Im breaking this out of my other thread

High poly


Low poly wire





I did a quick flatten map bake before uving just to catch any errors. Obviously some floating geometry didnt export right but itll all be fixed

Im also unaware of the texture standard for fps weapons, i know 2048 is good for the texture but what about normals? Ive baked out both:





Crits before uving?

I'd like a bigger wire which is not see-through and not triangulated to better judge the topology.

Having built alot of guns at work with similar polybudgets i can say already that there is potential for better poly usage. For a firstperson weapon you want to chamfer the edges of the sights so they appear less blocky when you aim.

Also your edges are still very hard. Looks almost like you are not using a normal map. You want the nice curved edges that catch nice highlights.

I havent been making guns very long but on every gun i seem to under shoot my poly limit by a good 1-2k

Heres the wire

Curve the top of the stock! It'll be right in the player's face in first person view.

Also, you've got a lot of unneeded segments on your low poly, like above the trigger. And your flash hider is still wrong.

Whats wrong with the flash hider? I modeled it the same as it is in racers reference he showed me...

And im very used to modeling box like and keeping everything equal, what should i do with the un-needed segments?

And will do to the stock.

also why did you put so many polies in the trigger? that's an area a player is very likely to never see or just a fraction of a second on reload!

Oh for some reason thats how it rendered out, theres maybe only 12 polys on the trigger.

Looks alright, The highpoly should really have softer edges to get the normal's detail onto the lowpoly perfectly. And this is plastic so they should be softer anyway

I don't get why this scene is 4100 tris, also I feel like you have some technical errors in your low poly mesh, you might want to take a look at that.

Starting the texturing, heres my base color and the final bake in marmo:



Heres the normals and the uv mapping

There are larger things at play here than your poly count. You need to really sit down, take the time to address these areas, and not rush through things. I am only writing this because, simply put, you still do not seem to grasp the idea of making a quality asset. Most everyone here on this thread and the last have given you sound technical advice, which you should follow, but before you do any of that, you should address the points I've made below.

• Become overly self critical - You have a willingness to make art for games. That much is clear. What you do not have is the ability to self-gauge your own work by being self critical. I'll repeat it again as I stated in the previous thread; you have to detach yourself from the work you complete as your own and view it from the perspective of someone else. Simply put, no employer will want to hire you if you cannot critique your own work with the utmost scrutiny.
• Observe, create, re-observe, tweak - Reference is the key to making a successful asset such as this. Sometimes you can do guess work, so long as it is logical guess work, but for assets such as weapons or items that need to feel very life like, you need to really, really, really pay attention to your reference. You have it right there in front of you, so you have no excuses for it to be wrong. This goes hand in hand with being self-critical.
• Learn to do it the RIGHT way - You can't get it "close", call that part finished, and move onto the next. Why? Because you can't. That's all there is to it. Learn to do it the right way, no matter how long it takes you. You will have many failures, but you will also see better results in the end. This is only going to work if you make use of the two points above. Topology, poly distribution, UV mapping, texturing; these are all pieces to a much larger puzzle that takes endless practice to get right.
• Slow Down - You are moving way too fast. Slow down, and take note of the point above. You will get faster with time, you just aren't there yet, and that is okay. If you take it down a bit, you'll be able to complete the previous point with a greater understanding. THEN you can speed it up a bit.
• Lose the ego, drop the excuses, and listen to critique. - There is an evident sense of pride at play with your posts with repeated excuses as to why something was made the way was. If you don't kill your own ego with self criticism, then you will have a greater sense of failure and frustration later on down the road. Excuses are meant for those that refuse to account for, or accept, their own failures. LISTEN to what people are telling you. Most everyone here knows what they are doing or are willing to learn. You seem like you just want to get it done however you feel it should be done, and the industry just doesn't work like that. A fine example of this is how you just completely ignored most everyone's critique and dived right into a bad UV map and an OS bake.

Try working on these ideas first before working on all the technical crit you have received.

This may seem a bit harsh, but I promise you that if you really try to work on these things, you will see yourself grow much more as an artist. The unfortunate side of this post is that I really feel you will completely ignore it.

When i accept critique i try see if i can work it into the existing model, if i cannot then i try to not make the same mistake again on my next.

At the end of my other thread i fixed what racer suggested, and i didn't really get any critiques after that other than the edges shouldn't be so hard. So i told myself "ok, im going to try not to do that again".

In this thread someone said the flash hider was still wrong, but i don't see how it is because its been changed twice, both using reference. You can't say im ignoring critique, because my uvs look alot better and i have changed alot of stuff on this model due to critique. On my ak i got so much critique that i decided to just ditch the model and try to make another one alot better, and to assure that i posted a wip thread, which i don't normally do. Would it help if i posted WIP's of my uving from now on? I don't really see people doing that so i didnt do it. Ive also been accepting critique for the ump for 1-2 days and changing as much as i can. I like to keep working but still leave room for critique changes, because im trying to learn as much as i can and the only way i can do that is by practicing ALOT. And i tend to finish a gun in about 3 days.

Ill have to agree with your third bullet the most. I have a tendency to do that and ill admit it. But ever since i started getting into weapon modeling a month ago i've been trying to push myself to make it the right way. And you're right, i feel alot better about it in the end.

Why don't you tell me whats specifically wrong with it?

Can you post an actual straight on side view of your gun, one that matches the angle of your reference you posted. It's easier to critique errors in size and shape when you post up a side view instead of slightly off angle perspective views.

Its pretty darn important to be able to go back and fix things, such as the sharpness of edges, before you bake the whole thing down.

Sure. The barrel is different than the reference because of a suggestion by racer, which showed reference of a different barrel variant.

bbob, it really (for me) depends on the edge. If it was maybe 2 or 3 main edges that were too sharp i'd probably fix them. But im assuming that they're meaning the overall edges of the model, in which case ill try not to repeat.

re-read my post bro, you missed a lot of stuff

make sure you view a LOT of references. every angle, not just the side. with weapons we have this luxury so make the best of it

I actually meant a shot of the low poly (or high poly, doesnt matter to me) shaded. That makes it easier to compare how the light is affecting the surface. I can already tell from the wire frame that there are some subtle details that may have been left out. Like at the bottom of the clip and the handle (I don't know gun terminology sorry).

I was using http://www.pixagogo.com/2778744214 as references. Before i model i usually go through and find the most complex shapes and break down how ill make them, then i begin modeling side by side with reference.

Originally Posted by frell

When i accept critique i try see if i can work it into the existing model, if i cannot then i try to not make the same mistake again on my next.

I like to keep working but still leave room for critique changes, because im trying to learn as much as i can and the only way i can do that is by practicing ALOT.

*insert face palm smiley*

Do you not see how contradictory those two statements are?

I've already taken my time to help you out, and Racer gave you an excellent post with really great reference and pointers, which as he said, you overlooked a lot. So why should I go back and tell you what's wrong if it is overwhelmingly apparent that someone else already has AND that you can't critique yourself enough to make it right?

Alright, well right now id like to know more about where i stand because you guys sure are good at making me feel like i might be falling down the wrong flight of stairs . Here are all the guns i have made since i started making guns, which was about a month ago.







And heres my current gun. Im having some trouble with the specular because im really only used to metal.


How is my progression so far, and am i behind / ahead for my 5th gun?

there is definitely progress, but by not going back and fixing things you are not readily applying critiques to your art work and that is a key thing in a production environment. there is no "I wont do it on the next one"

When you are making game assets for a living, if it needs to be fixed, fix it. Thats the main thing I think people are trying to convey to you and something you need to get used to, I know its annoying to go back and fix/redo things but the end result after some polishing is usually 2-5x better than the 1st pass.

when you are starting out there is the urge to produce a ton of art really quickly but if you slow down a bit you might have fewer pieces but they will be higher quality. qaulity trumps quantity every time when it comes to portfolios, I would rather hire someone with 3-5 awesome peices than someone who has 20 so so pieces, and thats what people are trying to help you out with here.

if you only apply critiques to you next model there isnt really any point in in depth crits like racer's where he lists a ton of inaccuracies, so you will find less and less people crit your work. ass pats dont help you improve, applying critiques and listening to feedback do and is a critical skill companies look for.

that said, your UMP is lookin nice, the UVs are better than the last one but could still benefit from a major overhaul/tightening up. the time it would take to re-do them and get back to where you are now wouldnt be too bad, you already have a decent highpoly and thats half the work on this piece done already, shoot for the high quality result in all aspects of it man!

Hmm. I think what i've done is jumped into uving and the low poly way to fast, as firebert said. I know you're getting tired of hearing this but on my next model ill have a couple more days open for crits and fixes on the high poly before i start removing loops and making the low poly.

Just for future knowledge, if i collapse the Unwrap UVW modifier and then add new geometry to the model via attach, will it mess anything up?

Yeah I still think you completely ignored some curvature in the handle/grip (where you hold the gun near the trigger) Right now it just looks like a block.

I don't really understand what you're looking for? Praise? If you're on the right track? I don't see the logic in ignoring critique until the next project.

Let's see what you have now: 5 incrementally better guns, all with flaws.

What you could have: 5 very nice polished assets, critiques were addressed, probably less flaws.

Do you see what I'm saying here? What I see happening from here. You apply some critique to your next project, you get more suggestions, and then ignore those until the next gun.

Yea i see what you guys mean. Im going to try not to do that anymore by waiting longer for critiques and then fixing them before i go any further.

I figured the handle gets covered up by a hand 99.9% of the time :s

Well, I can understand that there may be technical errors but that latest one looks pretty kickass.