M4 Carbine - With accessories

Harford · Feb 2013

I want to update my portfolio with some new personal finished pieces this year, so what better way to start than an M4. Hopefully making it stand out with great texturing and detail. There are a couple of things to add still ( back of rail , possibly adding another front rail mod or guard ) but it's 95% complete.

Here's what I've got so far.

Update :

The high poly is complete - Here are images

And the low poly and unwrap

Mellon3D · Feb 2013

DAT M4))))))
Perfect

Harford · Feb 2013

Thanks Mellon3D

I've started the low poly and it's about 50% complete. Aiming for about 9k tris.

Bek · Feb 2013

Saw you working on this during the hangout, that high poly is awwwwwwesome. Subscribed.

PaulP · Feb 2013

Sweet work Joe! You've done a great job getting those cylindrical shapes into the low poly (cutting in and adding on), must have been tough integrating them into the mesh and keeping the topo clean.

Envart · Feb 2013

It appears that you haven't included the charging handle at the rear of the weapon, located above and behind the forward assist. Overall this looks excellent. Looking forward to seeing more.

Harford · Feb 2013

Thanks Bek, SCB walrus. You're totaly right about the charging handle. That's the last piece I need to add. Good spot.
I'll add that before the next update. Just testing bakes now and finishing up the low poly.

rolfness · Feb 2013

a fore grip in that rail would look right at home

IsparticusI · Feb 2013

Yea this is looking really good, the only issue i have is the width of the clip. you can tell where the clip locks into the gun, theres a WHOLE lot of room thats empty. Widen that bad boy out, so it looks like the clip is in there nice and snug!

Harford · Feb 2013

Thanks guys

You are right about the foregrip, I'm totally going to add that.
Width of the clip too, there is too much space, Good call.

For interested parties, I've posted a few videos to my Youtube channel showing the high poly modeling process.

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXVpEdtXqWk"]Modeling the MAGPUL BackUp Sight - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aPc7DZmpJo"]HighPoly Modeling : 3DS Max M4 ScoutLight Light - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ERZDk01JL8"]HighPoly Modeling : 3DS Max M4 Front Sight - YouTube[/ame]

Harry · Feb 2013

also probably want the ejection port open if its "in use"

Lee3dee · Feb 2013

kick ass Joe!!

Harford · Feb 2013

Thanks guys,

Updated the MBUS rear sight, as it wasnt finished before
Also added the TacLatch.

Harford · Feb 2013

and the foregrip

mr_ace · Feb 2013

i don't know if it's just the angle but the mag looks very thin

mrBananas · Feb 2013

Heya Joe. Looking great! I'm modeling a mech in MAX at the moment, so this is quite inspiring. Keep it up!

Harford · Feb 2013

You were right about the mag. I fixed it mostly , and will fix on the low poly during the baking.

Baking is almost complete, getting a really nice result, I'll post that up soon.

And the low poly and unwrap

aaronaton · Feb 2013

Making an M4 is up there with making a crate, a sword or an audi R8. Overmade and tired.

Envart · Feb 2013

aaronaton wrote: »

Making an M4 is up there with making a crate, a sword or an audi R8. Overmade and tired.

Yeah man! He should've just make snarky comments about other people's art, that would've been way more original and productive.

EMC3D · Feb 2013

Model is looking sweet, the youtube video additions are a nice breakdown of your process too, good stuff all around, looking forward to the textures.

aaronaton wrote: »

Making an M4 is up there with making a crate, a sword or an audi R8. Overmade and tired.

I bet you can do better, right? Of course.

ghaztehschmexeh · Feb 2013

Walrus wrote: »

Yeah man! He should've just make snarky comments about other people's art, that would've been way more original and productive.

Jealousy detected

btw nice work man! What kind of render setup are you using? I think my setup is holding me back, and yours looks really nice.

JoshWilkinson · Feb 2013

aaronaton wrote: »

Making an M4 is up there with making a crate, a sword or an audi R8. Overmade and tired.

I feel like if I make something that another artist has made, the last thing I want to hear somebody say is, "It looks good, but [xxx] did it better..." I agree with you that the M4 is an overmade weapon, but I've seen two examples in the last year of top tier, truly beautiful iterations of the M4. This is one of those. I suggest you grab a coffee, lean back and enjoy the show.

3dcaspar · Feb 2013

Hey man!
This looks extremely awesome!
I would really love to hold this thing ingame ;D
Great work!

JamesWarren · Feb 2013

Looks great! You probably already know about this but the tape around the bottom of the magazine seems to be clipping through the metal.

Sugus · Feb 2013

Very nice, i'm not the best at UV'ing but i do feel there is a bit of UV wasted space? (like you could scale some things up etc...the layout is beautiful) Is it because you plan on adding a bit more geometry or for the padding?

theSixtyEight · Feb 2013

aaronaton wrote: »

Making an M4 is up there with making a crate, a sword or an audi R8. Overmade and tired.

Iam also making M4, and doesnt matter if it is overmade, or not, its great opportunity for subd modeling practice(lots of different shapes) and material definition practice(plastic, lots of different metal materials), also m4 and ak are i guess most used weapons in the world so its obvious there is most of em on forums, so http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif
Harford: cant wait for texture!

Mathew O · Feb 2013

Bloody beautiful, did you ever knooooow that you're my heeeeeeeero?

CyberGameArts · Feb 2013

Pedro Amorim · Feb 2013

Dude, add more segments on the round cylinder scope that is up close in fpv. only 12 sides is ultra low.
also, run the textools scrpt: smothing groups by uvshells.

Harford · Feb 2013

Thanks all for the comments, glad you like it.

Pedro, good call on the extra sides there.. I'm already doing the smoothing groups by uvshells too. I'll show the bake a bit later. It's come out nicely. Looking forward to texturing!

Harford · Feb 2013

Paul68Rageous wrote: »

Iam also making M4, and doesnt matter if it is overmade, or not, its great opportunity for subd modeling practice(lots of different shapes) and material definition practice(plastic, lots of different metal materials), also m4 and ak are i guess most used weapons in the world so its obvious there is most of em on forums, so http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif
Harford: cant wait for texture!

Thanks Paul. ! You're right it doesn't matter how many times it's made, it's great practice and there will always be more games that require an M4. It's one of the most popular weapons in the world used by armed forces and will be a required asset for future games. It still makes a good portfolio piece imo.

Harford · Feb 2013

Sugus wrote: »

Very nice, i'm not the best at UV'ing but i do feel there is a bit of UV wasted space? (like you could scale some things up etc...the layout is beautiful) Is it because you plan on adding a bit more geometry or for the padding?

Thanks man, The space in the bottom right / middle will be filled by another couple objects, however overall uv space will be filled with padding and I don't think it's too spaced out.

Ben_Roberts · Feb 2013

Loving the gun, nice job, bet it was a headache unwrapping and organising all that?

DarkStar · Feb 2013

Hey got a question for you : How do you work on multiple vertex on a cylinder( like in the flash light video) at the same time by moving only one of them... Hope you understand what i mean

Thank and sorry for the bad english

EDIT : forget it i thought it was a new option in max since i didn't use it since the last version (2012). Constrain edge is the thing.

Lonewolf · Feb 2013

nice work dude
looking really good

!

Harford · Feb 2013

DarkStar wrote: »

Hey got a question for you : How do you work on multiple vertex on a cylinder( like in the flash light video) at the same time by moving only one of them... Hope you understand what i mean

Thank and sorry for the bad english

EDIT : forget it i thought it was a new option in max since i didn't use it since the last version (2012). Constrain edge is the thing.

Hope you answered your own question. You're right though I do use constrain edge a lot. It's in most versions of max I believe. I am using 2013 in this video. You will see a lot of double clicking edges to select edge loop, and then moving them using constrain edge. The same with selection a few verts and scaling or rotating using constrain edge ( like when making the screws )

Thanks guys

Hey Ben, it was a time consuming process to unwrap and organise but I think I got a good workflow which helped manage it. Exploding the bake before the unwrapping helped too, to separate everything off and not have to keep isolating objects.

Bek · Feb 2013

Looking really awesome Joe. On the low, you only have three of the rectangular extrusions on the sides of the barrel that make up a rail, why is that? Just curious. Keen to see how the low + normal map.

M4 Carbine - With accessories

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