Sci Fi Laser Gun

Sci Fi Laser Gun 

Hello fellow artists! My name is Taya Bhavsar, and I am a Foundations 3D modeling student at CG Spectrum. I have a passion for 3D modeling specifically for feature animation; my goal is to land an opportunity to work on a featured animated film one day. I love looking at stylized modeling and seeing a 3D/2D integration blend when it comes to texturing. For my entry, I did a sci-fi laser gun from a concept by Andrey Gargul. This sci-fi laser gun demonstrates my hard surface modeling and stylized texturing process that I learned to do by experimentation. 

References

I took the time to analyze the concept by Andrey Gargul. I found references that have similar shapes to get better representations of how I can model the gun. Looking at other references helps me get better ideas on making the modeling process easy. I also grabbed imagery from films that inspire my texturing process. I plan to keep the texturing as a 3D/2D mix, as in making it “non-realistic or toon.”  I took aspirations from films such as Lightyear, Puss n Boots: The Last Wish, Into the Spiderverse, Mitchells vs. The Machines, and other examples of stylized guns I found on Artstation to inspire the linework and the overall stylized aesthetic for the gun. 

Modeling - Blockout to Low Poly 

I kept the modeling process simple by focusing on getting in the big shapes first and made sure they were proportionate to the concept. First, I kept it as low poly as possible to have more control over creating the big exaggerated shapes. Once the shapes are in, I moved on to getting detail in and made sure the model is as smooth as possible. 

Blockout Progression

High Poly 

I treated the high poly stage as getting into the details that I see in the concept. I used creases and holding edges to maintain the smoothness of the curved body shape.

One of the challenges I struggled with was modeling the top part of the gun. As I see in the concept, it looks like it’s welded on top of the body, making it one smooth piece. My first attempt was to extrude the faces where the shape would be, but as I went on, I realized that since it’s on a curved surface, it was hard to keep the horizontal edges straight. I decided to keep it as a separate object to avoid adding extra loops on the gun body so it wouldn’t dent the curves horizontally on the body.

Top Piece Progression

I extruded on the gun body to give the top piece a bit of depth. I want it to appear as if it was combined together. 

High Poly WIP Screenshots

High Poly Original Renders

Low Poly

Once I finalized my high poly model, I duplicated the original mesh and smoothed it twice so that it's in a higher resolution. That higher version of the model will be used for baking for the low poly model.

For each object, I reduced the poly count so that it’s around a number between 100 -200 polys at most. 

Low Poly WIP Screenshots

Low Poly Renders

Original -> High Poly (Smooth) -> Low Poly

UVS/Texture Maps 

Texturing In Sustance 3D Painter

I texture my model in Substance 3D Painter to create a more stylized look for my model. I baked my curvature, AO, normal, position and thickness maps as they are key to stylized texturing. I started by getting in the base colors by color picking from my concept. The goal for texturing this asset was to do a 3D/2D mix with little to no smart materials involved. I created a lot of color and roughness variation as well as using metallic to define shadows. Just for the base, I picked a plastic grainy texture with using the base color and roughness to get started. Once I established the base colors, I played with the roughness values. From my understand of stylized texturing, it is common for roughness to have a high value, and since I did not want all of my details to have one kind of roughness, I set the high value of roughness for the base colors and for the detailing, I varied in different values of roughness and metalness to breakup the colors I packed on. 

I used techniques such as position gradients, AO generators, filters, and edge wear to match the stylized look from the concept as much as possible. I experimented with the comic-like style on the gun by using  metal edge wear masks, warp filters,  basic soft, and sponge variation brushes to paint details where I want them. I mostly painted and used masks during the texturing process. I also played with different metalness values, because as much as I am going for a 3D/2D mix, I wanted the model to still look 3D. The metalness gave a lot of variation in shadows, so I stuck with putting metalness on the dark gradients to create some shadows I saw on the gun.

Raw Arnold Render

Rendering/Compositing

For my rendering, I kept it simple by adding a 3 point lighting set up plus two spotlights to attempt giving the gun brightness. To keep my goal consistent in keeping my aesthetic comic like: I then, went to Photoshop and increased the vibrance, saturation, and played with the curves and levels to make the render pop. I went in and touched up a few parts that I saw were darker by painting in certain areas that needed brightness. I then painted a white highlight to bring out the highlight I attempted to do in Substance. 

Beauty Renders 

Turntable 

Raw Render -> Composite -> Final Render

Concept by Andrey Gargul 

I hope you liked looking through this project, I am very proud on how I put so much time and effort to complete this piece. As simple as this can be done, attempting stylized texturing for the first time was extremely hard, however, I am happy with what I came up with! Let me know your thoughts overall on the piece, I would love to hear feedback of any kind! This was worth spending time at 4 am in the morning everyday this month to put this together. I look forward to entering next year and to keep showing my progression as a modeler. Enjoy!