Dev.Blog- MP5 creation process part 1 news - Guard Duty (Blue Shift: Source) Mod for Half-Life 2

Dev Blog: MP5 Modeling Process
by: WayWardBrigand
Budget: 8.5k polygons

Before actual modeling begins, I need to find a good reference image to work off of.

However, the first thing I do is set up a project within Maya to keep everything organized.  Then I put the source images, of which I will be using at least two because I will be combining features of two different models of MP5.  I also want to find a reference for size measurements.
 
MP5A5
 
MP5 with M203 grenade launcher
Basically, it going to be the MP5A5 with the other model’s straight magazine and grenade launcher.
So the second step I have is to insert the first image into Maya as a reference plane.  The fun part of this is to remember to make the plane used for this the same proportion as the image or it won’t be distorted.

 00:00 - I begin modeling at 5:40AM.

 00:10 - I decided to start with the square piece above the handle.

 00:24 - Got the handle, trigger guard, and guard “done.”

 01:05 - Got the back part of the barrel and body “done”

 01:20 - Started working on the stock.  Going to have to find another reference shot for how it looks from above.

 01:36 - Did more work on stock, extended the top part of the barrel out to it’s intended length.

 01:48 - Worked on the butt of the gun.  This is definitely not final, just a placeholder for now.  At this point I will change reference images to work on the grenade launcher.

 02:18 - Modeled the grenade launcher.  The only things left to put in place are the actual barrel of the gun and then I get to start on little details.

 03:11 - Finished modeling the basic shapes of the gun.  Now I get to work on the details.
Since the gun is all blocked out and ready for details, I rendered it using Final Gathering and added an Ambient Occlusion pass to show to the rest of the team.
 

 03:56 - Modeled the front sight and remodeled the butt.

04:26 - Put more detail into the handle and the area just above the handle.

05:01 - At this point, I should have all the small parts I need to model modeled.  Now I get to start on the small details, like beveling what needs beveling and deleting faces that don’t need to exist.

 06:06 - I started beveling edges.  However, I was having issues beveling certain edges, such as the ridges of the nade launcher, which would not even bevel at all.  Other edges, when beveled, would instantly crash maya.  I uploaded the model to our server to see if someone else can help beveling it and in the mean time I will continue trying.

 07:06 - I was able to bevel more edges luckily.  Ran into a few more crashing problems but just worked around them.  Reached and surpassed my polygon budget for the project at about 8.5 so I need to reduce it.  Ran into an interesting problem with polygons rendering at a dark shade than normal.  Maya crashed when I attempted a Cleanup, naturally.

 07:32 - More beveling it seems.

 07:50 - A co-designer mentioned that if I used the classic banana clip it would be more easily recognized as an MP5.  Another co-designer mentioned that there were some problems with the handle, so I fixed them.

 08:07 - Remodeled the magazine per requested by another designer.  At this point, unless someone wants me to do something else with it, someone else has graciously offered to do the UV mapping and texturing for it, so I am taking them up on their offer.

 
08:22 – Remodeled the magazine even more, simplizing the poly count a lot more.

 
 
Total poly count: 7587 polys.  (keep in mind that there are 4 extra poly’s in the picture, 2 for the reference pane and 2 for the bottom plane)
Modeling time:  8 hours, 22 minutes

That's all for now from us. Stay tuned for more stuff from us ;).