how to make a custom laser gun

[techstepman]

Hello ladies and gentlemen.

 

Im a novice in making models and i havent really tried getting anything implemented to the game yet. Made a few swords and a tactical tomahawk but got bored since im not interested in melee weapons, i dont even use them ingame.From the first steps i took into making my own models i realised that i lose interest if its not something i really like and working on it becomes a chore. So i decided to go ahead and dive in the deep waters and try to make a custom laser gun with its weapon mods to mod it into a laser carbine then a laser rifle and then a laser sniper rifle , with its handles and stocks and sights and flashlight. Everything custom made. I dare say i will attempt to make custom loading animation (even though i have no idea how to do that).

I havent really done this before so i need some info that i just cant find anywhere else. Like the steps to the whole process of modeling. How far can i go? Whats an acceptable poly count that wont rape the ingame fps? Do i first make a simple model and then do subdivisions on it and make it more "smooth"/detailed and then after the uv mapping i lower the polycount?...these simple things are not explained in any tutorial i found. I want to make a pretty good looking model and yeah i know the more you work on it and the more realistic details you add on it makes the model good looking and convincing as a plausible weapon like so many great mods of real life weapons that have been uploaded and make it really difficult to find any differences compared to photos of real life weapons. The fact i choose a laser gun is because i want to make something close to the original fallout laser gun mixed with a classic star wars element (i hope ) that with its mods will resemble the original fallout laser rifle and at the same time the only moving part of the weapon is gonna be the trigger and yeah the custom animation for the magazine loading.

 

I really have no idea how to do most of these things and im gonna learn as i go. Right now im modeling the main body of the laser gun. My question is: how much detail do i add? Do i make a simple shape and subdivision it and then go add the details? or do i make it as detailed as i want and then go straight to uv mapping and after that work on reducing the polycount? Is that even the proper sequence on working on a model?And since we are on the subject whats the average polycount of custom weapon so it wont kill the fps in game?

 

And please just so we dont fill this topic with non helpful comments i would really appreciate it if ppl with no experience in custom modelling and how they behave in the game, would refrain from making random comments that will derail the topic. In the end of the day the help that im asking for will lead to a nice weapon mod and other ppl who until now only used other ppls mods might be inspired to make their own and find this topic helpfull in their endeavor.

 

For now this is all i got: 1 the concept and 2 i just started modeling

http://i.imgur.com/muihBpE.jpg%5B/img%5D'%5D

 

http://i.imgur.com/qtNZDg3.jpg%5B/img%5D'%5D