Rail Gun (Complete)

SoupSandwich

Hi everyone my name is Richard Peraza, this is my first time posting on polycount so here we go.  I'm working on modeling my rail gun base on my concept for Senior port class at Laguna College of art and design.

This is my concept I'm modeling from.




And this is what I model so far in Zbrush.




After getting critiques from my professors, I gotta fix the front grip to make it more comfortable to use.  There still a bunch of detail I gotta model.  Before I redesign the front grip, I'm gonna work on my pistons.  

I'm welcome to critiques or talking about guns, cyberpunk, and cool stuff.

SoupSandwich

Hey everyone! Its been awhile since I last send you an update of my senior port.  Just wanted to let you know that I'm finally done modeling my weapon.  All I gotta do is smooth all the edges for the whole weapon.  Oh man this is gonna be so much fun, he he not really.  I'm not sure how will it go.  What I'm first gonna do is smooth the edges for one simply piece of the weapon, then  retopo on either Maya or 3D Coat, and last do a bake test.  Once the bake test is a success, I can move on and retopo the rest of my weapon and bake it all.

Here what my weapon looks so far.  

Thanks man.

Ashervisalis

I'm always blown away by people's hard surface in ZBrush. Do you find it's faster than using something like Maya or Max for hard surface? Looks really cool.

SoupSandwich

Thanks man.  Actually this is my first time doing hard surface modeling in Zbrush and this weapon took like 11 weeks to get this far.  Than again I'm also taking like three other classes.  I'm really slow at it.  In my opinion I think its faster to create a high poly model in Zbrush than it is in 3Ds max, but its slower in changing from high poly to low poly models in Zbrush than it is doing it all in 3Ds max or Maya.  Zbrush high poly modeling is faster because of the live boolean tools, something that 3DS max and Maya doesn't have.  But if your created your high poly models from 3DS max first, than its way faster to convert to low poly modeling.  Since I made this weapon in Zbrush, I'm gonna have to retopo which I never done before and I heard from students that its not easy.  You can hard surface model in Zbrush or in 3DS max.  They can both do the work, it depends on which gets the job faster and more easier for you.  

Ashervisalis

Retopologizing isn't very difficult, it's just not fun!

SoupSandwich

Yeah I figure retopologizing its a least not gonna be fun.  Well I'm be retopo in 3D Coat since for some reason Maya 2018 is not working on my laptop.  Well see if this works out.  

Dethling

Really nice work, I jealous of everyone who can use zbrush on this level, especially for hard surface stuff!

But from my point of view you fell into two scifi-design pits:

1. The "Scifi-Nosie":
You added a lot of small notches all over the weapon. First this creates a noise level which makes it hard so read the weapon, second it's not believable. Sci-Fi comes from Science, this means the designs should be believable (within the setting you created for it and within logic). Take a look a modern cased weapons (like the P90 or the Tavor). None of them have small notches, bevels and beams all over it. Think of how to assemble the weapon, where are the connection points, where are release points and then place a few notches, bolts on this points. This will add so much more to your design then simply spreading notches all over the weapon. 

Quick Paintover - removed all the small notches and cleaned up the shapes. 



2. The BEVEL
You added a lot of bevels to your weapon and most of them look really nice and sell the scifi clean and sturdy design of the weapon. 
But you also added bevels to areas where they make no sense, especially at the grip(s). Changing these to normal, round shapes will not only boost the believability of the weapon (again look at modern weapons), but also add some nice shape contrasts (like you already did with the battery at the stock and the round cylinders at the top of the barrel).

I think you can get a really nice piece out of it, keep going!

SoupSandwich

Thanks Dethling!  Gotta say the P90 is one of my favorite sub machine gun, especially how you reload the magazine on top of the weapon, personally I think is a really cool design. 

 When I'm designing weapons, I've always look at modern weapons first and think about, "how can I make this look more sci-fi".  For this railgun I'm creating, I've been looking up Alex Senechal tutorial on Visual Design Basics, and been thinking about his design theory on 70/30 rules, shape contrast, repetition,  echoing, asymmetry, and detail distribution.  Combining, I been looking at Elijah McNeal weapons designs and how he uses these notches, beams, bending circuits boards, and all that Sci-fi Noise.  I wish I can put more time into the design of the weapon, especially on thinking about "How is this weapon created, manufacture, and how does it work".  I was thinking on functionality and may went a little too crazy on the sci-fi gribbly bits design.  

Your right about the bevels for my weapon.  There are things like the buttstock and grips thats needs to have more softer bevels to make them more comfortable to hold on too.  I'll be working on fixing the bevels for my weapon.  

Again thank you for the critiques Dethling, these are definitely things I'll think about when I design my next weapon.   

Here are the reference I've been using if you want to see them.
Alex Senechal tutorial: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Klvxr
Elijah McNeal weapons designs: https://www.artstation.com/el1j4h/albums/897879

SoupSandwich

Man its been a while since I finish this project.  A lot has happen over the months that forgot about posting my progress.  Well here the finish project. 

First Person  View Animation

https://vimeo.com/373061892

Turn around with animation

https://vimeo.com/373062200

SoupSandwich