J.Norman's Hard Surface Journal

JasonNorman

Hello Everyone and thank you for taking the time to check out my thread! I'm using this thread as a means to journal and archive my progress through multiple hard surface models including: Weapons, Vehicles and other assets that would fall under the category. My goal is to finish enough projects in each category that I may use as a portfolio while I finish my senior year of college.

Comments and Critiques are always welcome and will be taken into consideration as I work on projects. Also, if anyone has recommendations for future projects I would love to hear about those as well!

I will be updating this first post with more information as time passes, but for now let's get to the first project!

JasonNorman

Archive

Weapons

Vehicles

JasonNorman

For the first project I will be modeling a Double Barrel Grenade Launcher concepted by Kris Thaler
I've really enjoyed the design of this weapon for some time now and I thought it would be a great start for the thread!

JasonNorman

Here is my initial block-out of the Double Barrel Grenade Launcher.
I wanted to get in most of the pieces for sizing and placement as well as the functionality of the loading mechanism. Some of the pieces are more complicated in the concept but I will make sure to get all those interesting details in by the end.

JasonNorman

Working through the high poly and decided to start with the stock and grip.

JasonNorman

Had some fun modeling the barrel today. On to the next piece!

JasonNorman

Another piece down and with this I'm over half way done with the high-poly model! This piece along with the last I had been expecting to be the tougher parts of the model. However, they were also the reasons I decided to go with this concepts. Such cool shapes in there.
If anyone has feedback on any of the parts I've modeled so far I welcome it. Thank you guys.

Neox

feels like your edges are too sharp to properly get captured by the normalmap

JasonNorman

Thank you @Neox I may need to widen up some of my control edges. Do you have any ares you noticed specifically or in general they are all looking to crisp?

Neox

while i do not agree entirely on this one, as realistisc FPS weapons totally should look realistic in first person view foremost, i think this is still a pretty good example.

JasonNorman

@Neox Awesome I've thought the same thing on a few areas and tried to smooth it out a bit but I may have to go back and give it another go. I'll keep this at the front of my mind as I go through the next few pieces as well. I really appreciate the feedback!

JasonNorman

Finished up the standard sight and going to move onto the bottom portion of the gun before modeling the attachments

JasonNorman

Finished up the lower section of the Grenade Launcher over the last couple of days. I've been very happy with how each piece has been turning out and seeing it together as a whole is even more exciting. There are still some small things I need to add in but once that is complete I will be moving into the handle, sling, and halo sight attachments.
Always pleased to hear feedback! Thank you guys!

JasonNorman

Hello everyone! I've been working on the attachments for the Grenade Launcher the last couple of days. I made the holo-sight, sling and handle shown in the concept. I also adjusted a few of the proportions of various pieces and finished the last details that I wanted to include in the high poly. I'm very happy with how this is turning out and I'm looking forward to moving onto the low poly this week.
If you have any feedback I would really appreciate it! Thank you everyone!

JasonNorman

Hey guys! I know it's been a few weeks but I've been working away converting my model into a low poly version. I've also been unwrapping and baking as well. I'm in the process of learning Substance Painter and I am thrilled at how quickly the program finished all of it's baking. I'm going to be watching some tutorial videos about basic Painter use. If anyone has some recommendations about which tutorials to watch I would greatly appreciate it!

JasonNorman

Hey Polycounters!
After watching Allegorithmic's videos about Substance Painter I realized I had been doing a couple things incorrectly and decided to come back and fix a few things. In the process I figured I would also remodel a couple things that were bugging me. I adjusted some proportions for the grip and other misc details. I also decided to do an almost complete remodel on the sling to make it more functional. I'm a lot more happy with that now and I'm going repack y UVs and get a new bake going!

allengingrich

Great work so far. Very clean. What was your low poly process?

JasonNorman

@allengingrich Thank you! I like to keep the low poly in mind as I'm making the high poly model. Most of the process involves duplicating the high poly and then removing control edges and reducing the geometry in areas I feel it's excessive. In addition to that, because I wanted to model this as a first person shooter weapon, I would look at it from a first person angle and see where I would need to keep geometry, and where I could cut it because you wouldn't see it as much. If you have any other questions let me know or feel free to send me a message!

Lokthar

Nice work with the HP and baking, Looking forward to see what you'll do with the texturing!

macoll

Great thread, thanks for sharing, sub

JasonNorman

@Lokthar @macoll Thank you guys! I really appreciate the support! I should start the texturing in the morning.

JasonNorman

After remodeling the sling I re-unwrapped and baked for the low poly. I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Used substance to add in a few extra details as well and now I'm going through and applying base materials. More to come in the next few days!

JasonNorman

Began working on the textures! Taking a little time to understand how substance works but I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Trying to get a strong base before I start adding specific wear details. It has been interesting so far. I'm excited to keep working on this and hopefully finish up by next week!
If anyone has feedback I would love to hear it! I'm approaching the final steps and any constructive criticism helps.

JasonNorman

Hey Polycounters! Been playing with Substance Painter the last few days and getting familiar with what everything does. I still feel like there's a lot of things to play with but I'm starting to feel comfortable with the controls and some of the generators/effects. I've updated the materials and added a general use wear. Feeling good about it so far and going to move onto decals and start adding specific use wear. As always feedback welcomed. I'll be back with updates soon!

JasonNorman

Added decals as well as some smaller details and tweaks. I'm really happy with how this project has progressed and I'm getting more and more excited as I see this closing in on completion. Going to make the holo lense and grenade before taking finals renders so if anyone has any feedback I would greatly appreciate it. I'll be back with the finals in the next couple of days!

JasonNorman

Hello Everyone! I updated the last bit of texture work and took the final renders. I'm very happy with how everything turned out on this project and it's exciting me to move onto the next one. As always, I appreciate any feedback. I may make changes here if needed but it's also useful moving into the next project as well. Thank you everybody!

If you would like to check this out on my Artstation the link is here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VlZvZ
I will be adding a marmoset viewer to the page shortly (I need to upgrade to pro)

lotet

This is super sexy, im usually not a gun person, but I love this design!

JasonNorman

@lotet Thank you! I had a really fun time modeling this. It's gotten me even more excited to start on the next project.

ChristianWilliam

I really dig it this design

Mehran Khan

this really came out very sexy . the design itself  is pretty epic.

JasonNorman

@ChristianWilliam @Mehran Khan Thank you guys! I really enjoyed this project and Kris Thaler made it really easy to understand the design with his concept. I'm planning on modeling a few more of them in the future

JasonNorman

After finishing up the Grenade Launcher, I decided to take a few days off to relax and recover. However, in that time I also upgraded my Artstation to Pro to use the website editing features as well as update a few other things I've been meaning to! If you guys want to check out the new website you can visit: www.jason-norman.com 

Moving onto the next project! I will be modeling a Off-road/Safari style Land Rover Defender. I was inspired by some drawings done by Edgaras Cernikas. His drawings sparked childhood memories of off-roading with family and friends that is really pushing me toward this project. Although I do not plan to stick to any one of his drawings, this is the style I would like to go for and will be finding reference that relates to these types of vehicles.
My goal for this project is to model a functional, game-ready model. I will be doing the interior and exterior to showcase different material types. I plan for the model to have functioning wheels, doors, steering wheel and lights.
I'm excited to start and will begin looking for reference ASAP. If anyone has any good reference for this project please feel free to send it my way! Thank you guys and look out for updates in the coming days.

Here is the image that inspired me to do this project:

JasonNorman

Hello friends! It's been an exciting week and amongst the the business I've been working on the blockout for the Land Rover. I have most of the external pieces in place and I'm starting to work towards the interior and undercarriage. I'll be back with updates in a day or two.

JasonNorman

Finished up the interior and the undercarriage so I decided to get started on the high poly! Didn't have much time to work for the day so I started with something small. Went with the roof rack as that's something that won't change too much if I need to make adjustments

JasonNorman

Working on the front end of the Land Rover. Going to try to finish up the main body by week's end. There were a few complicated transitions in the light areas. It felt really good to get those done and looking the way I wanted them to.

JasonNorman

Hey polycounters! I've been busy over the last few days but I've had a chance to finish up the back end of the vehicle. I'm looking forward to the next few days. Holiday time off means extra time for personal projects! Stay tuned. As always, feedback is appreciated.

JasonNorman

Next update! This one seems a bit smaller than the others but I finished up the windshield area. Going to start working on the doors and then I'm not sure what I want to start working on after that. Suggestions?

JasonNorman

Everything is starting to shape up. Getting excited to see it once the whole body is finished up so I can start working on the accessories.

JasonNorman

Made the rim and tires! I've made tires in the past but I decided to try something now out and use floaters for the extrusions. It worked out great! C&C Always welcome

JasonNorman

Hey everyone! Slowed down a bit through the holidays as I'm making everyone's presents. But still making at least a little progress every day! I finished up the dashboard tonight. There were some very interesting curves in there I didn't notice at first glance but was really excited about as I studied it. I also decided to model an after market steering wheel. Thought the driver may want something nice to look at as he chauffeurs people through the rain forest. But then he covers it up with a cover because it doesn't want to ruin it. Trying to add little bits of story where I can. Anybody else have ideas about where I could add some story?

JasonNorman

Not a huge update today. Worked on the roll cage and should be finishing that up tomorrow. But I wanted to give an update of the high poly as a whole.

JasonNorman

Hey guys! It's been a few weeks since an update. Between the holidays and the flu I've either been running around or stuck in bed recovering. Fortunately, I'm feeling back in good health and getting back to work! Since I've been out for a few weeks I decided to warm back up with a smaller project. I found some really cool crate sketches by Pengzhen Zhang and picked one to model. Might do a few more over the next few days to mix things up a bit. Anyways, here it is!

Concept by Pengzhen Zhang:


High Poly Model:

JasonNorman

Goofing off a bit more. I wanted to see how well the floaters would hold up after I baked them down. I feel like the modeling went by extremely fast without having to integrate the mesh and once baked down I can't tell a difference. Giving the process a big A+. Luckily I've been doing the same process with the Land Rover but I haven't gotten to the baking stage yet so this little project makes me feel better about moving forward.

JasonNorman

Hello everyone! Been on a hiatus for some time now. For those of you who don't know, I started a position in a studio and have been spending my free time moving to a new city, settling in and getting some much needed rest after graduating college. I've been feeling the itch to do some personal work on the side as I have time and decided to start it back up with something small. Working on a stun gun based off a concept by Lars Sowig. Currently in the blockout and will soon be moving into the high poly stage. Stay tuned!