Making the M56 Smart Gun from Aliens -- Need some advice on resources

[Vaskadar]

Hey there, so I've recently started making the M56A2 Smartgun from Aliens, and would like some advice on resources as to where I should look to make sure that the ejection port is in the right location, that the player animations work correctly with the weapon, and so on and so forth.

 

I'll be using Quixel 3DO to do the texturing, and this is primarily a learning project for me, so any mistakes are probably due to inexperience with the toolset. As I continue to work on it, I learn more about modeling (since I've primarily been relegated to FX work and level design for other projects that I've worked on before. I'm trying my best to make it as accurate to the source material as humanly possible. There are things that I know I need to adjust/work on and improve, but that's a given.

 

I started working on this last week.

 

Progress Shot of the day (7/11/2016)

http://i.imgur.com/3B79s2J.png

 

My goals

-Make the M56A2 Smartgun with PBR shading techniques used in modern AAA titles

-Make the M56A2 Smartgun spawn in a certain location

-Make the animations work correctly for the weapon (no ADS because it's the smartgun)

-Steadycam rig won't be functional with this, afaict

Edited July 11, 2016 by Vaskadar

[Vaskadar]

Progress shot, 8/2/2016

 

Been sporadically working on this the past couple of weeks. Details will start coming in to play after the major parts of the weapon have been modeled.

 

http://i.imgur.com/MbSMVkp.png

Edited August 2, 2016 by Vaskadar

[TheRizzler1]

I'd go out there and say you need to get a placeholder model ingame as soon as possible to see how it's held in player hands, or at least import another hand-held cannon style weapon into Maya in order to get the scale down. The more you can synergise your efforts between the modelling program, texturing process and the engine itself, the more smoothly your weapon will transition into becoming a mod.

I haven't done a weapon with an ejection port but I think they're pretty easy to relocate.

Edited August 3, 2016 by TheRizzler1

[Vaskadar]

Thanks, Rizzler! I'll look into how to do that. In the mean time, more progress from today

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ad9jMga.png

[Vaskadar]

Project is going on hold for a week, but here's an update.

http://i.imgur.com/r9SKMpA.png

[Apexace2050]

Really excited to see this mod finished! I loved the first two alien films(Alien/Aliens) and found the third one decent enough. The first movie played more on a horror aspect but the 2nd obviously took an approach closer to the Predator franchise, and for that it has my preference. After you get this mod done do you have plans to do the other gun used by the colonial marines(can't remember the name)? Either way keep up the good work, the model is amazing!

[JesterDoobie]

I'm working on a mod based on the super-flashy Gauss Rifle, learning all about this sorta stuff atm. Hand placement and such can be edited pretty easy I've found out, something to do with the object's pivot(s) (learning exactly that right now today so idk yet) and you can even create custom anims for it, (FINALLY!!!) too, if you like. There's a tutorial/mod up here about creating custom weapon anims, look for it for more info. Googling "create custom weapon Fallout 4" doesn't give any really good, from-scratch tutorials, the ones I've found all use the CK to change damage and stuff, not going from a new scene in 3DS to a working in-game gun. So they're actually all mislabelled, should say "How to duplicate an EXISTING weapon, MOD IT and rename it" not create new. But it's early days for FO4 modding still, such things will hopefully come with time. Or I'll get PO'ed enough to make one of my own.

Look for the 1st uploaded weapon mod featuring the modded sideways reload anims for the assault rifle. Unless you've got the right tools, you can't learn from that mod itself or it's nif files, but the forum posts on the first one of them have helped me out a lot learning stuff, and that's likely the "path" you wanna follow, I think. It's what I'm chasing atm, and it's been quite helpful.

[Vaskadar]

I'm still learning this new software, Quixel, so I'll show progress at a later point. Maybe next week. Apologies for being so quiet about things as of late.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Vaskadar

[Vaskadar]

I had some life things crop up that prevented me from working on the mod further for the time being. I still want to UV Wrap and texture it, but my knowledge is limited, so I often feel like I'm fumbling around in the dark. If someone could help me with implementation once that's done, I'd really appreciate it.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Vaskadar