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Weapon Modelling and Skinning |
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MOD
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Written by ExoStatic
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In this tutorial, you will be modelling a Glock. We will be using a reference
image which is in this post. We will also be skinning the gun with this photo, a
technique frowned upon by a few people, but I think it works effectively when UV
Mapped correctly
First of all, get your copy of 3DS MAX open! I am using version 4.2, but I think
this tutorial should cover most versions.
Next, you'll need your reference image, which can be found
here.
Download and save that image. Next, to get it into MAX. I prefer to have the
image on the "Left" viewport. To do this, click anywhere in the "Left" Viewport,
and press ALT+B. A box should appear like this.
Select the same settings as I have done, yet when you click 'Files...', you have
to re-direct the program to where you saved the reference JPG.
Now, once you've done that, your screen should look like this.
On to the modelling! Now, open 3DS MAX, go to "Objects" on the toolbar, and
select Chamfer Box. The button looks like this.
We're going to model the slider, the box-shaped part of the gun right on top of
the model. Click on the top-left corner and drag to the bottom right-corner of
the Slider. Next, it will want you to specify the "Height" on the box. Height to
me and you is Width, and this value wants to be around 35. You can just drag the
box out a little and click, we will change the value in a minute. Next it wants
you to specify the [b]fillet[/b]. No, this doesn't mean you're gonna be eating
some meat, but it means the "rounded" edge on the Chamfer Box. Drag up and down
to change the fillet. Once you are happy with your final shape, left-click once
more and your first object will be created! It should look like this.
To specify the height, go to the right hand tool bar and look at "Parameters"
There should be a few boxes in there, Length, Width Height. Height is the one
you want. Click in the box next to Height and type "35". Also, to save
[b]Polygons[/b] (Which, with too many of them on your weapon, can cause low FPS)
change the "Fillet Segments" to 1. This will look less smooth at the moment, but
when you have applied the texture you shouldn't notice. Now your object is
configured.
Next, to make the object fit the box. Select your object, Right-Click anywhere
in the Viewport and select "Convert to Editable Mesh". When this is done, in the
right hand toolbar, select the button which has 3 dots.
Now, In your Left Viewport, 3 blue dots should appear on each corner of the box.
Select these 3 dots on ONE corner by dragging a box around them with your mouse.
They should turn red, indicating that they are selected. Now, select the Move
tool (I think you should already know what this is) and move the selected
vertices to match with the image.
Should look like this when completed.
Now onto the handle. I find this one of the hardest parts of this particular gun
to make. At any rate, it's the most time consuming. I've made this model lots of
times, so it doesn't take me long. Select the Chamfer Box object again. Click
and drag a box over the handle. You can't get the right shape here, so make a
box just placed on the handle. Drag it out to around 35 "Height" again, click,
and drag the fillet so it is around the same as the slider. Click once again,
and your object is created. With the object selected, go to the right-hand
toolbar and in "Parameters", change the "Length" Segments to "8". This will give
you more options when you come to moving the Vertices around and you will be
able to get a more desirable, smooth shape.
Mine looks like this, at this stage.
Now, Convert the object to an Editable Mesh (Select object, right-click, Convert
to..., Convert to Editable Mesh) and select Vertex (the 3 red dots on the
right-hand toolbar). A lot of dots, eh? I recommend you start from the bottom
and work your way up. Select the bottom-right set of vertices and move it into
place on the corner of the handle. The little bit of black extruding from the
handle is the CLIP. That's a seperate object, ignore that for now, we will
create it later.
For me, took me around 2 minutes to get the vertices acceptable. Mine looks like
this.
If you can try to make it look as much like that as possible, I think you'll be
pleased with the result ;)
Here is a render of what I have so far. Yours should look pretty much the same,
but probably with different colours on the meshes.
Ok, let's move on!
Next, we'll make the trigger guard using the "Line" tool. I think this is an
effective tool when used on hard to model shapes. Please don't use it too much,
because if it's used a lot it can look shabby and sharp on the edges. The tool
is in the "Shapes" section of the top toolbar, and is the first button you see.
Now. This is quite a hard process, so, I'm going to do it now and take a
screenshot.
On the screenshot, there is a red cross everywhere you must click. The red box
is where I started, which is where I always start when making this object. When
you are doing this, click once and DON'T hold the button down. If you accidently
do so and the line becomes curved, press the Backspace key, it will erase this
line. This causes lots of polygons to be created when you extrude, which is not
good.
Next, we must make this 2D line into a 3D shape! Select the line and look on the
right hand toolbar. Click on the drop-down box which says "Modifier List".
Scroll down to "Extrude". Click it. In the Parameters box, where it says Amount,
I want you to put 10.0. Now you'll see in the "Front" viewport that the trigger
guard is on the right-hand side of the model. Select it and in the Front
viewport, move it so it's in the middle of the handle. Trigger guard sorted!
Next, we'll make the trigger. I'm going to use the Line + Extrude method again,
as it is much easier for small details like this, which aren't seen that much.
On the reference pic, you'll see the trigger has an odd shape. You don't want
all of this.
The red outline is what you want to be Line'ing. When you have drawn the line
around it, extrude it to a value of 5 and move it into the middle of the Trigger
Guard using the Front viewport.
After the trigger, we shall make the clip. As you can see, there is no definite
line for the clip, as it's inside the gun. For this job, I shall improvise and
make it the way I think it looks. I'll show a picture of what mine looks like so
you can copy.
That's what mine looks like. The white line is the clip.
I have extruded mine to 25, which fits just nicely into the handle.
My render at this current stage looks like this.
We're getting pretty far now, eh? Won't be long until you can say you've
finished your first "Exo" style model :P
Next job, we'll create the little bits sticking off the top of the gun. These
are to aid you with aiming. The front one is simple. A small lined object extruded with a value of around 10. The back one, however is a little bit more difficult. The same, line around it and extrude this one to around 25. Then, you got something else to do. Select the box tool on the Objects toolbar. Go to your Front viewport, and make sure you have moved your aiming aids central in line with your slider.
FRONT VIEW
LEFT VIEW
Now. This is where it gets a touch difficult. Select the rear aiming sight and
on the right hand toolbar near the top, select the tab which has an arrow on it.
In the drop-down box, select Compound Objects. Select Boolean. Leave all the
settings as they are. Click on Select Operand B, then, click on your Box that
you created which intersects with your rear aiming sight. You should find that
the box disappears leaving a cut in the sight. Well done, you just did your
first boolean! :)
Convert the sight to Editable Mesh and you're finished with it.
Let's do that part the bullet comes out of. This part's simple as. Just slap a
tube on the end. Objects, it's the eighth one along. You'll need to make the
tube in the Front viewport, make it the size you think it is then change the
Radii in the Parameter (there are two radius values in there for tube)if you're
not correct.
Change the Height Segments to 1 and Sides to 10 to save polygons.
My parameters for the tube.
Now we'll complete the mesh. 2 objects left to create. The first one, on the
left most part of the gun under the slider is a cylinder. You'll need to change
it into an Editable Mesh to get the shape right. Move the vertices around until
you're happy the shape fits around the image.
We're very nearly finished!! One object left to do!
To make this part, we'll use a ChamferBox with 4 Width segments. Convert to
Editable Mesh and move the vertices around the image. Simple. ;)
We're finished!! Now onto the skinning, which with my method can take as little
time as 10 seconds, depending on how well you know the trick ;) First of all we
need to set the material up.
Press the 'M' key and the materials editor will pop up. Click the button in the
following screenshot.
After the next box pops up, find and double-click on "Bitmap". It will open a
box where you have to browse to the .JPG file you used as your Reference image.
Select it and press Open. You'll see the image has been applied to the first
sphere on the picture. Now. Select all your objects. Click in the box with the
sphere which has the image applied to it and drag it onto your mesh. Select
"Assign to Selection"
Now, with all your objects still selected, go to the Modifier List and select
UVW Map. In the box below that, scroll down until you see a set of 8 buttons.
With your side viewport selected, click Region Fit and View Align. Now, on your
Left viewport, click on the top left corner of your reference image and drag it
down to the bottom right corner. When you have done that, de-select the tool by
clicking on UVW Map twice in the left toolbar. You're basic skinning is
finished!
Here's what mine looks like after Rendering!
Yours may not look like this when you've done, but don't worry, keep trying and
you'll get it eventually!
As you can see, there's some bad texturing on the edges of the weapons. To fix
this, there is a special technique used, but that's not for this tutorial. You
can find a tutorial where I learned how to do this here :
Tutorial
for UVW Unwrapping
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