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Old 7th August 2007, 11:01 PM   #1
mc_mic
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Default gun modelling

does anybody have links to download different gun models for ac3d?

and also can someone go thruogh the steps involved wit makin a gun

do i start wit just one block, or put different cubes together?

also could somebody make me a 3d model of the mk socom gun with and without silencer
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Old 7th August 2007, 11:09 PM   #2
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Default Re: gun modelling

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

mk.23 socom pistol wit silencer detachable
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Old 8th August 2007, 05:06 PM   #3
lisa
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Default Re: gun modelling

It's a bit tough to do a complete tutorial on how to make a gun in a forum post , but here's a rough outline of how I'd go about making one:

1) Decide on your polygon count. Will this be a low-poly model (i.e. for a game) or a high-poly model (i.e. for film or still renders)? How many polygons you want in the final model makes a difference in how you might go about modeling it.

2) Find as many reference images as you can and study the shapes. To make the modeling easier, you might also want to find or sketch some images you can use as a template. Even if you don't use it as a template, sketching is a good exercise because it helps you analyze the shape and decide what details you feel are important enough to model. You will want to find photographs or draw images of your subject from the side, top, and front if possible.

3) Set your sketches as a background image in AC3D by selecting "Set Background Image" from the "Orth" menu of the desired view.

4) The barrel of the mk.23 is pretty square. I'd probably start with a cube for the barrel and chamfer it by slicing it horizontally and pulling the vertices to form an angle.

5) The handle is more complicated. The easiest thing to do there is to trace over your template in the side view with the polygon tool. If you are making a high poly model, you can click Surface > Spline on the surface when you are done tracing to smooth the shape. If you're creating a low-poly model, then just trace it without smoothing.

6) After you've traced the basic shape of the handle, use the extrude tool to give the handle width. For a low-poly model, extrude just once. For a high-poly model, extrude by a small amount several times, slighting scaling down the extruded surface on each pass, to keep the roundness of the handle.

7) The muzzle and hammer can both be made from cylinders. On the hammer, pull on the vertices on the edge toward the gun to make the hammer more oblong.

8) The finger guard and the trigger can be made in a similar way as the handle. Trace over them in the side view, and extrude. Remember, they aren't as thick as the handle, so don't extrude them as far.

9) Ditto for the gun sights.

10) If you're making a low-poly model, you probably don't want to add more detail than this. Fine details like the accessory mounting groove and magazine release should be done in a normal or bump map, not in the geometry.

11) For a high-poly model, use the boolean tool (Object > Boolean) to carve additional detail into the model. You can use things like cylinders to make the accessory groove and other slots, and subtract them from the main model.

12) For other details like the safety lever, again, trace them from the side and extrude. Most of the objects on a gun are pretty flat, so while I wouldn't recommend this much extruding for most models, for the mk.25 you should get pretty good results.
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Old 8th August 2007, 10:34 PM   #4
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Default Re: gun modelling

thanks alot for the help, ill probly find my way of making it with theese instructions, but im still learning the terms, mesh/points/vertex's
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Old 10th August 2007, 06:34 PM   #5
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Default Re: gun modelling

do you know what programs i can use theese models in for a game? also wat format i need to use to import into game programs? also how do i render it for use in a film, and how do i do the animtaions? is there a way i can lock parts of a character for example the joints and limbs, so that when i rotate them they stay connected but move in different directions??? and wat program would i use to make the actually film???
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Old 10th August 2007, 09:10 PM   #6
lisa
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Default Re: gun modelling

Lots of big questions!

Quote:
Originally Posted by mc_mic View Post
do you know what programs i can use theese models in for a game?
There are lots of different games you can use AC3D for. Some people here build models for X-Plane and Second Life for starters. AC3D exports 3DS and OBJ files, which many programs use. It also exports .X files, which many people use when making their own games with DirectX or XNA Studio. Some games, like the original Sims, only need pre-renders (bitmaps) of the 3D objects, so AC3D is very good for making objects for these kinds of games, too.

Some helpful links if you're interested in any of these:
X-Plane Tutorial: http://scenery.x-plane.com/tutorials...+AC3D+6.0+(old)
Second Life tool docs: http://www.inivis.com/secondlife.html
XNA Game Studio: http://creators.xna.com/
Sims Transmorgifier: http://www.lushcreations.com/

Quote:
Originally Posted by mc_mic View Post
also wat format i need to use to import into game programs?
What file format you need to use depends on what game you are trying to import the data into. You need to read the docs for your game, and see what file format it needs. Many games have specialized file formats that only work with that game, but usually the modding tools will convert from other more common file formats.


Quote:
Originally Posted by mc_mic View Post
also how do i render it for use in a film, and how do i do the animtaions?
and wat program would i use to make the actually film???
This is grossly over-simplified, but most films use more or less this process:

1) Write the script and draw the storyboards. Storyboards are like a comic book of the film, which helps the animators plan their shots before they actually start making anything.

2) Create the models, sets and backdrops.

3) Build the scenes and animate the models. Movies are normally made out of a series of short "shots", and are not rendered in a single pass. This makes editing easier, and keeps the file sizes more reasonable. It's hard to say for sure exactly what constitutes a shot, but it's a safe bet that any time you have a major camera change, that's probably a new shot.

4) Render out the shots. Movies are often rendered to "ordered frames" (i.e. a series of bitmaps) instead of directly to video, because even in a 3D movie most frames have some type of 2D effects applied to them, or they are composited with other 3D images. For example, it's not uncommon to render the background and the foreground separately using different software, and then composite them together later. However, if you’re just starting out and not doing any fancy compositing, it’s okay to render it out straight to video, too.

5) The individual shots are then editing together with video editing software. This lets the author do things like adjust timing, add soundtracks, and add scene transitions like wipes and cross-fades.

AC3D comes out of the box setup to use POV-Ray as a rendering engine. POV is free and a very high quality renderer, but it does have a steep learning curve as it relies on script to control its functions. It is possible to do animations in POV-Ray, but POV-Ray is only well-suited for physically based or procedural animations, like cloth or falling objects. It is a lot of trouble to do key-framed animation in POV-Ray, so I would not recommend it for character work. POV-Ray can produce amazing images, but it does best with stills.

For alternatives, many of the folks here like Bryce and Carrara. These are both excellent render engines.

As far as low-cost character animation tools that are easy for beginners, I'm partial to Poser myself. It's got a good quality renderer, support for inverse kinematics, pose blending, direct timeline manipulation and hair and cloth simulation. It's about $250 normally, but they run frequent promotions if you watch for them. I got my copy for about $100.

DAZ has a piece of software called DAZ Studio that is supposedly competition for Poser. I have not used it myself, so I do not know if it's any good, but I know there are many people who use it. DAZ Studio is free for the core program, and various add-ons are available for a range of prices.

Some amateur movie makers--and even some professionals--are exploring machinima as a way of making films using game engines and other real-time tools. It's really the holy grail within the movie business to find a way to do high-quality 3D without the long render times. One of my favorite of the more serious attempts at machinima is the Silver Bells and Golden Spurs, which you can watch here: http://www.bellsandspurs.com/_video/ [Trivia! Bruce Miles, the voice of narrator in this production, is also the narrator and radio dispatcher in our game Speeding Ticket.]

For editing software, if you're using a Windows PC, you can download Microsoft Movie Maker for free from Microsoft. It's pretty basic, but it's easy to use and more than enough to get started making your own movies. Many of the concepts, like using a timeline, will carry over when you’re ready to move to something more advanced so it’s a great piece of software to get started with.

For cheap alternatives, many home DVRs and DVD-burners come with editing software these days, so some of those are worth checking out, too.

For professional software, Adobe Premier and\or After Effects are very popular. Premier especially in combination with After Effects has a lot of nice features that will let you do some really cool stuff, but it’s quite expensive. Beyond that, you get into things like Avid editing decks and other hardware-based solutions.
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