Everyone gets one! AR-15 / VLTOR M4!

[JFletcher]

EDIT:

LATEST IMAGE:

FINISHED! Also made some animations:

M4 VLTOR - FPS Weapon Animation - - YouTube

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/M4VltorFinal.jpg

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/wire.jpg

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/flats.jpg


ORIGINAL POST:
-----------

So I've had an m4 blocked out for like a year and I never went with it. Some weeks ago I decided to actually make a high poly of it and finish my first ever real high poly weapon. :)

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1062/m4ticket.jpg

Every 3d artist gets one! At some point in our lives that lightbulb in our head comes on we say to ourselves "you know what the game art world really needs? Another M4!" Well here's mine!

Here is where I'm at with the high poly so far:

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8151/vltorm4wip1.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/356/vltorm4wip2.jpg

It's mostly done but there are some missing bits (for instance, the clamp thing-a-ma-jigs on the mounts and the rear folding sight), and bits that I want to clean up so the aliasing wont be too bad. (Like the adjusting things on the aimpoint scope, changing the grippy bit (yeah, get ready for more jibberish because I can't think of the names) to much thicker indents.)

I'm not too anal about accuracy (as long as it looks nice overall and clearly resembles the right parts, I'm making my own adjustments where I want to) but if you could let me know what you think and throw some comments, suggestions/crits that would be cool. :) I'll be making a low poly out of this too, and will consider doing a little bit of animation. I used to really enjoy animating first person weapons ages ago and It will be nice to play around with it.

I have made some adjustments to make life a little bit easier though, like making the rail in a way that will allow me to bake it in fewer polygons and avoid aliasing, and I made the barrel freakin' long so it would actually show up in the first person view (also the barrel will most likely be re done as it's very bland at the moment.

Thinking about adding a flashlight to the bottom rail but it might be a bit much.

A couple things:

-I'm very aware of the bad edges along the bottom of the rail in the middle and will be fixing them
-Magpul looks a bit off at the moment, may change that
-Some edges may get softened up because I realise they may not come out too well in a bake.
-Some of the floaters will get replaced / modelled into the mesh (like the ones on/near the stock)

Updates soon! :)

edit:

Also, thinking a bit far ahead but I think I'll probably go with snow camo, nobody ever makes snow camo weapons anymore. :(

..Maybe

[n88tr]

something screwy is going on with your top rails
it looks like a normal map and not real rail indentations

would be nice if lonewolf dropped by to crit you. he's done a lot of gun stuff and super detailed M4 already

[JFletcher]

I'm doing that intentionally though, As I want to bake them down to one mass. If people find it too weird I may change it.

[Harry]

I'm doing that intentionally though, As I want to bake them down to one mass. If people find it too weird I may change it.

Why? when its such a prominent detail from FPV, and, if you're sure you wanna do that, you could bake it solid without the "fillers" anyway...

[Mio]

the mesh is clean and nice! i like it!

[Olli.]

I dont think your rail solution will bake realistically. What i did with my m4 is i just made the rail on the high poly as it should be, and then baked it down on to one single piece, and it looked very good.

[Walrus]

Hipoly model looks really nice. Presentation looks great too, anything special about your rendering technique? The grip could use some texture though, like this.
http://images.hobbytron.com/M4-GRIP-lg.jpg
or maybe something a bit fancier like this?
http://65.18.192.157/catalog/images/ka-tg-05.jpg

[Digital Cantina]

Wow looks great so far, how did you UV such a hp model?

[Norron]

That there is a nice chunky looking AR. I second the snow camo, not something you see too much of.

You know what'd be cool? Doing a crazy awesome painted diffuse for this thing.

[Olli.]

Wow looks great so far, how did you UV such a hp model?
who said he UV'd it?

[Boyso]

Looks great but yeah I'd change the grip even though it's covered by the hand.

What you have now looks like the Tangodown, (http://www.cgwgun.com/images/products/TDBG16.gif)

Just looks slightly blocky IMO.

Also, hard to tell, but can you post a front/rear photo as the receiver/grip area kinda looks a bit thick. Maybe it's just the perspective.

The front grip is really too thin, it'd be quite not comfy after a while. ( http://tactical-mod.ca/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/d/tdlongfg-folg-1.jpg)

Lastly, I think the forward area (Barrel and flashhider) could use a bit more details :)

Aimpoint and Magnifier are crazy good looking!

[EarthQuake]

I dont think your rail solution will bake realistically. What i did with my m4 is i just made the rail on the high poly as it should be, and then baked it down on to one single piece, and it looked very good.

Do not agree at all, then you're getting totally random ray hits as you have large gaps in the model. What he's doing makes a whole lot more sense. He can also easily create a color mask from the bits modeled into the cutouts, and make those areas black in the texture. Personally though I would exaggerate some nice fat bevels there, as just placing a little box in there means not much interesting edge detail.

Generally I would model the rails into the lowpoly myself, but you've got scopes and sights obscuring much of the rail so its not a big deal. On the other hand. you could simply model in the rail cutouts that will be seen and optimize the ones that sit under the attachments, shouldn't add much at all to the total tri count. I always try to model rails in properly unless I have a really low tri budget.

Overall the model looks great, nice clean and accurate modeling. I would like to see some fatter edges, exaggerate some elements for a little more pop and to have a bit more variance on your edge widths in general to differentiate the different material types, but thats getting pretty nit-picky.

[theslingshot]

Your gun looks awesome ^^
I'm calling zebra print on this, would look awesome ;)

[LRoy]

So... you can just do everything then?

[JoshC]

Reference photo's???

[fearian]

That looks fantastic. I agree that maybe you have left some areas sparse of detail - the right side of the gun, and the grip particularly - but you have great shapes everywhere it counts, ie. what the player will actually see of the gun.

Saved to inspiration folder!

[Amadreaus]

You're the guy who made that Mario/Luigi intro screen thing, which makes you a badass. Keep working!

[kyle.rau]

Saw this in the WAYWO thread and was going to suggest to add the folding mechanism of the one scope but I see here that you know that :)

I agree with EQ too, but I bet you could get away with just baking the rail cutouts. The ones you modeled are not too steep/deep. I've seen some in-game weapons that do this and you can't tell they're flat in FPV.

Looking awesome though! Can't wait to see how you texture style comes into play with a realistic weapon.

[jeremiah_bigley]

Awesome work so far man! Nice to see you changing it up from characters. Got an eye on this. ;)

[Jessica Dinh]

So... you can just do everything then?

+1. Yeah, wutt :0

Anyway, I think this looks real nice :) as far as technical execution goes, but I'm not a gun person so I can't crit much on functionality/accuracy or anything. Keep going! :D

[jordan.kocon]

I wouldn't say this is 'another' m4,because this one is sexy as hell :) a couple of things I noticed, the front grip looks a little skinny, the mag pull looks a little short (doesn't extend up the clip enough), and as mentioned your grip could use some more detail. I'm no gun nut though so my points may all be invalid! Nice work

[nicafornica]

the mag has a weird bend or am I mistaken?

[JFletcher]

Thanks for the feedback guys. :)

You are right about the grip, I will change it to something a little more interesting. I'll probably pick one with grooves in it as I like the larger details.

@ nicafornica

yeah one of the sides are a little too straight at the moment.

More soon-ish-maybe-kinda.

[JFletcher]

Anyone know what's going on with this edge after a turbosmooth?

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7074/shittyedge.jpg

it's not a double edge either, the 2 meshes are the same. :(

[Boyso]

did you crease it?

[Drew++]

Not sure what modeling tool you're using, but I had this problem one time in Max... I think I just selected the polygons of that object by element, then detached it from that element. Seemed to fix the problem.
-I would also select all of the verts in that area and weld it. :3

[Dvolution]

If you're using Max then I'd think it was what Boyso said. Looks like the edge has been creased.

Simple fix if that's what it is. The hp is looking nice so far though. What's your rendering set-up?

[JFletcher]

Oh...I've never used crease before, now that's interesting. :)

But that still doesn't solve it, and there was no creasing to begin with. No additional edges to weld and i've tried resetting x-form and I'm still getting this weird result. :(

For rendering I'm just using a Skylight with a mid red color, a couple omni's and the scanline renderer, tried mental ray but I swear it just blurs to fuck out of everything and it ends up looking nothing like the model in the viewport.

[JFletcher]

what the..

Ok, problem solved, when I said before that welding didnt solve it that was because I was only attempting to weld geometry around the area of the problem, selected all and welded and it got rid of it. It was one vert causing the problem, instead of accepting it and moving on, I looked for that damn vert and found it on the other side of the model with no connection whatsoever to the affected edges, not even close.. Even when I collapsed it manually it didn't fix it, only using weld fixed it, which makes no sense... it's the same result. :)

Oh Max, you silly goose.

(But that still doesnt explain why when I detached the affected polygons it didn't help, I guess Max is just weird.)

Well, thanks for the help!

edit:

ah sorry, double post

[SPYFF]

Great stuff!

[JFletcher]

Thanks. :)

--

Kinda dissapointed that I didn't get more done over the weekend but hey ho. I spent a bit of time going back and fixing some proportions and what not so it's a bit more appealing in the first person view. Also gave it a more interesting barrel, but that isn't really visible in these shots.

Still got to clean up some edges which are too sharp, and fix a bit more stuff on the other side, but nearly there.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9448/fps1.jpg

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8510/fps2.jpg

Happier that the barrel is more visible in the first person view now.

Threw in some super old hands for the sake of it. :)

[gibson543]

0_0 damn fletch it would be so cool for you to create some animations for this, thats a sexy hipoly man

[JoshC]

I want to say your rear sight post is backwords. I could be mistaken if you have references but I own that rear sight apature. If your going for realism then I'd suggest flipping it so the pressure release can be easily accessed by the left hand. Also your selecter lever and bolt release don't seem thick enough, again that is hard to say without seeing your references.

(i'm sure the flip up probably won't be used but I'm nit picky about rifles and firearms. Common sense dictates law in warfare.)

[Snefer]

totally looks like a gun dude! : D Man, i cant crit guns, its probably great and some bolts are probably wrong or something as the gun nuts point out, haha. But it looks good to me :D

[Lonewolf]

that render looks tasty om nom nom nom

u have some inaccuracies but who cares it looks cool :D

but one thing ill point out is that those magnifiers are suppose to flip side way, and your mount looks locked, if ya wanna change.. :D

[Shiv]

So beautiful fletch :D

[afisher]

I don't know much about guns, but I does look badass. Great job man.

[JFletcher]

Thanks guys!

@ lonewolf

Thanks man. :) I agree about the folding mount, and wanted to do one but I found it hard to find decent ref that wasn't cluttered with lots of other stuff, or a very specific model, from multiple angles. Do you have any good ref from multiple angles including before and after folding?

@ JoshC That rear folding sight can go on either way according to the references I gathered, I may flip it around though so the sight is actually visible, instead of the base blocking it. :)

[Lonewolf]

http://www.google.co.il/search?q=LaRue+LT-649&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=5shLT5TiA-S40QWVjamBDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CA4Q_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1056&sei=6MhLT9b2NMex0AX-1qmlDg

u can go with that one, its considerably more simple to model and wont take as much polys as the other ones ( like i used, was pain in the ass )

[JFletcher]

Cheers. :)

Well I went for that one, I've started it so far, but I think I'm also gonna have to make an lt-129 for the scope in front as well, just for consistency. As I don't really like how the different mount shapes are looking together on the sides at the moment. Should look cleaner afterwards. :)

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/6140/foldingmount1.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2485/foldingmount2.jpg

Just gotta redo these scope mounts, make a more interesting grip, maybe a few minor proportion tweaks then I'm gonna get started on a low poly. :)

[Dim]

Man, I'd love to see this with a photo-mockup instead of just the grey backdrop. Maybe with heavy DoF? Some context might be nice. Looks fantastic though, and I love your rendering style!

[rasmus]

Looking mighty sweet, Fletcher. Henceforth "Admit one per artist, but make it look this good". Did prefer the tan to blue, though!

[JFletcher]

Back to 'ze M4! :)

Did a bit more tonight, I added more to the mag, cleaned up quite a few edges, fixed some scale issues in various places and did the remaining pieces

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HYwg6QL_qzs/T5xvmwx7GPI/AAAAAAAAABA/YspDGi7xSxQ/s1600/m4vltor_hp1.jpg

Other side is still rather simple, but I'm not too fussed, I wanna focus on first person stuff.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8NEoa4u-KpM/T5xzfTvFWSI/AAAAAAAAABM/82xhKMjNcL8/s1600/m4vltor_hp2.jpg

I'm gonna start on a low poly tomorrow hopefully.

[Zelenkov]

Nice stuff man. Glad to see you can swing both ways. Cartoony and realistic that is :D

[sipher3325]

Holy crap mang this is the tits!!!

[BradleyWascher]

Hey great looking model man, super excited to see it baked down, I'm curious about your material and render setting for your HP renders, any insight would be great. Keep up the good work!

[Stromberg90]

Sweet job :)
Would also like to get some info about your render setup and materials, fun to see how others do it.
Spotted what might be some pinching, don't know if it's even worth to fix ;)
http://i.imgur.com/BUdJS.jpg

[AlecMoody]

I think an even better solution to the pinching on the grips is to simplify those thin gaps out. There wouldn't be a good way to model them in the lowpoly so that it projects well.

[n88tr]

You know you're missing the taped grip right?

[SsSandu_C]

Phew... I think now we all feel better... :D
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6241/mariom4world.jpg

Really nice model. I really like the way you handled the edges. There are lots of really hard to make shapes on the gun, but you pulled it off. As for the pinching there that Stromberg90 (http://www.polycount.com/forum/member.php?u=33069) pointed out... well I know you know what to do about that so I'm not going to say anything about it. :) Hope you'll post some wires soon. Really nice render btw. I'll try it out on my weapon that I'm going to start modeling. Looking forward to seeing the final hp and low poly with normals.

[JoshC]

Mmmm... M4 is looking awesome. You should put a tactical light and maybe a laser on it was well (I prefer the PEQ-15) but she is looking great without. Can't wait to see the bake.

[Crash]

JFletcher: I've had the same issue in Max this week actually. Really annoying isnt it?

[Crash]

Also, looks awesome. Nice and clean. :D

[marcinLDZ]

Look awesome. Great job.

[JFletcher]

Thanks

Finally baked yesterday:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wo56NZ-3k2A/T8FqocpJwEI/AAAAAAAAABY/4FL0pRejveI/s1600/m4bake.jpg

and where I'm at with the texture at the moment:

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/m4wip.jpg

edit: fixed image compression

very aware of lack of material definition, contrast and what not just started fiddling with stuff in the diffuse really, shit will get dope in due time. :)

shleep.

[Moosey_G]

http://i.imgur.com/U2IkR.png

[Dylan Brady]

Hey jonathan I gotta ask. I agree with your original point that all game artists get an M4 at some point.
Mine was WAAAY back when I started modeling custom weapons for CS:S around the time that I got into game art.
My question to you is, how is this just now going on?
I ask this question only to get an origin story out of you, if thats not something you feel like sharing nvm.
Just thought I'd derail your WIP thread and turn it into a breaking in story.

[JoshC]

No lazer... no tac light... blasphamy!!!

In other news, looks freaken awesome. Good bake, curious though at what the reddish ring around the flash hider is?

[Stromberg90]

Real nice :D
Care to share a wireframe? I would like to see how some parts are done :)
Also those orange splotches in the textures are those part of the camo?

[Pedro Amorim]

bigger pic pls!!! these one are full of jpeg artifacts :(
it's looking real tight!

[JFletcher]

Aw, wtf.. I specifically chose my blogspot to upload so it wouldn't compress the images (and my imageshack account has too many images atm, need to delete like 500 just to be allowed to upload again, lol)

I guess it does compress them. I'll find a new host and if not just start uploading to my site I guess.

Thanks guys, more progress later today. :)

as for the orange bits, they were intended as a little bit of paint/colour to break things up, I will get rid of the bit on the barrel though.

[Stromberg90]

How about imgur.com? that's what I use.
I like the idea about breaking it up with the orange, what about choosing a few small pieces, that would be painted in that color.

[JFletcher]

I tried imgur back during the Darksiders contest, I really like the site and the simplicity but it still compresses stuff, for instance:

http://i.imgur.com/hHT0k.jpg

Sucks really, because I'd love to use it.

edit:

ah, just found cubeupload.com

absolutely perfect, no compression and simple as hell. :) (image updated)

[JFletcher]

Hey jonathan I gotta ask. I agree with your original point that all game artists get an M4 at some point.
Mine was WAAAY back when I started modeling custom weapons for CS:S around the time that I got into game art.
My question to you is, how is this just now going on?
I ask this question only to get an origin story out of you, if thats not something you feel like sharing nvm.
Just thought I'd derail your WIP thread and turn it into a breaking in story.

That's cool, I actually really like these kind of stories. For me it isn't terribly interesting, but I actually got into modelling by creating weapons, I was so bad that I used to just planar map the side of the weapon and just use photo textures, as I didn't really know how to UV map properly. I just really enjoyed it though, and ended up making a bunch of different weapons, all of which were very bad, but they were my favourites from FPS's at the time. M4, AK, desert eagle, AWP, MP5, p90, everything. They were all absolutely terrible though, I think I spent like 2 days on each of them.

(You could say that I've used my 'free pass' but it wasn't like any effort was put into the first one :P )

Eventually I found FPSCreator, threw my weapons in there and then it was just practice from there on. I think I could have learned a lot more if I had just joined polycount a lot sooner or an actual mod team, but in the end it pushed me to become more of a generalist today, as I had to rig and animate stuff (I really liked animating first person weapons, it was like 50% of the reason to make the weapon)

This is the first normal mapped current gen weapon I've made, and the first high poly one. I guess if anything it's a nice reminder of how I started. :)

This has also reminded me just how little time to work on personal stuff I really have. (It's almost half way through the year and this and the DS2 Comp is all I have done, I'm supposed to be a character artist right?) So I wont be taking the time for granted afterwards, I'm going to go straight onto a new character and some character based hand-painted texture tutorials. :)

Not to say that I dislike this, but I think this will probably be the first and last realistic weapon I'll make in my free time for quite a long while.

[sltrOlsson]

Dropbox? I thought that was standard these days? No compression, easy to use. Register and your up and running. (http://db.tt/Ay9ZBycB) And yes, that was an ref link from my Dropbox. I'm sneaky like that ;) (gets me an extra 250 mb..)

Would love to see wires on both the HP and the LP. Looking very solid this far!

[BringMeASunkist]

Some of the details you've created get lost in your low poly model. While there is wonderful detail in the rear of the gun, the silhouette gets a little lost up towards the muzzle brake. If this guns is only meant to be seen from the rear, then it's fine but if it's ever to be viewed from the side I'd recommend throwing some extra polys in it.

The muzzle brake you've modeled is definitely a correct size in proportion, but it just doesn't read quite properly when compared to the rear of the gun. I'd exaggerate.

http://i.imgur.com/q1sTH.jpg

Also your muzzle brake is installed upside down. Some muzzle brakes have holes installed all around (like the one in my reference) and some have them only on one side. The purpose of only having half of the muzzle brake with holes is that when the gas exits the gun, it exits upward. If the gas escapes downward and the shooter is prone, it kicks up a huge amount of dirt and reveals the shooter's position.

http://i.imgur.com/dVEJt.jpg

That said, your work is beautiful and inspiring. My critiques are nothing more than nit picking.

[Stromberg90]

My guess would be that this a fps gun and parts that is not in the or far from the view can be a bit lower on detail, about the way to muzzle brake is positioned that is really interesting, I would never have thought of that :)

Also nice story about how you got started, I think we all spend max 2 days on something when we first started ;)

[BringMeASunkist]

My guess would be that this a fps gun and parts that is not in the or far from the view can be a bit lower on detail

If this is a first person only asset then the proper way to do it is to not even bother modeling the stock and the entire right side could just be a plane; saves polys and UV space.

Check out Alan Ryzin's work (http://polygoo.com/port/m4.html) for some very nice first person-only assets.

[Stromberg90]

Depends I think, you got to think about animations a lot more will be seen that what is present in the fps view, I would maybe remove some of the elements on the other side, but keep the stock intact if it where me.
I don't know how a professional artist would go about it, but that is what I would do.
I love polygoo's website and looked a lot on he's working during my latest weapon :)

[JFletcher]

Thanks,

shot from last night (polycount was down and couldnt post)

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/m4wipscreengrabs.jpg

No gloss map yet, and there is still quite a bit of work to do with the spec/materials.

@BringMeASunkist

Thanks for the crit, that said, I think it's too minor of a detail to go back and change, and I'd like to focus tris in different areas of the gun. While yes, I have first person in mind, I also want it to look good from multiple angles simply for presentation.

I appreciate the feedback though. :)

More later today hopefully.

[Tokusei]

awesome work JFletcher, this texturing is off the hook! the edges seem to pop quite well and I'm curious if you used any kind of cavity map on your diffuse/spec to bring them out like that? I'm currently texturing a gun and I'm not sure if I should use one or not

i really like the worn edges where the metal has chipped off also, any tips on achieving a similar result?

keep up the great work 8]

[daphz]

damn, this looks good! I really like the gradient you have going on the stock. Maybe you could incorporate the same kind of thing on the clip?

[ae.]

wow that texture is ace!

[ScudzAlmighty]

Those are some killer texture's Fletcher :)

re the muzzle break; could you not just separate the muzzle, rotate it around so the holes are on the top, then reattach it? Polycount gets pretty anal about gun accuracy and it seems like an easy enough fix.

[JFletcher]

Calling this done, plus, bonus animation video!! :)

the hand is a very, VERY old model (I didn't really want to go through making an entirely new set of first person arms JUST for this), terrible anatomy and and even more TERRIBLE rig, the thumb area in particular is a fucking mess, an made the reload animation way more annoying than it had to be.. On top of that they are diffuse only so it kind of ruins it but hey, it's better than nothing.

M4 VLTOR - FPS Weapon Animation - - YouTube

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/M4VltorFinal.jpg

I was going to add more geo to the handrail, and maybe and rebake but tbh the issues are so minor I just wanted to finish this do a few quick animations. I will definitely be more cautious of those sort of things in the future though.

Another notch on the portfolio, thanks for the feedback guys, I very much appreciate it. :)

[Oniram]

well damn.. thats gorgeous. im gonna be honest though. at first when i saw this i wasnt too thrilled with it. it kind of looked uuber stylized and somewhat plastic/toony. now that ive seen more and more.. i just feel bad that i was ever in doubt. im in love with that gun dude! superb job!

[JacqueChoi]

Lov it! ANimations are sick too!

^_^

[jimmypopali]

Love the animation, taking a model to the next level with it. Looks great mate. Only strengthens your folio.

[erik!]

those images are entirely too small. I want more bigger.

[seth.]

fletch thats fucking awesome....nuff said.

[Stromberg90]

Sick work, this got saved straight ahead for later :)
Seeing it in action makes it even a notch better ;)

[JoshC]

Pretty :D

[Millenia]

Intense!

[Di$array]

Oh man nice use of materials. You've done a terrific job on this! You should be grinning from ear to ear.

[JFletcher]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. :)

I'm putting together a few 'quick tip' type images for some basic texture stuff. Maybe it will help some people.

I'll get a wireframe pic of this in a bit, and flats. Almost forgot. :)

Also at some point I gotta update my site sometime soon. Clip out all the old crap and create a newer, cleaner design with larger images.

[Fred2303]

You really are an exceptional artist! you master so many styles, really insparational!
congratulatino for that awesome piece!

[Pedro Amorim]

Yes! Bigger images!

[Superfail]

realy nice work you got there. Im intrested to se whires and maps. Just because its nice to se what details you have made mesh of and which are just normal maps.

Hope this is not your last weapon your realy good at it.

[mr_ace]

wow, really beautiful work man

[SA_22]

everyone might make one but not everyone is going to make something this awesome!!

[katana]

The 'crosshair' doesnt float with the gun...is it just an overlay?

[Snader]

Very late response, but
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1062/m4ticket.jpg
makes me think of making a series of 'obligatory' models. It's cute.

[Josh_Singh]

Love it man.

[JFletcher]

Thanks!

Almost forgot about the wire and flats!

Here they are, if anyone's interested

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/wire.jpg

http://u.cubeupload.com/JFletcher/flats.jpg

@ katana

No, it's just a viewport background image, just a little something quick to make it look a bit nicer when I was animating it. :)

@ Snader

Haha, yeah that would be cool. :) Could add 'Bald Space marine' as one of them. :)

[Autocon]

Phenomenal work as always, and the animations just make it fucking rad as hell!

[chris1988green]

Awesome work man! Just a quick question (as off topic it as it is) ,what engine were you displaying that in Marmoset?

[Pedro Amorim]

max, with xolioul shader.

[Ehsan Gamer]

Very nice job .

did you used 3ds max or maya for animation ? biped or bones ?

for the AAA games do they use biped or bones ?

[chris1988green]

Thanks Pedro, Just wondered how he got that nice backdrop but I assume xolioul shader applies that. right?

[Xoliul]

You can just render them with Alpha's if you use Grabviewport 2.5, then do the BG in photoshop. Or, youu can se Max viewport to have a blue BG like that, and then use the Vignette post shader I made.

At first I thought the texturesize was a bit big, Jon, but then i realized it amounts to the same texturespace we'd use at work if you mapped the attachments to separate sheets.

[Shiv]

So glad you came back to it man, looks beautiful! :D

[Hristo Rusanov]

Dude you are beast!!! :)

[tsabszy]

if you need some inspiration.. just search for a thread by Jonathan Fletcher and here you go.

i can't say anything that hasn't been said but still: your work is freakin' stunningly awsome again!!

about the 3ds max issue you had there.. i couldn't really find out if it has been answered or not, but i bump into it sometimes too if using control mesh hard surface modelling in 3ds and i haven't seen it for long time but i'm almost sure to repair it you should do one or each of theese steps 1. just delete your meshsmooth or tb modifier and apply a new one with the same settings or 2. select all polys and dettach them or 3. attach the whole model to a standard 3ds max primitive or 4. convert it to mesh and then back to poly. if you're certain there's no any modelling issue and i'm sure you are then theese steps should solve it. if you tried theese already and didn't work then sorry i was just trying to help :P
i hate it too when Autocrash 3ds max suddenly decides not to work properly in an instant for no reason.. and usually it happens ofcourse :D

[MoP]

fletch can you stop being so insanely good thanks

actually wait no keep doing it, i love it

[Bee-Bee]

Sorry to bump an older thread but I had been meaning to reply to this for awhile.

Fletch I've seen more than enough M4 models/textures in my day to die a happy man, but this is ACE work right here. Your model, color scheme, texture polish and final presentation are fantastic. I love the subtle color and tone variation you've added to the final texture in addition to the slight weathering. These are easy to over exaggerate (I'm guilty here) and you really struck a nice balance it seems. *claps*

[CaptainRev]

hey, first person animator here/source modder. that model looks pretty kickass, any chance i could try animating it myself?

[BradMyers82]

Well you have proven you can do it all (game art related heh). Congrats this turned out great.

[KeithC]

Haven't caught up with what you've been doing lately Jon; you'll have to stop by the old TGC stomping grounds sometime and show everyone what you've been up to. Looks great; you're giving Jake a run for his money. ;)

[bcottage]

Looks amazing dude, real inspiration.

What software did you use to create the animation?

[The0ry]

This is the best M4 i have seen anywhere so far. However I have one suggestion that many/most/all seemed to have overlooked, its not a big deal and an easy fix..

This same thing is in Battlefield 3 which bugged me a bit. Seeing it happen a second time now, i gotta chime in and share some knowledge.

Its simple. The rear sight is on backwards, that's all.

On a real life M4/AR15(the only difference is 3 round burst and barrel length). Flip up iron sights are used as a backup should your optics fail or break. Your suppose to be able to flip up the rear sight and aim even with optics mounted, this is called co-witnessing. The last thing you need when rounds are zipping past you is to have to fiddle with your equipment(as you're shaking with fear and pissing yourself:poly115:).

I can totally understand this error(even in BF3) should someone not own or be interested in firearms, and acknowledge that im in no position to be giving suggestions(comparing our artwork). But under real life circumstances and due to the nature of the equipments purpose, this would be taken very seriously.:)

Otherwise it is GORGEOUS!!!

Sources: Own an AR15 (with the same iron sights as your model)
Play Airsoft(like its real)

PERFECT EXAMPLE!!!---> http://ttag.zippykidcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FMevD.jpg
http://cdn.armslist.com/images/posts/634686295919373214p2cssyqt.jpg
http://images61.fotki.com/v666/photos/5/41655/8123914/AR_6_5_Grendel_Carbine_09-vi.jpg
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/gearscout/files/2009/09/091609odTroyDiopticSight01_8001-500x290.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Alpha-Romeo3/Hunting%2520CAR%252010X7/L544WAA-1-1.jpg

[Olli.]

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15275414/matdef.jpg

[cptSwing]

I'm putting together a few 'quick tip' type images for some basic texture stuff. Maybe it will help some people.



Ahem :)

[jk_virginia]

oh my gawd....agree with last post :)
subscribed

[Tarek3D]

woooooow incredible dude
can u give me your references?

[ThaSlimShady]

I got to say, this is better than most games out there, but again, they have to think of performance when it comes to weapons.

Really, a job well, well done sir. Hats off.

Also, gotta love the fact you used BF3 sounds for the vid ;)

[Rekenaar]

Spectacular man! You've inspired me to finally get involved in modelling.

[warxsnake]

If I could ask? What was you baking process? Xnormal? Is the cage just a push of little value (0.5 or whatever), and if you exploded the mesh where the smoothing groups are split.

[hamzaaa]

Holy mother of a rooster, I just layed some eggs after seeing this. Awesome!

[cptSwing]

and if you exploded the mesh where the smoothing groups are split.

wat?

[CamelTabu]

Can anyone explain me which program should i use to make items for Dota2 contest? I would really like to know.

[Munkndrunk00]

is the mesh a 'whole' because it looks like or seems like its two separate pieces but together :/ try attaching both sides and the turbosmoothening...or try a shell modifier :)

[ForestWolf]

Top notch work! Keep on rocking! :)

[carmar4]

very nice work!!!!!

[PlayTilTheyBleed]

Very nice work! However, scope caps don't bounce around like that. They are spring-loaded and pop all the way open and stay in place until they're pushed closed. Might I suggest adding an animation that shows the hand popping them open when readying the rifle for use?

[RaPtoR_v9600]

Woho nice work bud, really impressive model and animation

[GhostWalker]

That looks sweet! From what I can teel it really seems on par with guns you see in BF3 for example. High end stuff with a manageble polycount.

[EricV]

love it

[siddhant_91]

did u use any shader for the gun.... or u gave the metallic feel through specular painting???? :)

[Guillermo3795]

Amazing gun.

[aphexx]

one m4 per artist.. :D it makes the world a better place!
other than that, your m4 looks omnomable!
got no freakingly smart high level critique here.
it just looks damn awesome. -> now onward to another pew that is even more awesome ;)

[minorthreat]

Wow that animation is beautiful, it'd be cool if you collaborated with Tripmine Studios, they're remaking Opposing Force.

[cdavidson]

looks lovely this and nice animations :)

forgive me as not read everyone's reply. but on the animations when firing he doesn't seem to pull the trigger? Does not really matter as no one will see that close up unless close enough to lick the gun heh.

[Mangled Poly]

Amazing detail... Best m4 I have seen :)