Sniper
I’m starting a new personal project focused on modeling a sniper rifle. The goal is to create a highly detailed and accurate 3D model while staying true to the weapon’s real-world design, proportions, and materials.
At this stage, I’m gathering and organizing references to guide the modeling process. These include high-resolution photos, screenshots, and technical references that highlight the rifle’s structure, components, materials, and mechanical details.
I’m sharing my reference collection here to document my workflow and get feedback from the community. Any suggestions, critiques, or additional references are greatly appreciated!
Replies
This week I started working on the blockout for the sniper rifle and focused on building a strong foundation for the overall shape and proportions. My main goal was to establish the base forms and get a clean, readable silhouette before moving into any high-detail work.
So far I’ve modeled the butt pad, cheek piece, sling points, folding stock, safety, trigger, pistol grip, and part of the main body. I spent some extra time making sure the larger components felt accurate in scale and placement, since those will guide the rest of the build. Right now everything is still fairly simple and functional, just enough geometry to define the forms and test how the pieces fit together.
At this stage I’m concentrating more on proportion, alignment, and overall structure rather than small details. Once the blockout feels solid, I’ll move on to refining the body and adding more of the mechanical elements and secondary forms.
Overall, a good start to the project and happy with the progress so far. Looking forward to pushing it further next week.
Any suggestions, critiques, or additional references are greatly appreciated!
This week I wrapped up the full blockout and I’m just about done with the high poly.
I modeled the scope, the stand, and the rest of the smaller components to really help bring the sniper together as a complete piece. I also pulled in a bunch of real-world references while working on it. For some parts — like the scope, stand, barrel, and butt pad — I looked at components from other firearms to make sure everything feels believable and grounded.
Right now it’s mainly about refining the shapes and cleaning up the high poly so everything feels solid and cohesive. Pretty happy with how it’s coming together so far.
This week I wrapped up the UVs and have moved on to baking in Painter. I spent a good amount of time stacking and carefully arranging the layout to optimize space and texel density. The asset currently uses six UDIMs, and I did my best to organize them as efficiently and cleanly as possible.
At this stage, the baking results will determine whether I need to go back and make further UV adjustments. I’m keeping an eye out for any projection errors, seam issues, or areas that might need better padding or alignment.
Any suggestions, critiques, or additional references are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
This week I completed the baking process and cleaned up all of the UVs to ensure everything is optimized and ready for texturing. I’ve started texturing the sniper and have made solid progress so far, focusing on establishing the core materials and surface detail.
In addition, I modeled a gun case to help strengthen the overall presentation of the sniper. The case is now fully modeled and will act as a supporting prop in the final showcase.
Next Week
Next week I’ll be finishing the texturing on the sniper, adding final polish and detail passes. I’ll also complete the texturing for the gun case and begin selecting an environment in Unreal Engine to present the sniper in a more compelling and cohesive setting.
Any suggestions, critiques, or additional references are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
This week I finished setting up the sniper rifle inside Unreal Engine along with a small environment to showcase it. I produced multiple renders as well as several cinematic videos to present the weapon in context.
I also created two different texture variations for the rifle while keeping the same base model. This allowed me to experiment with different looks while maintaining the same geometry.
Additionally, I went back and fixed the UVs across the entire model. All UV shells are now properly arranged and no longer overlapping, ensuring a cleaner and more efficient layout for texturing.
Plan for the final week:
For the upcoming (and final) week, I will focus on improving the lighting in both the renders and the environment in Unreal. The goal is to better highlight the rifle and present it in a stronger and more polished way.
Below are images of some of the renders.
Any suggestions, critiques, or additional references are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
I would reduce the amount of DOF, since it's a bit annoying not being able to read details in various areas. I think the point is to show off your work, not fancy camera shenanigans.
Also would be nice to increase ambient lighting contribution, to fill in those black lifeless shadows.
Would be great to see closeups of various key areas. Plus, breakdowns of the PBR layers involved. Roughness and Metallic and Normal in particular are layers I want to see, when evaluating a hire.