USMC M16A4 Assault Rifle

Gnasty

Hi, this is my first post here. I come from CGSociety (CGTalk) and felt I need more feedback from other people. Figured this board seems to be as much active as CGTalk


I'm going for a Battlefield 3 approach with the stock wrap, and a couple of attachments used on the M4A1 in BF3's cover art. I'm also creating this model based on my own M16A4 airsoft rifle, which is COMPLETELY authentic in looks. Proportions and everything is exactly like the real steel. This makes everything so easy to model since I can just use a ruler to get the right proportions...





The front sight, flash hider are imported from my old M4 model. They're just placeholders and will eventually be remodeled.

Critiques and comments are always welcome since I want to improve my modeling skills.

If you want any other angles, please let me know and I'll make a render of it!

Boyso

You do know right that most airsoft replicas are not 1:1? Unless you have a GBBR one that is.

But looking good so far. Not a fan of the stock wrap, I prefer the good old duct tape cheek riser, but I'd say also just be careful not to have too tight edges.

JoshC

Very well done high so far. A few critiques for the rifle detail (assuming your going for accuracy) is the rail locking ring is missing, the barrel seems a bit short, the pistol grip needs to be hollow, and you are missing the cleaning kit compartment door on the buttstock (though the last two aren't important if your building this for a fps). As for the stock wrap, I am not a fan. Most soldiers wouldn't wrap their entire stock as it isn't necessary. For someone who is like a designated marksman or rifleman, the most you would see is probably some mole skin, small padding and some duct tape. Just enough for the cheek to rest on.

The overall length of the m16a4 is 39.63 inches (100.66 centimeters).





Also, a screen of the otherside of the rifle would be awesome.

Gnasty

Boyso wrote: »

You do know right that most airsoft replicas are not 1:1? Unless you have a GBBR one that is.

But looking good so far. Not a fan of the stock wrap, I prefer the good old duct tape cheek riser, but I'd say also just be careful not to have too tight edges.

I'm fairly sure mine is 1:1. G&P M16A4 RAS. It's an AEG, not GBBR. But still. If you can provide me the correct dimensions (if possible), I can measure my rifle. It doesn't look out of proportions at all, and it did cost some grants. I'd assume the only difference would be the depth proportions, which can be tweaked if necessary.

The stock wrap. Sure, it may not be a big plus. But for the looks, I will keep it there. For a design choice, I'd rather have a sheet wrapped around than a black plastic stock. And as I said, I'm going for a Battlefield 3 direction. It's more art than reality

JoshC wrote: »

Very well done high so far. A few critiques for the rifle detail (assuming your going for accuracy) is the rail locking ring is missing, the barrel seems a bit short, the pistol grip needs to be hollow, and you are missing the cleaning kit compartment door on the buttstock (though the last two aren't important if your building this for a fps). As for the stock wrap, I am not a fan. Most soldiers wouldn't wrap their entire stock as it isn't necessary. For someone who is like a designated marksman or rifleman, the most you would see is probably some mole skin, small padding and some duct tape. Just enough for the cheek to rest on.

The overall length of the m16a4 is 39.63 inches (100.66 centimeters).

[Image1]

[Image2]

Also, a screen of the otherside of the rifle would be awesome.

The gun is still a work in progress. I haven't modeled everything yet. The Delta ring (assuming that's what you mean with rail looking ring), hasn't been modeled yet, and neither am I done with the hand grip. It lacks the texture patterns etc.

Same goes for the stock pad. The lit/door is not modeled yet. Nor the screws above and beneath.

The barrel is 1:1. It's not too short, I promise. Maybe it's the angle that makes it look short.

See above for the stock wrap.

I haven't done the other side of the rifle yet, so it's just a mirror of the left side currently.


Thanks for the comments guys! I appreciate it

Boyso

Well mostly, on a AEG, the pistol grip is way too thick to fit in a motor. I also believe the receiver is slightly off spec, but it shouldn't matter much for a video game.

And it is supposed to be hollow.

Like this : http://www.vikingtactics.com/images/ar15-m4/vtac-erized_ar15m4.jpg

Gnasty

Boyso wrote: »

Well mostly, on a AEG, the pistol grip is way too thick to fit in a motor. I also believe the receiver is slightly off spec, but it shouldn't matter much for a video game.

And it is supposed to be hollow.

Like this : http://www.vikingtactics.com/images/ar15-m4/vtac-erized_ar15m4.jpg

I'm going to make it hollow soon. It's been my intention ever since :poly124:

Gnasty

Some updates. I've remodeled the top receiver, and made the bottom receiver wider (depth-wise). Now it's in line with the correct proportions. Also, I modeled the Delta Ring and added a bump map to the pistol grip.

Gnasty

Here is the magazine plus some wires

gauss

nice work so far. without looking it over too much, the looking up into the magwell shot is off, the magazine should fit pretty snugly into the magazine well. there looks like too much clearance on all sides.

JoshC

Very clean, I like. As far as everything goes, pretty johnny on the spot as far as details.

This is from my M4 at home, the receivers for the 16 and m4 are the exact same so this should help for the magazine.

Gnasty

Thanks for that Josh, will look into it

Gnasty

I fixed the mag issue Josh. I just don't have any pics on it yet :P

Anyways, I have modeled the stock pad now. Only thing left is getting back that diamond texture on it. Will do it later today.





And by the way, does anyone know if there actually is a door cap on the real stock pad? I've been looking forever on Google, and I just can't find any info about it. I made it anyways though, but I will remove it if it's not there on the real one.

JoshC

it's there

Lonewolf

strong start..

Racer445

are you planning on baking this down? if so, your edges are quite a bit too thin, though i can't entirely tell because they're being obscured by that gucci render setup.

pretty clean modeling though, regardless.

Gnasty

JoshC wrote: »

it's there

Alright, thanks!

Racer445 wrote: »

are you planning on baking this down? if so, your edges are quite a bit too thin, though i can't entirely tell because they're being obscured by that gucci render setup.

pretty clean modeling though, regardless.

Lol at Gucci render Just tell me if you need any special angles, and a screenshot of the view port.

Uhm, I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Baking as in texturing? Because I will texture it, but I don't really know what you mean with thin edges. Please enlighten me?

Alberto Rdrgz

He means, are you going to project this down to a lower poly model? if so, you are going to get problems because your edges are tight.

Gnasty

Alberto Rdrgz wrote: »

He means, are you going to project this down to a lower poly model? if so, you are going to get problems because your edges are tight.

Well, I've never converted a high-poly to low-poly before, and I had plans to do it. But yeah, it can be hard to do, but I guess I'll have to remove them all and redo it or something.


Anyways, here's a render with the displacement map on the stock pad, plus a sling mount ring:

Gnasty

I started working on the other side of the receivers. Here's what I have achieved so far. It's just the top receiver that has been made right now.

katana

I like where you are going with the model, but dang turn off the BG...

Gnasty

Lol, I'll see what I can do with the background

Gnasty

Done with the whole M16 itself...





Now it's time for all the attachments. Too bad the AN/PEQ-15 got as many details as the rifle, it seems. Hopefully it will be easier to make it anyways.

JoshC

Looking spiffy, keep it up.

Dagon

That's amazing detail! How come you modelled everything watertight? Is it necessary to model everything intact and not have any separate meshes? What renderer and Modelling program are you using? I've tried to do exactly what you've done and I'm finding it extremely hard to do but nevertheless it's awesome to see someone else able to model things like this with such detail.

Razgriz

Gnasty wrote: »

Well, I've never converted a high-poly to low-poly before, and I had plans to do it. But yeah, it can be hard to do, but I guess I'll have to remove them all and redo it or something.

Since you're posting on a game-art forum, you'll get that comment a lot, but you might want to keep in mind that even for cinema, film, and other mediums, it's often wise to artificially soften the edges juts a tad more than is physically accurate, depending on how the asset is being used. If it's something that will never be seen terribly close, you actually lose the benefit of having visible bevels that catch highlights by keeping tight, razor-sharp edges.

Polygoblin

Everything you have so far is top-notch. I'm not a fan of using airsoft rifles for reference, but that's me. Argued with plenty gun nerds here about it

What they mean about the tight edges, is if you bake the normal map, you want to make sure that you have a few pixels width on each edge so it can show correctly. I know since you haven't baked down a high resolution mesh yet, so this may not make much sense, but keep it in mind when you start learning that step. Bake one with softer edges on the really sharp parts, and see how it looks different. It'll makes sense then.

Keep it up!

Gnasty

Dagon wrote: »

That's amazing detail! How come you modelled everything watertight? Is it necessary to model everything intact and not have any separate meshes? What renderer and Modelling program are you using? I've tried to do exactly what you've done and I'm finding it extremely hard to do but nevertheless it's awesome to see someone else able to model things like this with such detail.

Thanks! I've modeled the parts as they actually are, so there are no multiple elements in each object.

Now I'm just rendering with Vray and using 3ds Max 2012

Razgriz wrote: »

Since you're posting on a game-art forum, you'll get that comment a lot, but you might want to keep in mind that even for cinema, film, and other mediums, it's often wise to artificially soften the edges juts a tad more than is physically accurate, depending on how the asset is being used. If it's something that will never be seen terribly close, you actually lose the benefit of having visible bevels that catch highlights by keeping tight, razor-sharp edges.

Yeah, I've heard from different people now that real sharp edges aren't necessary and can cause difficulty making the UVW mapping.

Polygoblin wrote: »

Everything you have so far is top-notch. I'm not a fan of using airsoft rifles for reference, but that's me. Argued with plenty gun nerds here about it

What they mean about the tight edges, is if you bake the normal map, you want to make sure that you have a few pixels width on each edge so it can show correctly. I know since you haven't baked down a high resolution mesh yet, so this may not make much sense, but keep it in mind when you start learning that step. Bake one with softer edges on the really sharp parts, and see how it looks different. It'll makes sense then.

Keep it up!

As I said above, I think I'm gonna have to make some changes to that now since so many people tell me now (not only on this forum).

And for the sake of argument, this is my airsoft rifle:

Gnasty

Modeled rail covers and the EOTech 552. Bump maps for the buttons remain though.






I haven't fixed all the edges yet (so they become smoother). Just a couple. But will do in due time!

Gnasty

Epic self bump!

Whole gun is basically finished. Just fine tuning the textures at the moment.

















And a hi-res of camera08: http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/276/camera08.jpg

HitmonInfinity

Fantastic work!

Computron

Thats the high poly? What was your approach for texturing this?

Ayzon

Just Awesome. Nice textures, looks very realistic i think.

DJ_Aaron

Woooow! most epic highpoly gun ever !

Polygoblin

Sexy! Well done, mate. You unwrapped all that??? Good grief.

Stromberg90

Highpoly is looking real good, still think some parts are to sharp if you where to bake a normal. Would be cool to see you make a lowpoly and do normal maps for this.

But the texture I think looks really muddy and lacking contrast, I don't know what you have done but it seems like clouds filter, the scratches looks blurry at some places and lacks the spec and depth that makes them look real.

I don't think you need that many shots of it either

Again good work on the high

Ongaku

This is awesome, very inspiring for someone that is sort of starting out like me !

Yury

This is amazing! First time I saw the image I actually thought it was a photo! I'm joining Computron, how did you texture it? And can you explain how to make those pretty ambient occlusion renderes? I really like it

JoshC

Great work, some inaccuracies and the textures could use a bit of work. Mostly at a distance the textures start looking muddy.

Gnasty

Computron
High-poly, yeah. What I did was to paint it all in Mudbox. I went for a dirty and weary approach, since that resembles a soldier's use of their gun.


Polygoblin
Yeah... Unwrapping it was killing me, but it's well worth it! Doesn't take too long, but it's boring as hell.


Stromberg90
I can assure you it's not a cloud filter. But I do get your point. The dirt was painted with dirt brush in Mudbox. However, there might be some weird stuff going on in the specular/bump maps.

If I make such high details up close, surely I want you guys to see them, right?


Yury
See the message above for the textures. As for the AO/clay renders, I have rendered it with a simple white/grey material using an Studio HDR for Global Illumination.


JoshC
Yeah, the bump maps don't do their job that great up close. I'll see what I can do about that. I'm not so satisfied with it either to be honest. But still had to release the "final" work due to deadline.

Rowinish

Wow, just wow. You say you painted it in Mudbox? did you use Maya to model it if you don't mind me asking.

Drew++

This is nice and accurate. Here's two simple fixes to make it even more accurate

The cutout on the bolt carrier group needs to be inset more.


This part on the lower receiver is shaped incorrectly.


(note: i'm using dropbox)

Other than that, nice modeling.