I dont see your point. Clearly I used the concept art as reference.

4 months ago.
One week 3ds max 2010 experience.
4 hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aoB9SDREVI&NR=1

1 day ago.
Several months 3ds max 2010/2012 experience
1 1/2 hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-YlZF24yHU

Much better. It gets the job done. The amount of forced used to pull out the clip (how far the gun tilts) seems to far outweigh the amount used to put it back in (he quickly jerks his hand away), which makes it oddly disproportionate. Might wanna put some more keyframes between the clip-in and the return to origin. The return itself is a little off - not much force is conveyed at all, and he just casually rotates his wrist carrying the gun down onto his other hand. More motion there would look better. Also, though unfaithful to Halo 2, some little stylistic flairs, such as a moving bolt, would make it much more presentable.

About the end.
here's the Chiz.

ORIGINALLY, i had a nice fluid little movement before it returned to origin.
BUT, i had then did the empty reload, which just added a bolt pull, and accidentaly saved it OVER the normal reload. It was 4 am so i was t o lazy to fix it so I'll fix it like now or really soon. :)
And about the clip in force, i noticed. Will fix.

It looks like you have the right elbow rotated up and pointing away from the body, which would be a very awkward position to hold.
Like you have the upperarm bone rotated away from the body, then the forearm is pointed 45 degrees back towards the body, then the wrist is pointed 90 degrees upward.

It doesn't look very natural, and if you try to put your right arm like that, it won't work well.

There should be more force when he pulls the clip out. You rotated the gun, which is good, but now also move it to the left and down a little, to show the force of the left hand pulling on the clip. Also, I noticed the right arm is completely horizontal, which looks unnatural. Personally, I recreate the motions from your animations as best as I can in real life with a piece of wood or something, and see if the motions feel natural. Doing this will help you get a feel for how to move stuff around naturally.

I like how you did that little double tap thing when you put the clip back in, it's little things like those that really set an animation apart (imo anyway), but you could definitely do with some more finger movement. Especially after he puts the clip in and moves back to the origin, the thumb sticks out rather unnaturally, and it highlights the lack of movement of the fingers.

If you work on those things you'll have yourself a vastly improved animation.

[18:57] Uniform Echo: psst bro
[18:57] Uniform Echo: when you get a chance
[18:57] Uniform Echo: bump weapons wip
[18:57] Uniform Echo: i need to post
[18:57] Uniform Echo: :D

Some stuff I've been working. Both of these guns took about ~2.5 hours each. The Thompson was my first serious model in about a year, and the colt was my second. Damn I am out of practice :V




^^ 1228 Tri's





^^1085 Tri's

I'm really not happy with the Thompson's topology, specifically the wooden parts, and they could both stand to lose a few polies here and there.

Nice colt. The M1928 isn't too bad. Am I the only one with a "Chicago typewriter" with a bolt on the side?

The stock on the tommy looks like you put it a little bit too far forward. And yes the wood part's are slightly over done.

I thought the colt had a muzzle break?

Fixed the force issues and added more movement; will render later; busy for most of today.

Nice job Elefant! Glad to see you're still modeling. I would suggest doing something with the barrel's end on that rifle though; looks really bland.

Yeah, I'm thinking about adding a muzzle break just so it's not a lame little cylinder :P





When I was searching around I saw 2 main variants.
This one has no ridges on the barrel, and no muzzle break, and a weird front sight:

This one has both, as well as the more traditional triangular front sight:


I just looked and the stock is in the right place, but I extended the back too much which makes it look too far forward so I'll fix that.
Edited by UnevenElefant5 on Jul 31, 2011 at 02:23 PM

That would make it look like the stock was foreward on the tommy.

You DO know that the M1928 has been labeled as the "Chicago typewriter" when a vert-grip and drum mag, and is commenly called a tommygun anyway right?

I was talking about the fact the one I see personally is a "Chicago typewriter" as it included a front vert-grip and a drum mag. The bolt isn't on the top of the gun it's on the side.

The top gun in this picture is what I am talking about. Notice the where the bolt is.

Yeah sorry totally misunderstood that part of your post :P
note to self do not post on forums right after rolling out of bed

But yeah, I wouldn't know, I don't have any guns, I just model off refs hehe

I decided to squish the designs together though, I like my bolts on the top since it's easier to animate than on the right side (which is why I did the Colt the way I did as well).

But in regards to your previous post, I can't imagine why they would put the bolt on the left side with a drum mag, it seems like the mag would get in the way of pulling the bolt.

the topology on the grip and stock of the thompson is horrid. you have uneeeded edge segments and polys on both of your models, such as the magazine on the top model. You are using chamfer way too much. Remove the mirror seams on both of the models. There are also cylinders that could be reduced in the number of edges.

No no no it's on the right side. Did I say left? IMO it's sexier on the side then top anyway. But on the regular without vert-grip and with a stick mag it work's better on top.

As far as the colt the closest thing I have seen is the AR-15/M16/M4/Whatever

No you said right, I said left, that was my bad haha

Yeah the colt was fun, because I didn't want to model a m16 or ar 15, but then I found this thing that looked like a little baby m16 so I thought it was rather cute :P

That Thompson looks cool. I modeled a Thompson a while back and I am now working on Animating it, but my handle came out horrible. I couldn't seem to get the right shape without messing up my topology really bad.

@Skidrow: Unless I am mistaken, the top picture that you showed (with the bolt on the side) is an M1A1, and the lower picture (with the bolt on top) is an M1928.

The M1928 could use both drum mags and box (or stick) mags, and had the bolt on top.

The M1 was the first Thompson to have the bolt moved to the side (which carried through to the M1A1), but neither the M1 or the M1A1 could use drum mags. (probably for the reason that elefant mentioned, it would get in the way of the bolt)

The M1A1 is the one that the US formally adopted as it's submachine gun during WWII because it could be built faster and cheaper than the M1928.

Anyway, here are some pics of the Thompson that I am working on, but it doesn't look as good as yours. Any advice?





(sorry about the weird lighting, I was playing around with different render settings when I made these)

Well you got the stock topology down better than I did, I can tell just by looking at it :P

Also


I know it works on max 9, but it probably works on 11. Besides, it's like a 30 second download so if it doesn't work oh well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJasFFmkkQU
Fixed, I guess.

Definitely getting better. You've still got that awkward right arm position though. I would bring the right shoulder down so that the forearm doesn't look like it's completely horizontal.

I like the finger movements on the right hand, although after he pulls the clip out, you can see the gun does not move with the hand. Also the thumb movement is so quick it almost looks like a mistake. I would extend the time for that part of the animation so it's obvious that it's not a stray keyframe or something. I still think you need to show more force when he pulls the clip out, but that's probably just my personal taste talking :P

I would definitely decrease the rotation of the right hand after he removes the clip, because the hand is almost at a right angle to the arm. Normal hands don't bend that way.

Also the left hand now disappears off screen now really obviously. I would take the keyframe you have for when he's done removing the clip, and just lower it so that he just removes the clip and gradually goes off screen. Right now its like he takes the clip out and moves to that point and then his hand just goes away.

Keep at it and you'll end up with a nice animation in no time
Edited by UnevenElefant5 on Jul 31, 2011 at 06:26 PM

The reason the right arm is lake that is because other wise it kept clipping with the gun :P

lol. Trust me, the stock topology *might* be decent, but only because it is much higher poly than I should have made it. My models always come out higher poly then they should be.



I have started working on sounds and animations. The sounds arn't very good right now, and I havn't even done all of them yet, but I am close to done on the animations (I think).

http://www.xfire.com/video/49b2bb/

Any advice/criticizm/insults are welcome

Animations on the Thoimpson need work. To, how do i put it. "Bland" No movement at all.

ON another note.
Update. TWO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbkGyWEkYdM

Any specific advice, or just "needs work"

I thought about doing somthing more interesting looking, but I was trying to make it realistic. And if I was going to reload a Thompson, that is about how I would do it.

Also, your animation is looking really good (imo). Although it looks a little odd to me when he slams the mag into place. The movment on that part just doesn't seem quite right. (its still way better than my animation though, so nice work)

Thanks :)

And its like really bland. No curves or anything.
All he does is move the guun, pull out, and put back in, with out any curves. its all like very straight forward. Also the left and; there should not be any open space between the thumb and the gun.
Bolt thing looks strange imo, and melee is plain out eww. i think the position is wrong, fist looks weird, and the hand should go all the wayy out, and maybe a little camera movement (bone 24)

I know that the Melee is total crap right now. I was trying to do somthing like in CoD4 (no I am not a total CoD freak I just like the knife melee idea), but it didn't come out right at all.

"Bolt thing looks strange imo"
I am assuming that you are talking about when he pulls the bolt back after reloading from an empty mag. I agree that it looks strange, I have had a hard time making that part look good because the Thompson is kind of odd in that it fires from an open bolt (meaning that the bolt does not slam back forward after he pulls it like on most guns)

Moving bone 24 will move the camera? That would be really handy.

since I am a total noob at this, could you please explain what you mean by "curves" when talking about animations?

Make the melee a punch or a gun-butt.
Also, i mean like, it doesnt flow. He goes straight to the mag out, there is no curve. Its like the gun goes in a straight line, and there is no curves or smooth move ment, and yes from my knowledge frame bone 24 moves the camera in HCE

I do not believe this is the case.

As for your BR reload: it retains the problems I mentioned earlier. The left hand teleports way from the magazine after pushing it in. This does not convey force or any aesthetic style it conveys supernatural ability. Additionally, the right thumb now has a somewhat puzzling open-and-close motion that really adds nothing to the animation and just makes me go "wait what is that what is it doing there D:". I would suggest avoiding flashy stuff like that until you have a more solid grasp of your ability to control basic motions. If you must have it, I suggest adding some keyframes where the thumb remains open; nobody just opens and immediately closes their thumb the way you have it there. It's going to remain open for a little while, maybe slightly shifting position but definitely it wouldn't go right back to being closed.

Work on your flow and work on making things smooth. Your animation remains choppy and jerky, and not in a stylistically good way. Try adding some keyframes between your movements and maybe delete individual components (rotation/position, on individual axis if need be) if you feel you need at least some of the definition those close-together keys provide (even though at this stage you probably don't). It might be a bit early to suggest that you work in the curve editor since that generally is only useful once you develop a feel for what's better, but it might not hurt to start understanding what it can do for you.

You've got a long ways to go but we all start somewhere. Keep at it.
Edited by teh lag on Jul 31, 2011 at 11:04 PM

I also do not believe this/that to be the case.

Halo's camera is locked how it is by default.

Like ACDC said, It's a long way to the top.

ALSO, I imported the H3 Plasma Pistol anims. On the move, only thing that moves is frame bone 24, and it appears like its actually moving the gun ingame.

True - but that generally causes everything in the scene to translate/rotate (as everything is ultimately linked to bone24, directly or indirectly) as opposed to the camera. Much as I would love to have control over the camera in CE's FP animation system, it's not currently possible.
Edited by teh lag on Jul 31, 2011 at 11:11 PM

My DMR origins. Just starting animations again.

move it up and rotate down.