AK-74 (WIP)

Mgoblue412

This a gun that I am working on for a personal project. It is an AK-74, the modeling is close to being done. I am planning on baking this version down to a low poly gun later next week. My goal is about 4,000 polys for the final gun model. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

A-N-P

Seems some of your floating geo is floating off the edge of your mesh.

Also, check out Racer445's AK tut, could learn a lot from that.

Keep going.

Scizz

wait, u can use floating geometry for extrusions into the mesh, not just things that pop out??!

Ark

Scizz wrote: »

wait, u can use floating geometry for extrusions into the mesh, not just things that pop out??!

Ofcourse, since the baking will only see the intrusion/extrusion, any faces that are parallel to the surface normal of the low-poly mesh will not be picked up.

Nice model btw and nice to see another XSI user.

nordahl154

Scizz wrote: »

wait, u can use floating geometry for extrusions into the mesh, not just things that pop out??!

mr_ace

looks pretty nice, btw it's an aks-74u, not an ak-74!

i don't know the fun too well off the top of my head, so i can't give you too many useful crits, though i would say the pistol grip is too square, the real handle is slightly smoother

...great job!

Skillmister

nordahl154 wrote: »

haha this was me when i first found out about floating geo. It was like being re-born

SouthpawSid

Skillmister wrote: »

haha this was me when i first found out about floating geo. It was like being re-born

haha, without floating geo, what I do at work would take me twice the time! It be GRRREEAATTTT!!

Scizz

yea. my mind is pretty much blown.

GarageBay9

You've got a hell of a lot of rivets along the side of the receiver there. Double check your references, make sure they're real guns and accurate to the AKSU.

Only other major issue I can see is the shape of the pistol grip, it's a little squarish right now.

Mgoblue412

@A-N-P I am actually following along with the Racer445 tut that is why it is this gun in the first place. The floating geometry is how he has it in his tut as well

@Scizz I thought the exact same thing when I learned that as well

@GarageBay9 Everything as far as rivets on my model is in my reference. Here is the link http://www.pixagogo.com/Photos/Albums/Photo.aspx?id=S48R2lHW3VgwwkzzShKWE5XseMBSnC04nXr!0QMP5ftpBZbfqgMOoMmjvdQ7ZXBSW!
One of my friends at school mentioned that the grip might be square so that is what I have to fix as of right now that is the most obvious thing.

GarageBay9

Mgo... Found the problem. First I thought your picture was of a Khyber Pass special... a gun cobbled together out of scrap and old parts in some cave along the notorious Khyber Pass region where "cottage" gun making is widespread.

Looks instead like you've misread the tack welds for the bolt rails as full-blown rivets. They're just very faint circular marks on the side, they don't protrude like the rivet heads.

Try this for AKSU reference... http://www.avtomats-in-action.com/pro22.html

Mgoblue412

Thanks for the reference images, I have not touched this since like Thursday due to being out of town for the holiday so I am getting back into it to today and should have the high and low poly done soon. Then on to my nemesis that is texturing.

Mgoblue412

Here is the Lowpoly screen capture for the gun. Managed to get it under 3,000 tris which is under what I was aiming for so I can put some more detail in there if you think there needs to be. Crits always welcome

roosterMAP

Um... i see MANY spots that could lose some tri's. the LP doesnt need quads. you need to optimize a lot more.

3k for a weapon is still really high.

Mgoblue412

I was thinking I could probably just end a bunch of the loops in the front grip sooner so they are not going all the way around because they are using a lot of tris right now but I just did not think it was needed but I guess every tri couns

Mgoblue412

Update on the polyflow of the gun, managed to get it down under 2100 tris. Also thought I would show the other side of the gun

GarageBay9

Don't forget the gas tube latch on the right side, just beneath the front of the rear sights.

EDIT: nevermind, I see it's moved on the AKSU.

Andreas

roosterMAP wrote: »

3k for a weapon is still really high.

There were weapons in Killzone 2/3 that reached 12000 triangles.

Raider

yer 3k for an fps isn't high at all for current generation games, 3rd person then yer that's about all you want.

nordahl154

Yeah hell, even in TF2 a lot of the weapons are in the 3000s to 6000s.

PixelMasher

yea, if anything I would say add a ton more geo sharper edges to get way better bake results. especially if this is being planned for a 1st person model. keep in mind you would be able to delete a bunch of faces on the side of the gun facign away from the camera, so if you ended up at 8k tris, it would probably be like 6-7k atleast after optimization.

Mgoblue412

The plan for the gun as of right now is for a third person shooter.

n88tr

what's with the highlighted blue parts?

ZacD

n88tr wrote: »

what's with the highlighted blue parts?

boundary edges, or edges that aren't connected to anything, I think its just in xsi, but it may be in other apps.

Mgoblue412

Yeah it is the exactly what ZacD said just parts that are not connected to anything. I do not know if it is in any other program but this is XSI.

I should have a test bake up either tonight or tomorrow, I have been gone all weekend and class all day today.

Mgoblue412

Does anyone know of a good tutorial for Xnormal with floating geometry? I am trying to bake my normals but it is not coming out correctly at all and just looks screwie. I might even be going about baking it completely wrong because I have never really dont it before. any help would be appreciated. I can upload a picture of the normal map and stuff if you want to see them.

gdevries

I hope you go back after this to finish it after Capstone! You might want to post a message saying that you are on a hiatus working on another project. Keep up the good work man!

Mgoblue412

Yeah that is not a terrible point and I will get back to it during the winter break for sure. This is going to be put off until about December 16th or so.

Cactii

Really nice gun! 2k sounds awesome...

I'm relatively new to Maya, 2.5 years modelling.
Modelled a G18, i don't know if i have the courage to post it haha.

Mgoblue412

Cactii I was the same say and that is why this is my first post of my work after 4 years of school but I have come to realize there is no reason to be down on your work because the people here are here to help. I never really liked my work either but it will help to post it and get input on it.