Dev Blog #5: Walther Way to Die news

A WIP screenshot after a few hours’ work.

Hey there, My name is [TWDEV] Volcol and I’m a 3D and 2D artist over here at Traction Wars. I’m new to the team and happy to be working alongside some very talented individuals. Following the theme of developer blogs, that have been showcased, here is mine.

I applied to work on Traction Wars a few weeks back. I was assigned a trial, as are all applicants, and my task was to produce the German P38 Walther. This is one of my favourite pistols from the Second World War and in my opinion equally as iconic as the Luger. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to model however.

There were a few teething problems upon starting this model, as this pistol was to be my first high to low poly bake. I had done the odd bit of high poly before but I still had a lot to learn. I sat down for a day or so to study a few videos and tutorials; of which there are many across the web each equally as useful as the last. Then I took the plunge.

I started with the High Poly model first, working my way from the Barrel, to the slide then main body of the gun – creating the magazine, hammer, trigger and grips as separate items.

The unwrapped model on the right, the checkers represent how the texture will sit on the model.

The grip and smaller items (such as the safety) required a little bit more detailing to be baked, so I created some floating geometry that would bake down onto the low poly part. This can clearly be seen in the grip, but the technique was use on several parts of the pistol.

Now the High poly was finished, I could move on to the low poly model and then the dreaded high poly bake. The unwrap didn’t take too long, though the bake was going to take longer than I had expected, it was my first try I suppose.

The first few high poly bakes were fruitless, but I got there in the end. Tweaks needed to be made here and there but overall, I was happy with the outcome. Now that the high poly had been baked into the normal maps needed for the model, I could go about starting the diffuse and specular textures.

The texturing process took around 20 hours, I kept people up to date with progress and was soon well on the way to a completed item.

A few bits of wear and tear, a couple of tweaks to colour and tone and it was finished. My first full weapon project involving a high poly bake and I'm eagerly anticipating to what the future might bring.