Deciding on the Game and Creating a Desert Eagle

This year we got given the choice, it being our final year, that we could work as an individual, and produce a lone piece of work, such as a  selection of triple assets, or we could work in a group, similar to what we had been doing in the previous years. It started of to a degree of difficulty. The plan my group had set out to do after summer had fallen apart and we lost key members of the group, downsizing the whole operation. In the end, Me, Ben Matthews and George Burchmore decided that we were going to continue with being a group and try to make something to be proud of.

After much brainstorming, we decided to stick with what George wanted to do, with him being the game designer, we didn't want him to lose interest in the project. We all are big fans of FPS's (First Person Shooters), after what we managed and learnt in the last project (See "Red Hail"), we felt a progression on this would be ideal. The Thematic synopsis of the game that we intend to create is essentially a shooter based in the 80's, as well as being set in Miami. We really were interested in the "Vice" theme. It features in such films as "Drive" and shows like "Miami Vice".

As me and Ben are environment artists and George being the Game Designer, we were servery lacking in a concept artist of any kind. However, a pro to basing our game on a real world setting, we could literally base it on reference that already exists. meaning that me and Ben could get started on the modelling side of things. I was given two guns, which are seen as iconic from that period of time, to model for the game. The guns that I was given were the "Desert Eagle" and the "M16 with Grenade Launcher (Scar face Style)".

I first started with the Desert Eagle. The best way to start the project in my opinion, was to gather many references from all angles, of the gun, meaning that I could get a clear image of what the gun geometry should be like. There were many tough shapes that I had to create for this gun, but believed that this was achievable. We also where looking into a way of modelling called "Sub D modelling". This was using the smooth tool, but at the same time, using "Support edges", which would guide the mesh, meaning that it didn't create an odd shape and at the same time giving a nice finish.

The "Support Edges" in "Sub D" modelling.

The one thing that we needed to be aware of when constructing the gun was that it needed to have a reload animation for when you fire the gun. This now meant that the gun needed ti be cut up into different section in order to replicate this perfectly. I ended up doing a fair amount of research for this and had to watch many videos of people firing real life Desert Eagle Magnums so I didn't miss anything out.

In the end, the pieces that where cut out and separated were the back of the gun, so it could pull back when you fired the gun, the trigger, so you could see your character squeeze every time and the action of actually killing someone and finally the hammer, so it could pull back when the gun fires.

The Gun opens up, for the Reload Animation.

I have a specific way of working a model like this, especially with the amount of detail that this gun has. I start by outlining the model, to get a very basic shape of the gun, then I will start to pick parts of the gun apart, such as the back and model that individually. Once I have created the shape, I will start to add the polys to get a really nice shape. Of course overtime, this would add up to a fairly high number, meaning that I can then work backwards by deleting useless tries. This is great as the performance of the game is a high priority.

Having to Cut Down the Poly Count.

Once I'm left over with the useful verts, I can then start to be extremely picky about it. Getting the gun down to the bare minimum is the target, as it will make the game perform better. I managed to get the poly count down to around the 7000 mark, which, considering the shape, I felt was a decent achievement.

The End Poly Count/Low Poly Model.

Once the Gun had its lowest amount of tris, the next step was to UV the model. I had recently come back to U.V's so was fairly familiar when it came to going through this process. Though it had an awkward shape, I managed to get through this stage with relative ease, moving onto the next task, which was to apply the material to the gun.

Final Render of the Gun.

As we were going for iconic weaponry, we as a group believed that the best course of action would to apply a chrome material. This was interesting as there was a chance that the chrome could have been too much, but after heading into Quixel Suite and displaying it into the 3D viewer, we believe that the right call was made.

The Gun having been Textured.

The Desert Eagle displayed in Marmoset.

I decided that I wanted to see what the gun looked like when it was displayed in Marmoset, The 3D rendering program. This was something that was new to me and involved a bit of experimentation in order to achieve a decent result.

After the gun was textured, it was then given to our game designer, George, who then put the gun in game. He also managed to put an animation on it, which when it fires, the gun cocks back and will stay like that if the player runs out of ammo.

The Desert Eagle in Game.