MP5A4

I_R_Hopo

I've started working on an MP5A4 submachine gun for my friend's HL2 mod. I've been doing a few tutorials for Max and I felt I was ready to finally tackle making something on my own, so this is pretty much my first real modelling project. I've done a bit of work and was hoping to get some comments and suggestions from you guys about things I could improve upon, things I'm doing wrong/right, etc. (I know, it's hard to do so from two pictures... But just anything that jumps out right now as being really off)

I've finished the stock (unless anything needs to be fixed up), and started working on the grip.




I look forward to your thoughts!

ArcticNova83

Blockout looks pretty boss so far. Keep it up. Can't wait to see the details carved in.

Gallows

Arctic nailed it, when you get up would you mind posting a realtime video of the v_model?

motives

uhm, does the top "barrel" really bend down like that? isnt it just tapered?

Racer445

It doesn't bend down like that. That front area houses the cocking lever and should be flush with the upper receiver, since it needs to push back the bolt.



Ultimate gun ref gallery: http://www.pixagogo.com/DeicideNBF

odium

So did nobody stop and think maybe the guy was just blocking out the shapes...? No...? Oh ok...

LEViATHAN

odium wrote: »

So did nobody stop and think maybe the guy was just blocking out the shapes...? No...? Oh ok...

Yeah, except the shapes he has right now are incorrect.

I_R_Hopo

Sorry for not replying, I've been busy the last few days.

Gallows: What is a v_model? Is that something to do with the Source SDK? If so, I have no idea about it, sorry. My friend just told me to make a model and he'd do the rest :P

Motives and LEViATHAN: Yeah, I realize I probably got a lot of shapes wrong so far. From the horrible reference pictures I could find, it seemed to bend down and not taper, so I just put it like that for now. I was planning on fixing that up later, but for now I just wanted the sizes right.

Racer445: Thank you so much for those gun references. My friend and I have been wondering where to find that since we saw it in your AK tutorial. He's gonna be quite happy

I_R_Hopo

I've finished a bit more of the gun. I haven't got to work on it too much because I've been a bit busier than usual. Of course, the hours I did get to work were spent fiddling with getting things to look good, getting rid of shading errors, and figuring out what works and what doesn't. When I'm done this gun, I think I'll be much more confident in modelling.
So far I've learned that I really have to block out every shape before detailing, I need to plan ahead better (such as adding more geometry at an earlier time, especially on cylinders, so as not to run into problems later). I also learned that I really like N-Gons. Everyone says not to use them, but they really helped me out to avoid issues in the mesh (Of course, the wireframe looks like someone crapped it out... But the result looks good ). I could see N-Gons causing problems on a mesh that would be sent into ZBrush, but am I correct in thinking that on hard surfaces not being sent into Zbrush, they are okay?

Anyways, picture time on what I have so far:



I'm planning on fixing the grip later, the bottom is pretty messed up. I'm not fulling satified on the stock either. It can't be seen from these pictures but the rounded area down the center has a very slight hard edge to it that I could see screwing the normals a bit, but I might just wait to see if it's an issue later.
So, what do you guys think? Okay for a first try?

EDIT: Aw shit, just realized I REALLY messed up the size of that central cylinder area... I'm gonna have to spend a while fixing that up now haha. Not looking forward to it.

EDIT#2: Okay, fixed up that central area's size (I really don't know HOW I managed to mess that up. Oh well, good lesson learned for the future Really check those sizes!) Also fixed a few other bits that didn't look good to me, and added a couple more details. I'm starting to get faster as I learn how to do more complex bits, but a lot of you could still probably have three guns done in the time it took me just to do this :P Can't wait until I can do that haha.
Still a bit of smoothing problems on the indent due to my shitty edge-creation, but I can't see it being a huge problem in normal baking... I might fix it though, I'm kinda anal about any little thing that seems off. Should really change that.
Anyways, another picture! (The other side this time!)