Landmine's G36 WIP thread

[Landmine 10]

Hello!

This is my first WIP thread. I'm a novice modeller and I never made any weapons, so what you will see is the work of a beginner. Well, actually, beginners, since I'm lucky to have a father and a brother who enjoy playing this game, and help me out with the modelling part (steady flow of beer, snacks, words of encouragement and sometimes small tasks or parts of a model).

I wanted to make a G36C pack for a long time now, since I never really found an add-on(pack) which had a few mods on the G36C. So, last week, I finished the bigger half of my university exams, I installed BI tools, got my P:\ drive ready, made a large pot of coffee, got my favorite music collection running, and started this small project. Since then, a week passed and this is what I have so far:

It's probably not much, but hey, it's one week's work! The main reason I made this thread is to ask questions and to be able to receive tips and advice on how to create specific parts (if given of course), since most of the time, I have to work from pictures posted on airsoft sites and forums. I'm not sure how will the pictures show up to you guys, for some reason my PC compresses every screenshot I make, so the pictures might look a little tight, but in O2, it looks fine for me. If you can give me any advice on how to get my pictures right (without loss of quality), let me know.

Now, here comes the first question:

Do I have to make the trigger and the magazine separately or part of the rifle (you know what I mean)?

Future plans:

Optics (ACOG, Red Dot maybe Holo?)

Grip, Under barrel grenade launcher (it is possible to attach a grenade launcher to the G36C right?)

Before I forget: I would like to ask you not to feature these on any ArmA related sites (Armedassault.info, Armaholic.com etc.), until I finish these add-ons.

Thank you!

[raptor 6 actual 13]

I am still a noob when it comes to modelling and getting my crazy ideas into the game. But, I THINK that you could make those items as hidden selections. 1) It could keep the poly count of the entire model lower, seeing as how you're already putting a lot of detail into the weapon itself. 2) Having hidden selections on the optics, magazines, etc will allow for later scripting that can make it seem as if you're changing attachments while in-game and not via selecting an entirely different model from the gear selection menu.

Great work though.

[chauvinista 10]

Looks great but little narrow to me.

[Landmine 10]

@Raptor 6 Actual: I like you idea, will look into hidden selections. Thanks!

@skiline5: Will fix the pictures, and you'll be able to see how they look in Buldozer.

[Messiah 2]

You can't have hidden selections on weapons.

Model looks a great start if you're indeed a novice, a lot more advanced than anything I made in my early days. However, unless you're planning on using this model as a hi res for baking normal maps from, then all those seams and small indents you've modeled in are a waste of polygons, leave that to normal mapping. I can't quite remember the ideal poly counts off the top of my head for weapons (I mainly stick to vehicles), but anywhere around 7k faces is a goood place to aim for as I recall.

Trigger and magazine should be 'floating' parts of the model, makes it much simpler when rigging the model later for hiding the magazine during reloading, and animating the trigger (if it even does animate, I can't for the life of me remember)

[scarecrow398 43]

Trigger and magazine should be 'floating' parts of the model, makes it much simpler when rigging the model later for hiding the magazine during reloading, and animating the trigger (if it even does animate, I can't for the life of me remember)

Yea, it does, pain in the ass i couldn't figure out but it does, along with the bolt and magazine (if transparent).

[raptor 6 actual 13]

You can't have hidden selections on weapons.

@Messiah- Thanks, didn't know that.

@Landmine- See? I told you I was still a noob. Keep up the work though.

[Landmine 10]

@Raptor 6 Actual: Hehehe, don't worry, every input is good for me.

@Messiah: Well, currently, I'm not too worried, because I'm at 4949 faces, and I don't think the magazine and the trigger will take up more than 1k (max). I'll try to stick around 7k though, thanks!

Can you explain to me what do you mean by "floating parts"? They're not connected to the model?

[Messiah 2]

Even so, the less faces you use, the better, especially ones that can be so easily replaced with normal maps without noticing the difference, the sights you wish to add will certainly help bump that face count up. It's really only the embossed/sunken lines around the grip and the magazine that are very superfluous - always put yourself in the position of thinking 'what can I see in first person, what is close to me, what is far away' - this gives you a reasonable idea of what you should invest faces into, and where you can save them. At any rate, you've got a very nice base model for that sort of facecount, so just bear in mind keeping around the 7k mark, and you'll work out where you wish to save/add faces when you get closer to a finished model.

And yes, I'm not any sort of industry professional, just a hobbiest, so my lingo may just be made up, but by floating parts I mean parts of the mode that do no connect/merge with the main mesh of the weapom - i.e modeled as a seperate object not connected to the model.

@Messiah- Thanks, didn't know that.

@Landmine- See? I told you I was still a noob. Keep up the work though.

It's a bit odd, considering everything else can, that weapons still can't use hidden selections.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Messiah

[slatts 1978]

By floating he means things like Magazines or optics shouldn't be connected to the Gun. So if you select the magazine you can drag it away without moving the entire model. :)

[hogthar 295]

I thought the G36 is black.

I just joking.

I have an airsoft G36 and i think your work is really great, keep it up.

Anyway the trigger and the magazine is part of the model just name it in the "named selection" tab.

Example:

i hope that can help you.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Hogthar

[Alwarren 2766]

It's a bit odd, considering everything else can, that weapons still can't use hidden selections.

IIRC, hiddenSelection is strictly limited to CfgVehicles, therefore no CfgWeapon can use them.

[Messiah 2]

IIRC, hiddenSelection is strictly limited to CfgVehicles, therefore no CfgWeapon can use them.

Of course, what I meant is that it's odd that BIS never got around to ammending that, especially when considering they've been so attentive with their more recent models to make sure that they have hiddenselections set up for easy texture modding.

[Landmine 10]

Wow, thanks guys!

I've been busy with exams again, another few sessions await me, so work has been slow. I've finished the mag so far, texturing is next, then the config. Will update after the exam. Thanks again!

[Landmine 10]

Hey guys, exams are over, and the time has come for another update!

So, what do you think? Suggestions?

[hogthar 295]

Awesome!

[StroggCmd 10]

Nice work, looks great so far :)

[b00ce 160]

So, what do you think? Suggestions?

ArmA 3 quakity. ;)

Stunning work. Are you just using O2? If so, kudos to you for all the detail.