Crit. Still Welcomed!)

Dan Powell

Hey all. 

A year ago I did a model of the fictional South African Assault rifle, which is based on the following concept. The first time I did this model was somewhat rushed, and I don't feel like I did it enough justice (especially to be placed on a portfolio), so I'm giving it another crack. Once I'm finished I'll post a picture of the before/after attempts at the model. 

The Concept itself isn't particular functional, but overall has a very aesthetically-pleasing design, so I felt it would be interesting to model. I've taken artistic license on some shapes/parts which just didn't seem to translate well in 3D. 

Concept Art:

By Billy Wimblett. 

Current Progress: 

Finished! Posted more images on ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Y4L2b

Feedback/concrit appreciated. Cheers for viewing.   

Brian "Panda" Choi

ahh man, I REALLY like the design of this gun

Damian Nachman

Looking dope! waiting to see the baked low poly

Dan Powell

Cheers guys.

Hackiest topology ever to cut this groove in on the handle/grip. Didn't even have to do this in the high poly, could have just drawn it on in NDO - wanted the challenge though! (AND IT WORKS!)

Daf57

Agreed - love this design! Looking good on the model, man!

Dan Powell

Hey folks. Haven't had as much access to my desktop for working so this has come about much slower than I'd have liked! =(

However, here's the low poly with baked normals. Baking the AO + Cavity atm. Time for some editing in Quixel Suite.



P.S. - This was a ballache to UV and bake! So many parts in the concept with text on them meaning I couldn't mirror as much! Definitely going to have to stick with a single 4096² px texture for this. Was tempted to split the Scope or Magazine into their own sheet but I think the resolution is just fine for an FPS game if I keep it at 4K.

Brian "Panda" Choi

I'm starting to realize somewhat that the receiver's thickness doesn't quite make sense depending on how big the bullet is.  Like there's sections of the receiver that is thinner than the magazine by a proportional significance.

Dan Powell

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

I'm starting to realize somewhat that the receiver's thickness doesn't quite make sense depending on how big the bullet is.  Like there's sections of the receiver that is thinner than the magazine by a proportional significance.

Pretty much! =P

I addressed in the OP that whilst the actual design of the gun is very pretty, it doesn't appear to be particularly functional. I tried to make some small adjustments but without a 3/4 concept it proved quite difficult; I felt I'd just focus more on making it look pretty rather than giving myself too much of a headache brute-forcing it to actually work mechanically. 

I don't think it's meant to fire traditional bullets though?: It actually looks a bit like an airsoft or paintball gun to me (that shoots small spherical pellets)

Dan Powell

Added some normal detail inside of NDO and finished AO production. Haven't added Normal detail to the Handle/Grip yet as I think I could do a better job creating a custom DDO material that incorporates it, and then letter DDO wrap it around the object. 

ColorID next, then materials time! 

Dan Powell

Progress on texturing. Maybe about 1/3 of the way in. Got the materials down, so I'd like to try and work on them to give it more character.

I don't want to fall into that trap where it just looks like it's been texture-slapped with DDO! Has to feel authentic!

Ged

very nice result so far, its a unconventional looking gun but youre doing a good job

Shrike

Nice bake and execution so far, but man that design. Its the classical extremely subjective concept one may like now, but in a year or so looks back and reflects "What was I thinking", every artist is guilty of this. I always like to point out that one person put maybe 2 hours in such a concept although dozens of people put thousands of hours in a real gun, with according results ; ) Chosing the right subject is important, as no matter how well you do your job, a poor concept will always spoil it for your portfolio.

Dan Powell

Calling this one done I think! Though if anyone has any feedback, they're welcome to share.

I'll add a couple of posters to this thread, then put the rest on ArtStation - don't want to flood Polycount with too many PNGs as I know it dislikes them :P