Hey there! I'm Gustaw Mackay, a 3D artist working on Phantom Fury. My focus on Phantom Fury is creating weapons and vehicles in the game, I've also had the chance to work on larger environmental elements and smaller props. In this dev blog, I'll take you through the journey of creating the in-game Minigun model, including all the different design iterations it went through. So, let's dive in and explore the exciting process behind bringing this powerful weapon to life!
Step 1: Concept Art
Creating concept art is the first step in developing an important asset like the minigun. In our team, concept artists collaborate with everyone and gather feedback from all team members. They usually sketch multiple ideas, and one is chosen and refined through several iterations before the modeling process starts.
The concept artist created four different variations of the Minigun, and the team discussed and voted on which one they thought was the best. In the end, they decided to combine the barrels from variation A with those from variation C in order to create a big and powerful weapon with a strong visual impact in the first-person perspective.
Minigun sketch variations by Richard
Building upon the feedback provided, the artist then proceeded to refine and enhance the initial concept by incorporating colors and shading, resulting in the finalized concept.
Minigun concept art by Richard
Step 2: Base Mesh Modeling
With this concept in mind, I crafted the base mesh for the minigun using Blender. Starting with a simple silhouette.
While I was working on the model, I noticed a few functional problems with the design that could cause issues for animators later on. The rear handle was positioned too low and too straight, making it difficult for someone to reach if they needed to carry it. Additionally, the ammo box was at a different level than the rest of the gun, so it couldn't lie flat on a surface. Lastly, the front brackets were too small to fit the rotating triangular barrels.
During the modeling phase, it is very common that functional issues pop up which may impact the asset's usability or animation. A lot of strange things can happen in the transition from a 2D image to a 3D model. Something that looks awesome on paper might end up looking a little wonky in 3D. This is not something that is a reflection of the the concept artist’s abilities, it's just part of the back-and-forth process we go through to make things right.
I made some notes to highlight my feedback and discussed them with the concept artist and the team. Eventually, we found a solution to address these issues, moving as well as removing the problematic aspects of the weapon.
As we're going for a low-poly look, I hold off on adding too minor details until I’m in the texturing phase. So, when it comes to the modeling part, my main focus is on nailing down those basic shapes without getting bogged down in the small stuff.
In this phase I really like to think a lot about shape language. I’m a big fan of older games because they have a really strong use of shape language. Games like Crash Bandicoot and the Warcraft series have shapes that are extremely exaggerated in order to produce something that's super memorable and interesting to look at for the eyes. The same goes for classic FPS games – those guns in Duke Nukem are massive! So, for me, it's not about making things super realistic; but rather creating something memorable.
Final model with the design changes.
Step 3: UV Unwrapping
The next step in the process is UV unwrapping (everyone’s least favorite) where you create a 2D canvas for applying textures to your 3D model's surface. When it comes to UV mapping, it's essential to carefully plan how to avoid texture distortion and make the most of the available texture space. This task is extra quite tricky for our project, since when dealing with pixelated textures, as you must ensure that every pixel fits neatly within the boundaries of the UV Islands, which are those cutout sections you see in the image here.
UV Map of the Minigun.
Step 4: Texture Painting
Now comes my favorite part – particularly texture painting. After completing the unwrapping phase, I import my model into 3DCoat, a 3D software that functions much like Photoshop, but with the feature of allowing you to paint directly on the model. It's incredibly convenient.
In games that aim for a more realistic art style, you often work with various texture maps, such as albedo maps, normal maps, and roughness maps, among others. These maps help simulate lighting, define materials, and even create the illusion of lighting on details that might not even exist in the model. But for our game, we're taking the old-school approach, where we bake and paint all the lighting and materials directly into the texture.
Before I start painting, I create an ambient occlusion texture, which adds some basic shadows and saves me time. Then, I start with the base colors, giving each part its own color. When it comes to lighting, I try to imagine it coming from the top right, but I don't stress too much about it. If it feels right and looks good, I'm not overly concerned with the technical details.
After adding base colors I add in the basics of the lighting.
Model with AO map.
In addition to the base colors, I apply basic lighting by shading the angled sides and tops of the weapon. At this stage, it is crucial to consider the values, which refers to the relationship between the dark and light areas. If the values are not correct, the texture will look off, regardless of how well everything else is done.
The relationship between black and white is fundamental in determining the appearance of a material. Shiny metal exhibits a high value contrast, with deep blacks and pure whites. On the other hand, materials like leather or brushed metal tend to have various shades of grey.
Quick and dirty demonstration of light values.
After I'm happy with the overall lighting and shading, I add layers for rust, scratches, and other weathering effects. At this point, I think about how the weapon has been used and which parts would be most likely to get damaged and worn.
One issue I had with the weapon was the rotating barrels. If I painted lighting on them, it would rotate along with barrels, which would look pretty strange. So, I had to make sure that all sides of the barrels had the same brightness, which meant I couldn't add as much detail as I wanted. But luckily there are lights in the game that will handle that for me, so it’s all good.
How rotating barrels would look if they had light.
After painting for a good while, I end up with the final result, and here it is!
Designing the Minigun for Phantom Fury was not an easy task. It went through many changes and design iterations before it made its way into the game. From the game designer to the concept artist, the 3D artist, the animator, the sound designer, the VFX artist, the programmer, everyone had a hand in shaping the final version.
And that concludes our journey through the process of creating the Minigun for Phantom Fury. I hope you found this dev log informative and enjoyed a peek into the world of 3D modeling and texturing. Stay tuned for more updates and behind-the-scenes insights as we continue working on bringing this exciting game to life. Thank you for your support, and we can't wait to see you in action with the Minigun when the game launches!
