Part of my gun model library (certain modelling techniques?)

Dagon

I have tried to model a gun so many times whether it would be a pistol or an assault rifle or any other I have never been able to get it right or even finish it.... What is the right way to model weapons what parts should be attached and what shouldn't like should the buttstock be extruded out or separately modelled etc? Below in the images as you can see I've tried different methods to modelling different weapons the M16 I tried to model all the complicated parts together but separated. I don't know if it's best to have all the parts attached except for the bolts that would be springing back and forward while shooting but I decided to just go through with what I was able to do and that is modelling the parts I found difficult as separated objects, Somehow I think I'm definitely wrong by doing it this way since I'm guessing that texturing them would be tricky and it's just not practical to have a broken up gun... I've seen such awesome weapons out there I just wish I could model them as good as they can.


5th attempt at an m16, 1st attempt beretta 9mm, 1st attempt flintlock musket, 1st attempt XM8, 2nd attempt M1 Garand, 3rd attempt m67 hand grenade.

biofrost

I don't have experience modeling guns but from my experience it seems that no matter what you model as long as the geometry is clean the end result is all that matters. Find whatever way you enjoy modeling it and just keep practing it until you get better, then practice some more!

Quack!

A few tidbits of advice.

For weapons your workflow should be something like this. References>Blockout>High Poly>Low Poly>UVMap>Bake>Setup in an Engine(Marm/Udk/Unity/CE3)>Texture

I would recommend against rendering anything like you have currently. It is hard to see any details of the guns so we have no clue how the mesh looks. I always recommend modeling with a material that has a high specular, low gloss, and dark diffuse. This allows you to see any smoothing errors.

As for what you need to model. Does it animate? If it does then model it separate. With todays tricounts in games you can get away with attaching pieces that don't animate. Having more attached objects, means less UV space waste and allows for a higher res texture. There are exceptions to this rule but it is a good start.

Dagon

That's cool thanks for explaining that to me about the workflow I guess what I'll follow the ideal workflow which is most likely what you hinted.