Thursday 26 November 2015

High resolution laser rifle model - Zbrush

At this stage of my project I had finished my high poly model of my Fallout Laser Rifle in fallout too a point where I had modeled ever piece of detail within Maya, parts that could of been done within Zbrush such as screws and bolts I even decided to do in Maya, thinking that it would make my life easier down the line. I don't belive I was wrong in this decision as it saved me having to do it later on down the line, however I will admit that I might of saved a lot of time if I had decided to simply add the screws and bolts in Zbrush using alphas.
Because of the decision I made earlier on to complete most detail within maya, I firstly struggled to think about what I could actually gain from importing my high poly model into zbrush, so after some brain storming I thought that it may be a good idea to give me laser rifle so brutal wear and tear marks, in attempt to make it actually look like its survived for 200+ years through a nuclear blast and through fire fight after the war, in other words, how a laser rifle should really look when you pick it up in Fallout 4.   














I started the process of this wear and tear by considering what changes could be made to the laser rifle, to what parts of the gun and why. So my first idea was that the rifle may have deflected some projectiles in its time within the world, if the other person was using a laser rifle and shot at this laser rifle, I considered that it would perhaps meld the steal frame slightly, and so I began warping the steal slightly around the front of the guns barrel in order to mimic the effect that the wielder of the laser rifle may of had spot of luck and deflected a round from another laser rifle with the front of the gun, melding the metal around the barrel slightly due to the highly intense heat that the laser beams give off (enough to turn enemies into ash within the fallout games). 
After moving from the front of the gun I decided to add a few dents to all around the weapon, taking into consideration that the weapon may of been used on some occasions to parry off a melee attack from a super mutants sledge hammer some time, for example anyway. Even just dropping the gun and its general scuffs and chips that it would gain from being in duty for over 200 years and still being used post apocalypse. I focused on creating a lot of scratches and chips with in the steal around the handle of the rifle as I considered here that solderers wielding the weapon wearing power armor  may over time damage the gun with the giant steel gloves that they wear with the armor.
Lastly I added patches of rust spread over most of the rifle, focusing mainly on parts that had already been damaged and the adding some around things like screws and bolts to give it a more realistic rustic effect.

I am definitely happy with the final outcome of my zbrush model, and i'm glad that I did decide to add the details that I did in the program and not just go straight onto the next stage with my highly detailed model. I feel like because of the extra attention I gave the model in Zbrush, it stands out a bit more from the reference that I used but in a good way as I giving it that extra bit of personal touch that makes it appear, almost more realistic in my opinion. Perhaps later on down the line, it would be interesting to mod this rifle into fallout 4 and see how it fits in. (Or maybe i'm being over ambitious)

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Model with Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing


Bellow is my finished model with the Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing settings on. I have also included to the left the inclusion of my work flow which I've now tidied up and renamed so it makes more sense to look at.








Monday 2 November 2015

Winter Submission: Triple A asset production (Finished model)





Above are screenshots of my finished version of my high poly model for the triple A asset project for the winter submission. The finished model came too 117561 Tris, making it the most detailed model that i have worked on since learning to use maya. comparing this to the in game laser rifle, its clear that i have made some changes to the original, but that's to be expected as the original fallout 3 laser rifle model was from a game made in 2008 which had to run on the previous generation of consoles. 

(Screen shots of original in game model from Fallout 3)

There was definitely some parts of this model that I really had get my head down and persevere through as parts like the front of the gun and the holder for the microfusion cell where very intricate and complicated to model, especially since I hadn't modeled anything on this level of detail before now. What was certainly very good for me through the process of modeling this laser rifle, was that I had to learn a lot of new tools in order to complete certain areas, and more so just to make my life a lot easier. For instance, I had never used the Multi Cut Tool before modeling this rifle, I first had to use it on the front of the gun, where the sort of spines come in from the outside rim into the center where the laser projectile is meant to be fired from. Learning how to use this tool early on through the process of making this model made my life a lot easier down the line as it helped me through making, almost all of the other parts of the model after the main barrel. 




(Highlighted poly's on final model)