Help modelling a gun

[fretshredder]

Hey that's a pretty nice looking gun! :) The way I'd model it is to think of the details as "layers of an onion". Meaning, I'd start with just getting the overall shape of the gun (using box modeling) Then I'd gradually add geometry by adding cuts and moving points etc. to refine the details.

Without actually modeling it myself it'd be hard to explain how to do it with more detail, but if you're like I used to be when approaching a modeling task you're stuck at the "how the hell do I start this" and the "OMG - how am I gonna get those details in there..." phases, no? lol ...

[Stan The Man]

As a reference you may try to download free gun model from our web ... Just click Download button and on the next page check "souhlasim (I Agree) button and then you can download it. All models are royalty free.

http://www.3dsoftware.cz/download/DownDetail.aspx?ID=326

[casshern]

Hey that's a pretty nice looking gun! :) The way I'd model it is to think of the details as "layers of an onion". Meaning, I'd start with just getting the overall shape of the gun (using box modeling) Then I'd gradually add geometry by adding cuts and moving points etc. to refine the details.

Without actually modeling it myself it'd be hard to explain how to do it with more detail, but if you're like I used to be when approaching a modeling task you're stuck at the "how the hell do I start this" and the "OMG - how am I gonna get those details in there..." phases, no? lol ...

Yeah, the design is pretty sweet, shure wish I did it myself but I'm not even close to being that skilled.

The layers of an union thing is kinda what I've been doing, creating the overall shape and then add the details.
Problem is, the details mess up my hypernurbs, I just cant seem to get those kind of details in there without getting akward bumps or just losing the smooth shape.

I've drawn some red circles on the image to show what I'm really having trouble with.

[3dj]

Hi Casshern, sounds like you need to find a good tutorial on hard surface modeling. Can't think of any links to send you at the moment, but you can look around.

-Jim

[BigAl3D]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on 3D art for a school project and I need to model a gun.

Now this gun is pretty detailled and I've been looking at it and tinkering with it for hours just to find a good way to model this thing.

I've tried box modelling but when I want to add details like the bolts, groves (grooves?), the handle etc my hypersnurbs just ups and gets ruined.

I'm really lost here and I hope you guy's can help me, how would you model such a thing as this gun?


To add to the onion thing, don't get stuck on trying to make one complex piece. Do you really need it to be one chunk? You can box model the main shape that you need in a hypernurb, then you can add detail pieces as separate objects so you don't have the HN problem. If you need a single mesh, you can make the hypernurb editable (after you're happy with it, plus save a copy of the original), then you can connect the other chunks into the main body. If you have selection tags on the little pieces, then those are added to the connected version of your model. This makes it easy to select to little elements later.

Make sense? Good luck, and I'm SOOO bitter that I didn't have these tools when I was in school. :sad: Learn all you can now, you'll be glad you did!

-Alex

[courtneyrocks]

Look for car modeling tutorials. Most of them are point modeling tutorials which is the way I think you should go here. I always struggled with hypernurb/box modeling for complex objects. The more cuts, the harder it is to control.
Once I learnt point by point modeling I could tackle complex objects like faces or vehicles as long as I had front and profile images of the object(or a good idea of how the object looks in 3D in my head).
I have also seen a lot of very cool mechanical modeling come out of ZBrush 3. Maybe not something you could pick up really fast(or if you are on and Power PC Mac like me - grrr) but there is some very cool weapons in the ZBrush forums.

[tonare]

This might help?

http://www.psionic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/c4dtuts/gun03t1.html

[casshern]

Thanks everyone! :)

I'll try out some of the suggested techniques and look for some hard surface modelling tutorials.

Its a little frustrating not getting the shape I want but on the other hand, I'll probably learn a lot of stuff modelling this gun.

[Sneaker]

hi,

nice gun you want to model.
I tried to figure out the artists homepage but failed.
Do you happen to have his URL?

Regarding hard surface modeling tutorials, try to find car modeling tutorials like this one:

http://www.lacreme.de/index.php?sektion=uebersicht
It's unfortunately in German but a web translator might help.

Before you start moedeling the grooves you might want to answer these questions:

- for what resolution do you model?
- is there a poly budget?

If you model for highres without a polybudges, you can really go wild on modeling,
making the subdivision permanent and add details.
If you model for a game you might have a polygon budged up to 5000 polys
and you might need to add the grooves as textures and normal maps.

Take a look here for texturing tips:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=46&t=373024
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=422622

good luck and keep us updated about your process.
-Michael

[casshern]

Thanks Sneaker :)

The website of the designer is: www.jimsvanberg.se (http://www.jimsvanberg.se/)

The gun is meant to be used in a first person shooter and I'm trying to create the normal map for the game model so in this case there isnt really a polygon restriction.

The gun is actually coming along quite nicely right now (fingers crossed it keeps going this good) there's stil alot to clean up but I'm pretty happy.

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