Modelling guns correctly
polygon
I have always struggled to model weapons especially guns either they just don't look good or I feel that they mine aren't modelled correctly.
And now some really important questions I wish someone could answer.
1. Is it important to model a gun with every part intact except for moving parts? for example must the butt stock be attached/extruded from the lower/upper receiver?
2. Is it important to model a gun high poly with all the detail you can create and then bake that detail onto a lower res model? Or are most game weapons modelled low poly rather than modelling high poly and baking normals onto a low res?
3. Which is the best way to model a gun? Box modelling or poly by poly?
I know that there are many methods out there but I am just tired of feeling my gun models are badly modelled as some people tell me what matters the most is the end result but others also tell me that I've made a lot of mistakes. I have been modelling for 5 years now (self taught) but haven't gotten serious till 2-3 years ago.
Here's some of my weapons I modelled and obviously all WIP as I can't seem to finish them for the above reasons... I keep questioning if I'm doing it wrong or not.
And now some really important questions I wish someone could answer.
1. Is it important to model a gun with every part intact except for moving parts? for example must the butt stock be attached/extruded from the lower/upper receiver?
2. Is it important to model a gun high poly with all the detail you can create and then bake that detail onto a lower res model? Or are most game weapons modelled low poly rather than modelling high poly and baking normals onto a low res?
3. Which is the best way to model a gun? Box modelling or poly by poly?
I know that there are many methods out there but I am just tired of feeling my gun models are badly modelled as some people tell me what matters the most is the end result but others also tell me that I've made a lot of mistakes. I have been modelling for 5 years now (self taught) but haven't gotten serious till 2-3 years ago.
Here's some of my weapons I modelled and obviously all WIP as I can't seem to finish them for the above reasons... I keep questioning if I'm doing it wrong or not.
Replies
1) usually i try to keep hi-res model as much similar to the original model trying to avoid intersections of geometries as much as possible. Of course it takes some more efforts in terms of topology. Of course for mobile parts i go with detached geometries
2)definitely i'd say that modeling hi-poly and then baking normalmaps to a lowpoly is the way to go, at least for the current generation of games
3)i don't think there is a specific method to model guns...i'd say both of them works if they fit your way of modeling...
In general i'd say that the best approach is to roughly model the main volumes and proportions of the gun, keeping an eye on doing a decent topology, then refine the main shapes of the gun and in the end modeling the small details... but as i said, i've just done a couple of guns so i'm not really an authority
this is an exploded image that would kind of show you each piece you should model sperately
In this image I would model the butt and stock (all the wood parts) as one piece but most of the time I would model the butt of the gun separately
2. I feel like most of your games like COD and Battlefield will make a high poly can bake it down to a low poly because that is how you are going to get the most "real" looking gun with the least amount of polys
3. I personally box model my guns but really I would think that it would be a matter of which you prefer.