[WIP] Halo: Reach's assault rifle

[Shockwave]

Hi there !
I continued my model of assault rifle with 9 hours of work. This model is actually optimized for Halo: CE (I think :raise:). 1628 polygons actually. Look:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9850/renduz.png
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6108/rendu2.png

[Nero]

Plane modeled? or Box modeled?
Either way, looks like a great start. You will prob get comments that will tell you some of your detail can be placed in textures, but I think you should keep doing what your doing. Good luck. =)

[Bloodraver]

that looks great nice job

[rossmum]

I live under a rock, and therefore have no idea what the H:R AR looks like. Care to post some refs?

The detail on the model looks largely bevelled and extruded, although having seen one of the other rifles that seems to be Bungie's new art direction unfortunately.

[BobtheGreatII]

Sick of seeing models of guns of upcoming games. Make something original.


Yes that's my crit.

[Shockwave]

Plane modeled? or Box modeled?
Either way, looks like a great start. You will prob get comments that will tell you some of your detail can be placed in textures, but I think you should keep doing what your doing. Good luck. =)

Thanks! Box modeled ;)
I hope to have or to make good textures to increase details, I don't too much want to add polygons.


I live under a rock, and therefore have no idea what the H:R AR looks like. Care to post some refs?

The detail on the model looks largely bevelled and extruded, although having seen one of the other rifles that seems to be Bungie's new art direction unfortunately.

Yeah... I'm agree with you
This is the original assault rifle:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2879/sanstitre1ra.png

[neuro]

oh look, another copy.

[rossmum]

Your proportions seem off and I can see a fair few inaccuracies. Is that the only ref you used?

[ICEE]

oh look, another copy.

While I wouldn't object to anyone calling out experienced modelers on copying professionals, keep in mind that shockwave isn't quite so experienced. I see nothing wrong with a newbie/newishbie copying halo work for practice. I agree that its discouraging to see this sort of thing show up so many times in the community, but I'd say you have to cut people some slack. Some people aren't quite as artistically creative as others. Theres no crime in learning the skill this way. In fact, a large part of the trade is learning to imitate reality. While halo is far from reality, copying it is good practice for copying the real world.

[neuro]

you make a fair point, and i have to say, i didn't really know you were kinda new to the whole modelling thing.

while i have to say the best way to learn, is to look at a professional artists' work, i don't believe that actually copying things this way is a very good way to develop yourself as an artist.
while it can train your eye to read proportions properly (something which i still seem to have trouble with sometimes, even after 10 years), it will also constrain you from doing new things, and trying stuff out. which is propably one of the more important things to be doing when you're starting out. trying new stuff.

hit every button in max at least twice to see what it does.
you may not understand it, but when you gather more experience, you may find out that some functions you never used are actually totally awesome.

[Hunter]

oh look, another copy.


Haha, bet you thought I would be the first to make that ay?

Well, looks like I'm not the first. haha. This I will do the Falcon before anything else though, dunno.

Ontopic: Looks like a good start, but we don't care about polygons, we need the triangle count. Also, could you post a wireframe please?

[Shockwave]

Thank you for the advices! It's like that that I discovered 3ds max, 2 years ago, by looking a little more for every day. I have'nt ever ended a project (lack of motivation?), but this one I plan to end it.

[Shockwave]

Haha, bet you thought I would be the first to make that ay?

Well, looks like I'm not the first. haha. This I will do the Falcon before anything else though, dunno.

Ontopic: Looks like a good start, but we don't care about polygons, we need the triangle count. Also, could you post a wireframe please?

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8885/rendu.png

[Lateksi]

Too many sides on some of those cylinders. Like I mean, I don't even know much modelling but I know you want to make it lower poly for CE.

[CSFLOYD]

The end of the barrel, you don't need that little indent, just a complete waste of polygons, unless the animator makes something up allowing the user to see the end of the barrel.

[Hunter]

How to render a real wireframe:
1. Select all of you model geometry.
2. Press Ctrl + V.
3. Make a copy.
4. Whilst still having the copied geometry selected apply the push modifier.
5. Set the value to 0.1
6. Open material editor and apply a new material onto the geometry (Apply to selection if it asks).
7. Change the new material colour to black, and check the "Wire" checkbox.

Do that please.

[Shockwave]

WIREFRAME:
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8885/rendu.png
FIRST PERSON:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6108/rendu2.png

[teh lag]

:\ Maybe render at something bigger than 500x200? I'm finding it really hard to see what your model actually looks like.

More angles as well. Don't just show us from the perspective of your reference. Models need to look right from more than just one view.

[Hunter]

Render to at least 1000 x 750. That's the side I use. Also, save as jpg!

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/martynball/fixxy.jpg

[Shockwave]

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8885/rendu.png

[Dwood]

Change the render angle!!!

[Roostervier]

it isnt too many sides, depending what hes planning to do with it. for something like crysis or udk it would be fine, although i still wouldnt give it that many sides. you could also be using more tri-conservative methods of modeling, but otherwise the modeling itself doesnt seem to have any major problems

[SnaFuBAR]

He said it's for CE. Also, he has to strike a balance with the polygon useage. He has a lot of sides for the barrel, while the silhouette of the upper part is SEVERELY lacking polies. He could also bring down the number of sides on the barrel and increase them on the gas tube and flashlight, that way in fp they all seem evenly round.

Also, please don't tell me you modeled those bumps as phillips head screws.

[Chainsy]

I think in a sense, both of you are right. You need to learn to cultivate your own creativity using inspiration, but it is also very necessary to take a look at others work and try out their styles simply to become a well rounded artist and you may come to integrate some technique from them that render a feature in your style obsolete. A good example of a person who has gone too far in just simply copying is hunter (not calling you out hunter you are a great modeler, you just need some god damn creativity) and I am sure he has a pain getting out of that rut. So balance. Middle way. Buddhism bullshit.

edit- my bad, didn't notice the other 2 pages :( this was adressed at iron and nueros convo.

[Nero]

Hi there !
I continued my model of assault rifle with 9 hours of work.


Didn't see this part.You are spending way to much time if it took you 9 hours.

[t3h m00kz]

He's new to it. Cut him some slack. My first model (an M6D in Blender) took me well over 4-5 hours, and it wasn't nearly as detailed as what this guy's got so far.

For a first attempt it's not bad, but do try to take these guy's advice. Keep stuff as low-poly as possible. ESPECIALLY if it's going into the Halo engine.

[Shockwave]

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2235/renduh.png
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/6108/rendu2.png

[Hunter]

Try and finish it now instead of posting more pictures which look the same. (Which I used to do, and still do sometimes...)

And please stop saving pictures as png's.

[Shockwave]

Try and finish it now instead of posting more pictures which look the same. (Which I used to do, and still do sometimes...)

And please stop saving pictures as png's.

Ok sorry! But why no png ? It's a great quality ;)
Oh! And how I can know the number of triangles?

[Nero]

Click object> Right click> Convert to> Mesh> Find the triangle looking tool (that is filled in like the rectangle face)> Ctrl+A>Look under the button "paste", a count of some sort should be displayed there.

[teh lag]

...Or even better: Utilities Tab > More > Polygon Counter > Count Triangles

why would you use a hack like turning to mesh...

As for the model itself: it's really hard to see what's going on with those small renders. Take a minute, set the render size to something higher, and add some more viewing angles.

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/Reach/images/cutouts/Assault_Rifle_left2.jpg

Judging from that, it looks like you're a bit to thin at the front. The front part appears to be longer than it should be as well. You also seem to be missing a slight change in angle near the display attachment (less important if you're trying to be stingy with geometry, but the presence of the screws would suggest that you're not).

[Dwood]

Something that has helped me a lot in learning 3ds max is finding out what tools i'm using the most, grabbing a paper and pen, and writing down a bunch of shortcuts for me to use the tools faster (and in pro mode ^_^) after customizing ui and setting the tools to what I want[don't over-write existing shortcuts, you'll regret it later]. Then post the paper on your wall or somewhere you can see with just a quick glance and go from there.

[Nero]

...Or even better: Utilities Tab > More > Polygon Counter > Count Triangles

why would you use a hack like turning to mesh...

Because I never knew your method, but also because I dont have a need to check tri count.

[kid908]

Ok sorry! But why no png ? It's a great quality ;)
Oh! And how I can know the number of triangles?

Your png makes no sense. Transparency for no god damn reason. I save pics as png or tif out of max, but use a photo editing software to convert it to jpg.
Change your jpg chroma subsampling type to get good quality and LOW size.

I use YCbCr 4x2 1x1 1x1 standard encoding for my jpgs.

@Dwood: if you use them enough, you remember them. I remembered mine the second I set them, but you could always just search the command in max if you forget.

[Hunter]

^ That. Or just be simple like me and save as .jpg from max Lol, You can't tell much difference between PNG and JPG apart from the transparency which you don't need.

PNG's are large file sizes, people with slow internet may have to wait ages to load the images, especially if you have a lot on a page.

Also, don't do what I used to do and model all of the geometry in one object with no open edges. But actually model loads of separate objects for different bits and make the geometry go through other geometry, and have open edges on the inside of the weapon where you don't see it. You wouldn't understand how many triangles you can actually save.

I will model this tomorrow and upload so you can have a look at how someone else would do it.

[Heathen]

Ok sorry! But why no png ? It's a great quality ;)
Oh! And how I can know the number of triangles?

pngs are fine. It's like evolution, since I have no problem with loading them, I'll survive.

[Hunter]

They are fine for most people, but the internet is about accessibility. Most websites are designed to display quickly and properly for everyone.

Using JPG's instead of PNG's will allow pages to load faster for people with slow connection.

[Horns]

How bout you ladies stop arguing about how he saves the fucking file and let the man continue on with his thread. It doesn't really matter what he saves it as.

[Heathen]

How bout you ladies stop arguing about how he saves the fucking file and let the man continue on with his thread. It doesn't really matter what he saves it as.

qtf

[mech]

Render to at least 1000 x 750. That's the side I use. Also, save as jpg!

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/martynball/fixxy.jpg

Do not delete that line.

[kid908]

qtf
I don't mind that it's a png. I mind that there is transparencies where you don't need them. fine, save with transparency if you're going to image edit it and stuff but his is just sticking a light gray image on a white default modacity background.

[Heathen]

source ftw.

[ejburke]

It's weird. It's like you're trying to make a high-res model, but you're simultaneously worrying about polygon count. Those methods are very much at odds.

Just stop worrying about polygon count. It doesn't matter right now. It is literally the last thing you should consider. Just build your model. You'll want to bake a lot of that detail into the texture, anyway. Keeping all that interior polygonal detail that looks fine in your modeling program will result in a shimmer-y, aliased mess in the Halo engine.

[neuro]

Keeping all that interior polygonal detail that looks fine in your modeling program will result in a shimmer-y, aliased mess in the Halo engine.

that's what youll want to use smoothinggtoups for.

[Shockwave]

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9987/rendu.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/9100/rendu2.jpg
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9278/rendu3.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5025/rendu4.jpg
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2436/rendu5.jpg

[annihilation]

The tube thing on the bottom looks like it needs to be a little bigger.