[WIP] Lewis Gun
polycounter lvl 6
Hello people!!
Well, I usually do medieval fantasy weapons, but this time I wanted to do a real weapon. The chosen one has been a weapon from first world war: The Lewis Light Machine Gun. I found it the other day and I liked its design, so I have decided to make a 3d version.
I always start looking for references. With this I not only find out about the details and general shape, but also about the purpose of the different components. This helps me understanding which ones need to be shown and how.
Once I have that I start by setting a scene with the most important references. When I have that I create a set of blocks with the general shape (silhouette). Then I start a set of interactions in which I go setting more and more details and refining shape:
Well, I usually do medieval fantasy weapons, but this time I wanted to do a real weapon. The chosen one has been a weapon from first world war: The Lewis Light Machine Gun. I found it the other day and I liked its design, so I have decided to make a 3d version.
I always start looking for references. With this I not only find out about the details and general shape, but also about the purpose of the different components. This helps me understanding which ones need to be shown and how.
Once I have that I start by setting a scene with the most important references. When I have that I create a set of blocks with the general shape (silhouette). Then I start a set of interactions in which I go setting more and more details and refining shape:
Replies
The most important pieces have been set. There are some missing surface elements but those are going to be set using floating geometry.
Here you can see a very quick HP (using turbosmooth). It is of course not the final HP. Just a quick set up to see how the shapes turn out.
i recently modeled a Lewis for a mobile game and from what i'm seeing you got most of the details right
although the stock looks a bit weird to me
mmmm. There are some differences on the metal objects but the stock looks right to me. What do you think AlirezaMorgan?
I have been working on the high poly and I have finally finished it (almost). This is taking me more time than I thought at first glance (I thought that this project was going to take me 1 week and I will need 4 more days than that...). But I have finally get to the part where I will start making the low poly.
Hey Kaine123. I still have to make those changes, but I have decided to make them inside Zbrush before starting making the bakes.
Something that may help you get the proportions of some of those pieces like the sling attachment is to look at photos of this weapon being held/used by people. This won't give you exact proportions of course, but when you see certain parts in relation to the human user, which you'll be much more familiar with, just a quick glance will at the model will tell you then that if the sling attachment was that small (as you had it originally), then the weapon itself must be like twice the size of a man. This is more something to do at the beginning when you are studying the model and trying to get to know it like a real life object as much as possible, and probably won't help nail the exact sizes of things, but maybe it will help in the future.
Hey! That´s a nice idea! I will use it on future projects.
First the base weapon (with a total of 14574 triangles):
I did the same with the magazine (with a total of 5509 triangles):
After that I exported my high poly models to zbrush and used inflate deformation to increase a bit the bevel of the borders. This, after baking, gives a better read of the model. After that I made the bakes and this is the result:
Well, here is the modified versions of both AO and normals. I occluded parts that would show parts of the interior (which I did not modeled since this is supposed to be a game asset) and set some text that appears in real references:
In one day or two this will be finished!
I was going to point out to start working with a high spec/glossy material when doing sub-d work, just so you can point out artifacts and forms much easier, but @Kaine123 mentioned.
[I removed this project because it was too old]