Criticism needed...

[ryfle 10]

This is a model I've done of an AK-47 with wood stock + flash suppressor. I originally made it for a little something I was working on (non-ARMA related), but since then I've become interested in modding ARMA. My 3D modeling skills are, to say the least, quite limited... This is probably one of the best things I've ever done. Guns and inorganic objects are about all I'm capable of... I couldn't dream of making a soldier or an animal, and I'm even more limited when it comes to texturing. I'm a programmer... not so much an artist. :o

So anyway, I was hoping for some constructive criticism and pointers. How does this compare, in your opinion, to ARMA weapon models? It consists of 3,218 tris. Is this a reasonable tri count for ARMA, or too much? too little? Is there anything I could do to improve? Basically... I either need you to shred me apart or pat me on the back, lol. I'd like to do some weapons mods and new slot weapons for ARMA, and want a good idea of where I stand and what I should be doing...

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/8277/ak01.png 227 kb

Above you can see that the important moving and detachable parts are modeled correctly, as I hope to make use of those features.

To try to achieve the most correct part fittings and details, I used my baby as real-life reference. :)

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5841/ak4701.png 625 kb

This helped me, more or less, get things put together and shaped up correctly. Too many of the blueprints and references I found online were either wildly inaccurate, lacking multiple views or just plain sucked... BTW, I have a lot of other guns so let me know if you need reference photos for anything.

Anyway... thanks for your time, and let me know your opinions. :)

Edited October 23, 2011 by W0lle
Images > 100 kb

[soul_assassin 1750]

looks aight :) the front sight seems out of proportion though.

But general advice from experience: the devil is in the details. Don't just look at pictures for dimensions but try to look at how parts fit together, which parts capture your eye, how would it work mechanically, does it make sense. And above all practice :). The more models you make, the more you learn.

[W0lle 1052]

I also have an advise for you. We have forum rules for a reason. ;)

[max power 21]

There's a lot to say about silhouette. With this game engine you can have all kinds of LODs to reduce the polycount for far away things.

When I look at your edges to see what you've spent your polies on, I see that your cleaning rod or whatever that is is nothing but edges, and the magazine which seems like 1/6th of the area of the whole model has only an edge loop every inch or so in a sweeping curve. The lack of tessellation there makes it look quite faceted from this distance. You have a ten sided curve on the base of the fire select lever, but no detail at all in the fore-grip shape. The wooden furniture was quite shapely, actually.

The detail on your model tells the viewer what's important. Right now you're saying that the trigger should be viewed from a distance of only a couple of feet, but the magazine and fore-grip is good from a much greater distance. This also kind of undoes the detail you have put on the base of the magazine, because you have quite a concentration of edge-loops there defining something you couldn't even see at the distance that the banana magazine would look round.

I hope what I've had to say on silhouette and detail is helpful to you. Somewhere in that rambling there's a point about the relationship between viewing distance (and angle), tessellation, detail, and overt form, but I'm not sure even I could find it.

At any rate, the model looks clean and pretty nice.

Edited October 23, 2011 by Max Power

[ryfle 10]

Thanks!

Assassin, I'm not sure I know what you mean? I'm measuring it and comparing to my Romanian AK, and it seems rather close. You can't really see it in the pics, but I slightly widened the rear U-notch (rear sights) to open up the sight picture. The real AK sight picture is a very tiny one (one of the gun's drawbacks, imho) but realistically modeling it makes it damn near impossible to use in a game... hence I over-sized it a bit.

And thanks to you too, Max. I more or less agree with everything you said. The magazine is actually just a static "stand in" mesh. In the project I was doing, this mag was left in the gun for third-person perspective. I'm making a first-person mag that looks like the real thing, complete with ammo. :)

Since you've mentioned it, yes, I can do better on the grips too and reduce some of the extraneous details... I also just noticed that the trigger guard is too small and the mag release is too big.