WEAPON MODELLING: MODEL PROGRESS 25/02/2013

      The progress I had made on the weapon model turned out to be nothing more than practice when I went into University to find the file was glitch ridden. Two and a half hours later, and even an attempt at fixing the file by my tutor, I finally found the problem - a random piece of topology far in the infinity space. 

With no development progress today, I've set myself the task of getting the model finished within the next two days. However, I neglected to remember that my home copy of 3Ds Max was the 2012 version, not the 2013 version. So, the little glitch ridden progress that was made, was incompatible - I had to start a fresh. My progress is below.

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

WEAPON MODEL - REFERENCE IMAGE
by Christian Whelan

WEAPON MODEL - PROGRESS
by Christian Whelan

WEAPON MODEL - PROGRESS
by Christian Whelan

      It's turning out really well so far, but there are a couple of things troubling me. Firstly, the largest section of the grip is a darker colour than the rest, regardless of the objects properties. In an attempt to see if it was a refresh problem, I rendered it, highlighting a problem I am dumbfounded by - the main faces of both the grip and the trigger seem to disappear entirely. I hope to god I don't have to do them again!

WEAPON MODEL - RENDER GLITCH

    My second issue is figuring out how to model the individual insets where the rivets or screws would lie. It's an important detail that would stop the weapon looking plain and would enhance the normal and diffuse maps effectiveness  If I can't do it (which I'm sure there's a way to) then maybe I could use specular maps later in development to create the illusion?

I guess I just need to plod on developing this weapon, I'll fix it these two issues later, it's not that hard to model when using the create tool in co-operation with the in-environment reference image.

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