Animation WIP: Homebrew AK47 Crossbow Concept
Hello there, I'm Niea and am new. Im not a professional by any means but I do dabble enough in first person 3d animation to desire some feedback.
Anywho, this thread will deal with the evolution of a new crossbow model and animation set intended to replace the crossbow in Half Life 2. I decided to keep the cobbled together theme but instead of a boring assortment of metal plates, I thought it might make sense to use the body of an AK47 (there are plenty in east euro, the game's location) with a bunch of jerry-rigged modifications.
So it works like this: the bowstring is attached to a "launcher" that holds the back of the rebar arrow and pushes it out when the weapon is fired. The launcher piece is attached to the bolt of the AK47 so that they move in unison. The safety on the side of the AK47 has been modified so that when the bolt passes behind it's tip, the safety moves up to hold the bolt back, until a depressing of the trigger releases it sending the whole assembly flying forward. There is also a small battery connected via wire to a metal guide (located in the forward stock of the AK) that "charges" the rebar to make it hot (this is mostly valve's idea not mine).
This concept was put together from existing models I have found in the source engine based modding community (I do not model) namely Twinke's AK47S & PSO, Valve's default model, and VertThrasher's texture set for the xbow model along with a few google image results of rust. Due to the models not being intended for the purpose I have modified them for, the model and texture aspects of this concept are quite poor in terms of quality (Wasted/stretched UV, no normals, unwelded meshes, etc). No this concept is mainly put together for animation purposes and to exercise my imagination (I will work on the model part if I learn how to or if some one else wanted to step in). The model is fairly rig intensive for a view model as I have weighted the bow with 8 mesh controllers wired to the position of the bolt, so that when the rebar is shot, the bow will expand outward as it should.
Anyways, I will get started on animation work later this week/next week. Mainly I am looking for feedback on the concept as well as the pose/handwrap. Don't be too critical though, there is only so much you can do with no modeling skills and a circa 2004 hand mesh!!
Anywho, this thread will deal with the evolution of a new crossbow model and animation set intended to replace the crossbow in Half Life 2. I decided to keep the cobbled together theme but instead of a boring assortment of metal plates, I thought it might make sense to use the body of an AK47 (there are plenty in east euro, the game's location) with a bunch of jerry-rigged modifications.
So it works like this: the bowstring is attached to a "launcher" that holds the back of the rebar arrow and pushes it out when the weapon is fired. The launcher piece is attached to the bolt of the AK47 so that they move in unison. The safety on the side of the AK47 has been modified so that when the bolt passes behind it's tip, the safety moves up to hold the bolt back, until a depressing of the trigger releases it sending the whole assembly flying forward. There is also a small battery connected via wire to a metal guide (located in the forward stock of the AK) that "charges" the rebar to make it hot (this is mostly valve's idea not mine).
This concept was put together from existing models I have found in the source engine based modding community (I do not model) namely Twinke's AK47S & PSO, Valve's default model, and VertThrasher's texture set for the xbow model along with a few google image results of rust. Due to the models not being intended for the purpose I have modified them for, the model and texture aspects of this concept are quite poor in terms of quality (Wasted/stretched UV, no normals, unwelded meshes, etc). No this concept is mainly put together for animation purposes and to exercise my imagination (I will work on the model part if I learn how to or if some one else wanted to step in). The model is fairly rig intensive for a view model as I have weighted the bow with 8 mesh controllers wired to the position of the bolt, so that when the rebar is shot, the bow will expand outward as it should.
Anyways, I will get started on animation work later this week/next week. Mainly I am looking for feedback on the concept as well as the pose/handwrap. Don't be too critical though, there is only so much you can do with no modeling skills and a circa 2004 hand mesh!!