[Weapon] Colt Canada C7A1 NLD & C8(A1) NLD [WIP]

[Mr.VdHeide]

I will make my rifle's the exact same size as the US M4.



D.J.

[arjan]

A C7 with the scale of a M4?

[Glimmerman]

The C7NLD should have the same scale of the M16.
The C8NLD the scale of the M4.

[Mr.VdHeide]

A C7 with the scale of a M4?

I know those are 2 very different rifle's / carbines' but that doesn't mater. What maters I suppose is the distance in between the end of the butt stock and the trigger, and the distance from the end of the butt stock to the fore grip since that is where the player's hands will be. The length of the barrel / hand guard is irrelevant since the player's hands will not be touching these parts.

But we could just use the M16A4's animations if the stock isn't too long for the telescopic C7A1 NLD stock.




D.J.

[Mats391]

Well in 1p stock does not matter etc. You can just ignore scale for now and the export will deal with it all. Unless you want to export it yourself For now finish on focusing and maybe we get it in sooner rather than later.

[CaptMiller]

how much time did it take

[Mr.VdHeide]

[quote=""'[R-DEV"]Mats391;2132411']Unless you want to export it yourself [/quote]




In that case I will just go make some LODs for the rifle and let others take care of the rest!

[quote="CaptMiller""]how much time did it take[/quote]
Well. I don't really know for sure, maybe 25 hours? It sure was quite a bit of work, but compared to my DAF model it is nothing hehe.




D.J.

[Mr.VdHeide]

I was asked what my plans are in terms of UV maps. This is how I think I will do it:

For the C7A1 NLD rifle and C8 NLD carabine without scopes, 4 texture sheets:

1. Receiver + Magazine + Buttstock (these are common parts for all versions)
2. Handguard + Foregrip (common for C7A1 and C8 but not for the C7 LOAW)
3. C7A1 Handguard extension
4. Barrel (Common for C7A1 and C8, not for C7 LOAW)


Texture sheet nr.1 should have the trigger and the charging handle on it as well. I guess I should detach those parts from the receiver but put them on the same sheet, just like the butt stock and the mag?

Also, how do I join UV maps toghether? I saw Rhino's tut on the RH202 where he uses MAXscript to join them toghether but when I click the MAX script button in 3ds MAX I don't get the tool he does.





D.J.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Do I have to join the UV maps toghether at all? Only way to make that happen in 3ds Max 9 is using this? script:

multi Objects Unwrap | ScriptSpot


But I can't really get that to work so now I am thinking of making a separate UV map for every part and just join all the rendered templates toghether in photo shop.

I would really like some information on how to do this.




D.J.

[CTRifle]

well if youre talking about different objects like stock, barrel, trigger etc just attach them all in one then apply the UV unwrap, then afterwards you could separate them once again. Really the way to do this make it all one object then separate only what moves or needs to be animated like a tripod for example.

[Mr.VdHeide]

All right thanks for explaining!

I will go for a 2048 * 2048 texture sheet and put everything on it except for the scopes and AG-36. Would that be detailed enough for a rifle of this size?

Kind regards,



D.J.

[CTRifle]

Yeah, thats what I do, start with 2048 then when the texture is done downsize it to 1024

[Mr.VdHeide]

All right thanks for explaining it!



D.J.

[Mr.VdHeide]

All right, here is the final UV sheet:





Pfff. That was really a lot of work.




D.J.

[Insanitypays]

That's a lot of wasted space. You might want to look up some methods to make your UV map more efficient. For a start, you can move/rotate stuff around to better fill up (and take advantage of) the space available. You can also stitch or overlap some verts/edges to remove seams. You want as few little bits floating around as possible. This not only makes it easier for the texture artist, it will also help your end result appear more detailed.
Manual UV mapping takes time and kind of sucks, but its certainly worth it.

Quick youtube search: this might help:

[Mr.VdHeide]

Better?



I stitched a lot of edges and reorganised the sheet. I honestly believe my UVs are good enough the way they are right now. The thing is, my model has a lot of small parts (bolts, screws, buttons, etc. ) and all those small parts make my sheets look a bit chaotic but I cant really do much about it. The large surfaces are no problem, the small one's are.

I will just go make a little texture myself to see if my sheet works good enough right now. Would also be usefull to spot issues to. If I find parts that could be improved I will improve them.




D.J.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Okay, some really, really basic texturing just to show how my UV maps are now.

UV maps + texture in PS:




Result:








D.J.

[CTRifle]

Before you get into that too far, theres alot of space on that UV that you can use to save some room

[Mr.VdHeide]

CTRifle;2134082']Before you get into that too far, theres alot of space on that UV that you can use to save some room

Well, I am absolutely sure that I could optimize the sheet a bit more but I am really not in the mood for it right now... Even though every little bit helps I am really feeling like spending another couple of hours on this would really not make a large difference performance wise and just cost time.

Making these UV maps has already cost me a lot of time since I had to learn everything and redo a lot of parts to make them better. I even had to redo the original UV maps. Right now I am reaching the point at which I feel like the model is just good enough. Even though I am really a perfectionist I feel like now is the time to finish this project and deliver the file's to the DEV team and just call it done.

I guess I will leave this model be for a while and work on the DAF truck. I can always reorganize the UV's later on if I feel like.





D.J.

[CTRifle]

Well I do understand your frustration, UVing sucks, we all have to do it. Tbh just "giving it to the dev team" probably wont get it very far. few modelers and most are pretty busy. Its just something that needs to be done sadly

Take a break though, or another project, dont burn your self out!