How To Build A Gun In Zbrush2?

[Ron_Harris]

I know this is rougher looking than imaginably possible…lol…but I pulled out my own 22 caliber pistol to use as a reference…well it looks pretty dang close except it looks like it was modeled from a wad of bread dough…lol…I was using mostly zspheres and a couple of primitives…and was going to multimark them all together yadda yadda yadda…the edges just arent sharp enough. I dont use silo or wings …I pretty much only do the Z2 thing…can anyone offer some advice in creating a weapon like this? The plastic handle of the weapon is ok for the most part since its organic and has some natural flow to it…but the main part of the gun…well that’s another story…any input would be definitely appreciated…maybe box modeling? thnx
ron

edited…thumbnailed the original to save gallery space.

Attachments

[sephellius]

I believe that box modeling and creasing the proper places will do your gun justice. If you want to export the object, try crisp edge looping. I believe creasing is a Z-brush only adaptation. The general shape is there as you said.cool

[Andromedia]

Hi Ron… Great to see something different work… in zbrush …looks very good
About the metal…yes i see your point… normal gun metal is a kind of black/grey with not so much reflection… other than the light… hmmm, maybe try the plated metal and scale down the plate… just an idea… Gretz from andy … happiness is a warm gun

[abxy]

hey ron!

love the model a lot, that’s pretty freakin’ close

I wouldn’t say precise modeling is a strong point of zbrush, but it definately isn’t as hard as a lot of people would want to believe. I’m starting on a personal project soon that’s gonna call for a lot of rather precise things, however one of my goals is to create as many models as i can, from start to finish, in Z. I’d soon like to work completely in zbrush for my modeling and just export things for animation. anyhoo, alls that’s to say, i’m going to be experimenting with creating precise things in zb soon; from just brainstorming, i think alphas, masking, edge looping, primitives and multimarkings are gonna be the key to pulling precise models off in Z.

[Rafael_Hernandez]

Gun modeling in Zbrush! You sure set yourself a challenge with this one. The funny thing is that yesterday I was modeling a revolver in Wings. Try Jantim materials on that gun and it will look even better. Nice work Ron.

[Bonecradle]

Hey Ron

Like it or not, modelling something like this will be a bit of a point-pulling exercise in order to get the shape right.

If I were to approach this now, I would make many of the parts separately, and I would definitley start with zspheres for most of the parts. This is because you can get nice flowing lines to get a basic shape, but also skin at the lowest res so you get a cubic skin that has less points and is easier to pull into place to finish off the basic shape. I think it would also be a lot faster than extruding in ZB.

Once you have the separate pieces, you could use the insert tool into zsphere feature to put the whole thing together (rather than using multimarkers).

Doing it this way, it would pay to sit down and work out what and how many parts would be best to make separatley. Looking at your gun, I would think something like barrel, hammer, bullet drum, trigger/trigger guard and maybe handle, all inserted into the main frame, which would be made last.

I made a gun a whiles back now using some of these techniques and put up a pic showing some of the parts; hopefully I can pull it straight from ZBC. Some of the parts I made using make 3D from alpha and unified skinning, but these can get a bit messy and polygon heavy, so I’d try to avoid it now with the tools in ZB2.

[Ron_Harris]

thnx for the input everyone…very appreciated…used some box modeling on the main part of the weapon…the reciever I guess you call it…this one came out a bit better…saving some fo the parts for it…havent MMed it yet…the ole eyes are getting a bit tired right now…will post another one as I get a little closer…thnx again…all C and C appreciated…
kind regards,
Ron

ps. feel free to post yer own weapons here also if you like…gladly welcomed.

[aminuts]

hey Ron,

S&W? I have an old 32 that looks pretty similar. Am gonna have to give it a go now!

I’d have to agree if you are going to try a once piece thing edge looping is the way to go. remember before you select edge loops to set it first. eg…the default is 15 which means that edge will stay hard for 15 levels. set it lower so it stays hard like for the grip for 2 or 3 levels then begins to soften so its more realistic…as always…experiment for best settings.

Bonecradle’s multimarker version is quite the option too.

anyway keep tweeking it…you are almost there!!

oh yeah…aahalf the renders so they don’t look so jaggie…that will help alot specially if you have to crunch the pic for jpg upload.

[Ron_Harris]

well, I MMed the gun pieces together with ok success …very poly heavy…wil have to try this again…what I did…and from the tops etc you can see the mistakes…I took and polymeshed the MM gun parts…and thus I had the gun…really looked crappy on the backside…so I took it into preview and Deformations/edit…and Flattened it to a half and then cloned it …saved one side to file …then cleared the MM and took a mirrored half and MMed it to the original half trying to slap together the gun…the idea kinda worked cept my MM work is sloppier than a fat man at an all you can eat pasta bar… ooops I resemble that remark…anyhoo…this is the result…could have been worse I guess…definitely could have been better…
ron…

thnx again for the help and insights etc…will try this again soon…the textured version hides some sins…so it might be good enough to Zap some zombie skulls open :)thnx again