3D Bolt pistol

[Mr.Millar]

So, since I had nothing to do this morning I decided to give 3ds a shot, I downloaded the trial, read a few tutorials and made this, it's not perfect but it's a start. I think it looks like a block of wood at the moment, hehe. :D C&C please guys, as i was basing the dimensions off of a spare bolt pistol I had lying around.

 

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx349/Mr_Millar/BoltpistolWIP1.jpg

 

EDIT: I found the smooth tool, silly me :lol: . Looks so much better now.

 

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx349/Mr_Millar/BoltpistolWIP2.jpg

[PapaSmurf]

I liked the first attempt more... you ve done to much of this smoothing-thingie imo^^

but nice anyways

[S. Bloodhowl]

Agreed, the smoothing looks good is some parts, but it needs more hard edges to get that machine made feel to it. I think you should only smooth the grip of it personally

 

BTW, what program did you use and did you use a tablet or something?

[Mr.Millar]

I agree that i went a little overboard with the smoothing on the second picture but I don't like how the sharp edges of the first model create really harsh shadows. Anyways, I made a basic texture and applied it and here's what the two look like (smoothed and non-smoothed respectively)

 

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx349/Mr_Millar/smoothcomparison.jpg

 

I think the first of the two looks far better.

[Retributis]

It does a bit, but it's lacking in crispness in certain areas, like the end of the magazine.

[Starblayde]

It's very easy to go overboard with the smoothing, just remember that some things - like bolt pistols - are supposed to have flat edges! The Grip can certainly be smoothed and, now you've put the textures on it, the smoothing does work better to blend them a little more. I'd suggest just turning the smoothing down a bit, for softer edges, rather than some sort of half-melted bolt pistol.

 

3D is a learning experience, and a lot of Wow this looks cool now may look Omg how did I think that was good? later, especially if you go overboard with certain effects. It's very easy, for instance, to find a photoshop user who's only just discovered Drop Shadows, as they use them every 5 seconds.

 

Simply, reign in the smoothing and you're well on your way, as the modeling and texturing are very good!

[S. Bloodhowl]

Hey Mr. Millar, not sure if you noticed earlier, but i was wondering what 3d program you used and if you used a tablet or something?

[Codex Grey]

I think the pistol looks fine as it is unsmoothed. I would personally have made the grip rounder.

 

Are you using smoothing groups or a modifier like turbosmooth? If its the first, which I think it is, then you're not really smoothing anything, only manipulating the shadows to make it appear smoother. This works fine with surfaces that are already somewhat smooth, but not with 90 degree angles.

 

If you want to actually smooth the object. you need to use for example turbosmooth. But turbosmooth is very often misused, slapped on a model as a solution to everything, so be careful with it.

 

I unfortunately don't have any pics to show you what I mean, but there is a way to round just the corners, while keeping the rest of the surface flat.

Let's say you have a box. This box has 8 vertices, 12 edges. Let's say you want to round the edges. Throwing on a turbosmooth modifier will sub-divide the box; multiplying the amount of edges while also smoothing the box. But instead of rounding the edges, it rounds the entire box, giving it more of a sphere look. That's because the turbosmooth uses the existing edges to figure out how to smooth the object. Try adding an edge on each side of an existing 90 degree edge with editable poly, then add the modifier. you will see that the corner maintains some of its original form while still rounding the corner.

The downside to this method is that it may result in a lot of polygons.

Again, I'm sorry can't explain it better, but I have hopefully been somewhat helpful. Experiment a bit yourself and you'll get better in no time.

 

PS. If you didn't know already press F1 in 3ds MAX, it will answer most of initial questions.

[Mr.Millar]

@S. Bloodhowl: I'm using the trial version of 3ds max and yes, I'm using a tablet that i got for photoshop work.

 

@Codex Grey: I'm using the lighting modifier to smooth off the model to keep the poly count down, as i may port the model into fallout 3 if i get around to it.

[p049979]

That's Really nice for a first attempt!

 

I would agree with people about the smoothing though, It looks much nicer without it. In general smoothing groups or normal based smoothing is best used to make shapes that should be smooth looks smoother than they are.

 

To try and explain this. The image below has 3 basic cylinders. number 1 is smoothed all over, not the top and how it tries to blend it into the rest of the cylinder, its basically trying to make it into a pill shape where all the edges are smoothed.

 

No2 is setup so only the edges around the circumference are smoothed but the top edges are left hard, this is a nice way to make a cylinder with less sides look like its nice and smooth, this is the kind of thing you would do for the battle of the gun.

 

The final one has all its edges hard, you may want this effect on something like a bolt where you have exactly 6 sides and you want each one to have a nice defined edge. Its also worth noting that if you are planning to put something into a game the more hard edges you have the more memory it will use. This probably isn't a problem for you however its just the optimisation Nazi in me :)

 

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/p049979/NormalSmoothing.jpg

 

The other thing you may want to consider when making something like this is beveling some of the edges.

 

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/p049979/Beveling.jpg

 

You can see that cube 1 is just a basic cube nothing special, It will look fine in game but you can add more realism to an object by adding a few smoothed edges around plate boundaries and the end of the barrel. Nothing in reality is completely hard edged, there is always a very small bevel on things. It will also help to catch the light and make the detail of your object stand out more.

 

I will end my geometry rant here, hope some of that makes sense :)