Vehicle weapon model design

Discussion in 'Art' started by Varbles, May 3, 2014.

  1. Varbles

    Varbles Simply Maptastic. Staff Member

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    Ok, so I've been using a mac for the past couple months since my old laptop is inaccessible for the time, so I can't do anything directly Source related, but I have been learning blender and putting together some models. I'm working on a model concept for each type of vehicle weapon so that they could be parented to the vehicle models externally in reference to the weapon loadout.


    So far the goal is a unique model for each faction for each of these categories:

    -Light MG (chain gun, std mg)
    -Heavy MG (DU, HE, etc)

    -Basic ML (std, bio, UML, HIT?)
    -Guided ML (guided, homing)
    -Salvo ML (all salvo types)
    -Large ML (HIT?)

    -basic GL (std)
    -big GL (ugl)

    -Dual Artillery barrels for double standard arty loadout

    Each model will also have minor variations to align them to the part of the vehicle they're assigned to in a given combination, and possibly different skins to indicate the specific type of weapon.

    This is what i've solidified so far:

    NF heavy MG
    [​IMG]

    BE basic ML
    [​IMG]

    Now this thread isn't about the official implementation of vehicle weapon models, in fact vehicle weapon models aren't necessarily an official development point at all. I'm just looking for comments and design ideas for each of these categories. Modeling tips would also be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. ViroMan

    ViroMan Black Hole (*sniff*) Bully

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    fucking love you varbles
     
  3. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    Safari, FF AND chrome?
    Seriously?
     
  4. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    I second this
     
  5. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    Testing web developer maybe?
    Yay for OSX!
     
  6. ImSpartacus

    ImSpartacus nerf spec plz

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    [​IMG]
     
  7. Beerdude26

    Beerdude26 OnThink(){ IsDownYet(); }

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    These look absolutely great, amazing work.

    Could you place both next to a vehicle they'd be used on?
     
  8. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    The Brenodi one looks like something to attach on mediums and heavies.
    Great job, it fits right in.

    The NF one looks great but im having a hard time visualizing what I would attach it to, it looks too heavy calibur for a light tank and im not sure if it would look right on the medium so maybe the heavies.
     
  9. Beerdude26

    Beerdude26 OnThink(){ IsDownYet(); }

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    If it's the Basic BE ML, it'll also have to fit on the AFV, but I think the size is fine.

    There will be strut models that attach the weapon to the vehicle.
     
  10. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    I literally have nothing major to complain about here. If you want, you could upload the blend files and I'll have a closer look on them.

    The only thing you could add design wise, is to add a muzzle break to the heavy MG.
     
  11. Varbles

    Varbles Simply Maptastic. Staff Member

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    This is the concept I'm leaning towards for the NF Light MG. Lots of barrels to match the fast fire rates of the basic MGs. If multiple barrels makes it way harder to implement (aligning sprites, etc), I could do a rotating barrel type thing, or just stick with a single barrel.
    [​IMG]

    For the BE light MG I was thinking of a GAU-19 looking thing. Spinning barrel animation would be dead easy and could even be matched to different fire rates just by the anim FPS.
    [​IMG]

    For both types of MG, since they're most prominently adapted to APCs, would it be possible to actually replace the regular little barrel model with one of these weapon models instead of mounting externally? APCs would usually only mount one weapon so I think it would be an awesome opportunity to make them look cool.

    And on tangent to that, what do you guys think about the MG barrel sizes? Empires style seems to historically incorporate almost comically large barrel sizes on vehicles, so should I try and keep to that style or go for barrel sizes that look more appropriate? What I'm going for so far is attempting to best portray an MG so even at a glance a new player could tell what it's supposed to be.



    As for the sizing of all of these, the final scale and mirroring can be easily controlled when compiling them. Aspects like barrel length are also easy to modify as needed when we get to a point where we can start laying the models out on vehicles.

    I'll try to decompile some of the vehicle models and position them in blender for a couple different rough ideas of positioning and relative sizing. I don't have a direct way to work with the tank models so I've mostly been working from screenshots, the skins, and my imagination, so if you want I can send you some of the .smd files so you can compile and test and I'll edit as needed.


    By Empires weapon slot mechanics, the LT or AFV shouldn't be able to mount any weapons represented by the heavy MG. It would only apply to APCs, mediums, and heavies. I gotta say the NF medium's turret, and to a lesser extent the heavy's turret, don't really lend themselves well to additional features, but I'm sure we'll be able to make them look good. I can easily change the geometry or textures of the weapons to best fit with them if need be.


    It's my girlfriend's laptop, a default new user on it comes with a package of stuff provided by her art school. I've grown pretty adapted to mac, there are a lot of nice perks, plus a big student-licensed adobe product suit is really nice to have on hand.
     
  12. Varbles

    Varbles Simply Maptastic. Staff Member

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    Do you know if when an image is loaded into a scene is it embedded with the .blend file? I've seen some options that seem to suggest that. Anyway I'll send you some of the .blend's soon

    As for muzzle brakes, I tried a couple designs but none of them ended up looking as good as I envisioned. I think you're right that it could use one but I'm not sure which way to go. Have any reference images in mind?
     
  13. Beerdude26

    Beerdude26 OnThink(){ IsDownYet(); }

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    This is actually what is most important. The TF2 developer blog goes pretty in-depth on how each class was designed so its silhouette, details and gait made it trivial to identify from any distance. I'm not saying you need to be able to identify a weapon from 10,000 units, but if a vehicle is a barracks length or two away, you should definitely be able to see what they're using: a heavy MG, a medium ML, etc. (Bonus points if they can identify the actual weapons, of course)
     
  14. Varbles

    Varbles Simply Maptastic. Staff Member

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    Here's a quick concept for a BE heavy MG. The MG's kind of all look the same without any textures but the coloration should ultimately be a really strong part of differentiating them.
    [​IMG]

    I'm going to leave these as concepts for a few days while I keep mulling them over and thinking of different designs and details to add. If anyone has any kind of reference image or even MS paint mockup of any type of possible vehicle weapon I'd love to see it.
     
  15. Candles

    Candles CAPTAIN CANDLES, DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN.

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    Remember to keep in mind the differences between a rotary cannon, an autocannon and a machine gun. Technically speaking here, Bio/DU/Plasma would most likely use autocannons, while standard/chain would be normal machine guns. .50 cal is right on the line for the calibers used in an autocannon, but because it'd be a plain bullet, it'd come out of a machine gun. I don't think any tank uses rotary cannons for firing bullets, although I do know that they're used for missiles. Salvo anyone?
     
  16. ImSpartacus

    ImSpartacus nerf spec plz

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    Oh, you read that stuff too?

    I get sopping when I think of all of the subtle details that make TF2 so fucking amazing.

    I think it would be relatively easy to do a drop-in replacement of the APC barrel.

    But weren't you going to have a GL barrel?

    What happens if I want a GL, but no MG?

    I soiled myself when I saw those models, but I feel like you're going to have some hurdles to getting them to look good on multiple vehicle turrets.

    I've done a few 5-min fuck-around sessions of putting different barrels on different turrets. The LT barrel & NF APC barrel are mostly interchangeable because of their size & shape, but the others look bad on different vehicle turrets.

    So you have have to modify the vehicle turrets to make everything gel.

    But if you can do it?

    [​IMG]

    Godspeed.
     
  17. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    Normally a .blend file does not store any resources you load into it. It only saves the (relative) file path to the resource.
    If you, for example, want to save an image directly in the .blend file, you have to click on that little box icon next to the file path.
    It usually looks something like this:
    [​IMG]


    To be honest I am not much of a fan for the last two designs. They look great, but they represent the wrong image. The NF gun looks too powerful for a small MG and the BE gun's muzzle breaks look like they would be better fitting with an NF gun.

    Another thing you might want to consider in this whole thing is that Angry and I already had talks about redesigning the vehicles anyway to get away from that cartoony look. I'd like to sit down with you and let you in on what we already discussed and maybe push some progress on that.

    Concerning the size and representing the customization on the vehicles, I already thought up a system that should work visually and be possible to realize technically.
     
  18. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    What's this?
     
  19. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    Please don't unnecessarily derail the thread. And what do you mean "What's this?" The screenshot or the file?
     
  20. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    Sorry, I was referring to the file.
     

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