i haven't done a weapon for a few months, i figure it was worth its own thread.
i took some minor artistic liberties on a few spots due to lack of reference or because i needed to simplify to make the low poly more optimized. it's close enough though. i mainly just wanted to get this done though, and i'm pretty happy that i was able to make this in about two days working casually.
Tight as a drum, of course. I can't sperg about any liberties since I don't know the platform, and what kind of knob really gets into PDWs in esoteric calibers anyway
Now all you need to do is convert it into it's HL2 mythical grenade alt-firing version
This is a really interesting weapon. Don't think I've seen it before, except in HL2, but then I didn't really think about it. :P
Don't really have anything to crit on, seeing as I don't know how the different version look like, or if there are different versions..
But one thing I noticed that looks off is the safety or fire mode switch.. I really don't know how to explain it, but it's in the top image.
The area that the switch goes into is too curved on your model. On the reference I looked at the back part of that area is much straighter.
Here is the ref I looked at:
Please let me know if you don't understand what I meant and I'll make a paintover. I don't have photoshop on the computer I'm on atm.
Would you mind going over how you went about your renders? They're pretty great looking, esp for something like a weapon.
it's just a max scanline render with light tracer, a single blue skylight, and a single shadow casting omni. after that i have some max effects to bump the contrast and morph the colors, giving me the result you see in just one click straight from max.
I shoot this weapon a few times in my military service in germany and I have to admin that a few pieces looks wrong, especially the buttstock.
Whats your reference picture(s) for that mesh?
If you need pictures, let me know. I build a low poly mesh a while ago.
There are also a few differences between the first MP7 and the advanced MP7A1.
yeah haha i have to admit i took a few artistic liberties on this gun for low poly optimization or just coolness reasons.
the pistol grip and flash hider are from the A1, but the stock and sights are from the original model. the original stock is one big chunky piece, it screams power! the rear sight also has the old blocky shape with the big knob, also chunky, and looks much cooler in fps view. oh, the top rail assembly is from the old style too, since it's easier to optimize. i guess i could just change the pistol grip and it'd be mostly the old style, but the A1 grip is something i really recognize when i think of the MP7.
another thing is the two rear holes on the back. it seems it's a bit random which model has which holes, but in general it seems that the A1 has two holes whereas the original model has one.
so yeah, i could easily change those things to the original style so i could keep the big fat shapes, but idk if it'd be worth it. if you have any reference pics of the extended mag, that'd be awesome!
this is one of the references i used for the old style stuff:
a couple areas i changed for low poly optimization reasons:
side rails. the real things have these wack corner bevels which i omitted because they'd be hard to optimize.
i didn't make the selector switches or folding vert grip asymmetrical so i can mirror them. sadly the real things are slightly different on each side.
sights are simplified due to wack geo. i mean wtf hk.
Great job man, spiffy looking gun!
Looking forward to LP and textures.
You totally inspired me with guns, I made my first Steyr AUG with the help of some of your old tuts. You say they are outdated, but i think they still work great.
What do you have up your sleeve with your new website/tuts?
Looking great, I think you'd do well to pop out a few details to add some more interest in FPV, like those inset notches that would be pretty clear in view. It really just needs a few areas of pop to get the full-on "Hey thats a highpoly model" feeling.
Cutting out some detail around the bolts on the rails(both side and top) would help too, as those areas lack depth and look "painted on" instead of having the proper geometry there.
The screws on the side of the iron sights, the rear sight specifically, would benefit from having some rudimentary geometry as well, as that will be seen way up close.
Overall I would say, see what you can do to pump this up to the 5-5,500 tris range, to really put it over the top.
round off the top of the buttstock and the charging handle, those will be seen upclose in fpv so you should probably double the # of sides on the curve there
edit: the rear strap loop too, really anything you'll see up close should never have the appearance of a lowpoly mesh.
looks good. on the side rails i think you went a bit heavy on the edge outlines. it looks a bit too strong there (almost like its too opaque in the diffuse)
Replies
Now all you need to do is convert it into it's HL2 mythical grenade alt-firing version
saving the wires to erotic/ref folder
Whats your reference picture(s) for that mesh?
If you need pictures, let me know. I build a low poly mesh a while ago.
There are also a few differences between the first MP7 and the advanced MP7A1.
Don't really have anything to crit on, seeing as I don't know how the different version look like, or if there are different versions..
But one thing I noticed that looks off is the safety or fire mode switch.. I really don't know how to explain it, but it's in the top image.
The area that the switch goes into is too curved on your model. On the reference I looked at the back part of that area is much straighter.
Here is the ref I looked at:
Please let me know if you don't understand what I meant and I'll make a paintover. I don't have photoshop on the computer I'm on atm.
Keep it up!
As unique crit, you could have used pentagons and surely, you could have saved too much work and useless polygons.
Love the way you show the model
it's just a max scanline render with light tracer, a single blue skylight, and a single shadow casting omni. after that i have some max effects to bump the contrast and morph the colors, giving me the result you see in just one click straight from max.
yeah haha i have to admit i took a few artistic liberties on this gun for low poly optimization or just coolness reasons.
the pistol grip and flash hider are from the A1, but the stock and sights are from the original model. the original stock is one big chunky piece, it screams power! the rear sight also has the old blocky shape with the big knob, also chunky, and looks much cooler in fps view. oh, the top rail assembly is from the old style too, since it's easier to optimize. i guess i could just change the pistol grip and it'd be mostly the old style, but the A1 grip is something i really recognize when i think of the MP7.
another thing is the two rear holes on the back. it seems it's a bit random which model has which holes, but in general it seems that the A1 has two holes whereas the original model has one.
so yeah, i could easily change those things to the original style so i could keep the big fat shapes, but idk if it'd be worth it. if you have any reference pics of the extended mag, that'd be awesome!
this is one of the references i used for the old style stuff:
a couple areas i changed for low poly optimization reasons:
side rails. the real things have these wack corner bevels which i omitted because they'd be hard to optimize.
i didn't make the selector switches or folding vert grip asymmetrical so i can mirror them. sadly the real things are slightly different on each side.
sights are simplified due to wack geo. i mean wtf hk.
Looking forward to LP and textures.
You totally inspired me with guns, I made my first Steyr AUG with the help of some of your old tuts. You say they are outdated, but i think they still work great.
What do you have up your sleeve with your new website/tuts?
Mind sharing your "color balance" and "Brightness and contrast" settings for your renders?
Cutting out some detail around the bolts on the rails(both side and top) would help too, as those areas lack depth and look "painted on" instead of having the proper geometry there.
The screws on the side of the iron sights, the rear sight specifically, would benefit from having some rudimentary geometry as well, as that will be seen way up close.
Overall I would say, see what you can do to pump this up to the 5-5,500 tris range, to really put it over the top.
eq, the screws on the sights are actually supposed to be inset. looks like i forgot to add a bevel around them to show that, whoops.
places i need to add geo:
side rear pin things attached to the plastic
rear sling loop looks horrid in fpv
side and top rails
top rear rail pin
charging handle
oniram, meh, i'll just paint the middle of the holes black appropriately.
edit: the rear strap loop too, really anything you'll see up close should never have the appearance of a lowpoly mesh.
anyhow, its a ridiculously clean bake. Good job!
by the way, how do you avoid getting those fucked up normal bakes of of cylinders along the edges?
Wow amazing texture work!!!!!!!! So realistic nitty gritty details!!!!
congratulations!