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Weapon Modeling:-

This tutorial will guide you through the aspects of modeling a weapon. This particular gun has been selected because I feel that the steps taken to model it will outline what you should basically know for modeling other weapons, so you can do it on your own later.

You Will Need:
- 3D Studio Max

Reference Image:

We will be basing the model on an existing image which we will use as reference in modeling and for the skin later. I have one here which we will use that i have edited already for easy use. Save it to your hard drive.

Now, run 3dsmax. You will have 4 default viewports; Top, Front, Left and Perspective. We will be somewhat 'tracing' a 3D image from the reference, so we should set up the image to do so.

Select the Front viewport and open the Viewport Background screen by pressing Alt+B. Under Background Source, click on Files... and browse to the reference image. Under Aspect Ratio select Match Bitmap. Then, make sure Display Background and Lock Zoom/Pan are both selected. The rest can be left as is. Press OK.

Now that we have our reference image in the Front viewport, we are ready to start modeling, so lets divide it into different sections...

Barrel:

In the Front viewport, Zoom and Pan until the barrel is the main part of the gun in the viewport.

This part of the gun will be made up of a cylinder and a tube. In the Create panel, click on Geometry then in the drop down menu, select Standard Primitives, then under Object Type, click on Cylinder.

Now, in the Front viewport, starting in about the middle of the bigger part of the barrel, click and drag until a circle of the same diameter of that part of the barrel (if you dont get it right it can still be changed -- in a sec). Now, once you release, move your mouse a bit and you will see the cylinder gaining height in the other viewports. Give it some height and then left click. We have to rotate the cylinder to match that of the reference. Click on Rotate and then click on the button. Now click and hold the mouse on the cylinder and move your mouse up until the cylinder is in the right position.

Click on the Modify tab and under Parameters set the Radius to 20.5 and the Height to 108.3 and Move the cylinder around to get it positioned correctly.

This is what I have so far (I also panned the Perspective view in order to see the cylinder better from there too):

The next section of the Barrel will need to look like a bullet can come out of it when looked at from the front, so it will have to be a Tube.
Go back to the Create tab where we clicked on the Cylinder button and click on Tube. Now, make a circle about as big as the smaller part of the barrel, then move your mouse to define the thickness of the tube, click, then move your mouse to give height and click again. Rotate the tube like we did the Cylinder and then goto the Modify tab. Set Radius 1 to 7.0, Radius 2 to 5.5 and Height to 45.0 (you can see what this looks like from the front by using Arc Rotate Selected).

This is what I have:

Clip:

This section will include the clip and the part it's attached to. Like we did with the barrel, Zoom and Pan until you get a good view of the Clip. Let's start with the clip itself.

We are going to draw an outline of the clip first using Splines and then Extrude it, so in the Create panel, click on Shapes and in the drop down menu, select Splines. Under Object Type select Line and make sure Start New Shape is selected.

Now, click on the top left corner of the clip and then click on the bottom left corner, but don't release the mouse button, hold it down and move the mouse until the line is curved like the side of the clip. Then, right click anywhere in the viewport once. To do the rest of the clip, UNCHECK Start New Shape, so we can continue with the same spline. The bottom of the clip is relatively straight, so start where you left off and draw a straight line from the bottom left corner to the bottom right corner and then click on the top right corner and hold the mouse until the line is appropriately curved and then right click somewhere in the viewport. Continue where you left off and draw a straight line from the top right to the top left corner and then right click somewhere. NOTE: The starting and finishing point must be the SAME in order to Extrude properly. So, in the Modify tab, click on the + next to Editable Spline and click on Vertex. If there are two visible vertices at a corner of the clip, Move one of them to the position of the other vertex at that corner. The message Weld coincident end points? should then appear. Choose Yes. Repeat this for all corners of the clip if necessary.

So, we have a 2D outline of the clip and we need to make it 3D, so make sure the line is selected (the lines you drew should be one image because we unchecked Start New Image) and goto the Modify tab and in the Modifier List, select Extrude and in the Parameters rollout, set Amount to 10.0

If you look at the Left viewport, the clip is not in line with the barrel, so, in the Left viewport, move the clip along the until it is in line. This is what I have:

Do you see those three indentations along the clip? We could just put the skin on the clip when it is like this to make it look like there are indentations, but we need detail; we are going to make the indentations. As you can see, they are like cylinders were cut out of the clip, so create a Cylinder, Move it, Rotate it and resize it until it is in about the same place as those ones. I made mine with a Radius of 2.5 and a Height of 45.0 (Some needs to stick out the top and bottom).

The ones in the reference image are slightly curved, so, select the cylinder and in the Modify tab, select FFD(cyl) from the Modifier List. Click on the + next to it and select Control Points.

Now, move these Control Points around until it meets the curve of those in the reference image.

We are going to subtract this cylinder from the clip, but first we need to make half of the cylinder stick out of the clip, so uncheck Control Points and move the cylinder along the until you get to the right place.

Now, for the subtraction; select the clip and in the Create tab, click on Geometry and in the drop down menu, select Compound Objects and then under Object Type, click Boolean.

Now scroll (drag) down the menu until you get to the Pick Boolean rollout. Above that, under Operation, select Subtraction (A-B), then click on Pick Operand B and then click on the Cylinder.

This is what I got:

Repeat this with the 2 other indentations as well as on the other side, I have this: (NOTE: you can also go back and click on the Cylinder and choose Clone from the Edit menu so you don't have to keep making them).

Now for the part that the clip is attached to. Go back to Splines -> Line like we did earlier, (start off by checking Start New Shape and once the first line is done, uncheck it so you can continue) trace the outline of the part the clip is attached to, then Extrude it by 12.0 and then Move it in place. This is what I have:

At the bottom of this piece in the reference image, there is a rectangle sticking out a small amount, so go back to Create (where we made the Cylinder and the Tube) and click on Box. Draw the Box and then move your mouse to give it height, then click.

Make sure the Box is selected and goto the Modify tab. Set the Length to 6.0, the Width to 50.0 and the Height to 17.0

Now Move the Box around until it has equal amounts sticking out of the front and back of the clip.


At the top of the piece, you can see on the reference image that another piece is sticking out with an abnormal shape, so we will have to outline it with Line and then Extrude it by 17.0 (you should know how to do this by now). Here is what i got:

Later in skinning, it will be easier if these two extrusions were a part of this piece, so using Boolean like before, but this time, set the Operation as Union, then click on Pick Operand B and select the Box at the bottom of the piece. Press Boolean again (this is necessary, don't just click Pick Operand B; click on Boolean again) and do the same with the other extrusion.

This is what I got:

Handle & Trigger:

Zoom and Pan in the Front viewport until you get a good view of the handle and trigger area.

First, trace the outline of the handle using Line, Extrude it by 20.0, and Move it into place.

Do the same thing with the piece above the handle -- trace the outline of it using Line and then Extrude it by 20.0 and Move it into place

See that little metallic sphere sticking out of the piece?
We are going to have to make the same, so in Create -> Geometry -> Standard Primitives, click Sphere.

Draw the Sphere as big as the one in the reference image and Move it into place. Then, Move it so it sticks out of the side of the piece. Then select the piece, click on Boolean (we learned this), set the Operation to Union and click Pick Operand B and select the Sphere.
Repeat this for the other side of the piece.

Using Line, draw the trigger and the trigger guard and Extrude them by 5.0 and Move them into place.


Top Piece:

As you can see, this uppermost piece is a box with rounded edges and has a little nook in the bottom left corner.

In the Create panel, click on Geometry and in the drop down menu, select Extended Primitives. Under Object Type, click on ChamferBox.

Draw the ChamferBox to the size of the upper piece and then move your mouse up/down to give height and then move your mouse up/down to give it the roundness.

Make sure the ChamferBox is selected and goto the Modify tab and set Length to 18.0, Width to 135.0, Height to 20.0 and Fillet to 2.0

To make the nook, put another ChamferBox (Fillet 1.5) where there shouldn't be anything and then select the big ChamferBox. Click on Boolean, set the Operation to Subtraction (A-B) then click on the smaller ChamferBox.


Middle Piece:

This is the more complicated piece as you can probably see. I saved it for last so you probably know your way around pretty well by now and this piece will use just about all the things we've used so far.

The main body of the middle piece is a Cylinder, so make a Cylinder of Radius 13.5 and Height 245.0 and position it. If you look closely at the reference image, it looks like part of the cylinder was removed and another smaller cylinder was inserted, then a vertical cylinder indentation was made into the smaller piece.

First, using a Line, outline the area where the hole should be and then Extrude it by 50.0 so its sticking out both sides of the Cylinder. Then, using Boolean, subtract the Extruded Spline from the Cylinder to make a hole through the Cylinder

Make a Cylinder with Radius 6.0 and Height 74.0 and place it inside the hole, in the middle.

Do the following on both sides:
Make a vertical Cylinder of Radius 10.25 and Height 16.0
in the place of the indented one in the reference image such that
part of it sticks out.

Now, using Boolean, subtract this vertical cylinder from the one its sticking out of.


That's it! This is what I have:

Yes, I know it's just a bunch of coloured shapes and resembles a nerf gun, which is why we are going to Skin the gun.

Next: Skinning