Nice guns dudes
@ellmo-the weapon looks pretty cool.
I also started as a modeller.
First of all I recomend the tutorials You got along with Gmax (or at least the most basic ones You should/could get from Discreet's site). You not need to learn the every modifier available (altohugh it is recomended) there but at least know the 3 basic modelling techniques, those are
box modelling (and variant-sub surface, or smoothing)
poly by poly,
and splines.
For something easy as a weapon it's best to build the thing out of modified primitives. For something complexed like a human face I think it's better to go poly by poly (yes, I've done human faces that way in the past
) I never got along well with splines TBH.
Once You get the hang of the basic stuff I'll recomend the 3d total tutorials (
http://www.3dtotal.com ) yeah, I hate the ads as well on that site.. Remember, every tutorial for 3dsmax applies to Gmax. The Joan of Arc tutorial is excellent to get You started modelling stuff much more complexed than weapons (i.e. whole new characters-that's how I learned a thing or two). For now, let's not discuss subjects of animation
I'll also ask-why You've chosen Gmax over 3dsmax? 3dstudio has rendering and plugin support, plus, on Your boosted computer it should run like a warm knife through butter (i.e. smooth). I strongly recomend using 3dsmax instead of gmax, because there's no difference in learning either of them.. both have same stuff. As I said, 3ds has rendering and a couple other things.
I used G because simply-I had no alternative. My mate who promised me the cd with 3dS never realised his promise. With rendering, You can pretty much get away with procedural textures to create textures, details and bump-maps (i.e. no need for painting skills
) nevertheless, I'll advise learning a thing or two on textures, but we'll leave it for the future. Modifying photos to suit UV maps is one thing, but airbrushing the base and hand-painting the textures (clouds + layers combo) is a must if You want total control. You'll need art skills though
The gun looks pretty cool. My concern with Your guns was, when comparing them with some of the concept art I downloaded for purposes of design inspiration (I got concept art for UT weapons, Halo, Doom3 fortress and some other I can't name.. most of stuff I use for inspiration is either some sci-fi fps stuff or Feng Zhu's stuff) looked, well they lacked details a bit.. I had to spice them. And yep, a smooth shape does underline a weapon's futuristic origin.
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