How to Convert 2D Concepts to 3D Firearms in 3DS MAX

Introduction

First of all, as the best CPU & GPU render farm service provider, Fox Renderfarm will share with you the process of using 3DSmax and Substance Painter to make 2D concepts to 3D Gun models. This production mainly uses PBR (Physically based rendering) technology. The software used is 3DS MAX. If you are a beginner in 3DS MAX, you may encounter some problems when using 3DS MAX, then it is worth reading the following articles that can help you clear up your confusion.

• 3ds Max Tutorial: Frequently Asked Questions about 3ds Max Beginners(1)

• 3ds Max Tutorial: Frequently Asked Questions about 3ds Max Beginners(2)

How to Use 3DS MAX to Convert 2D Concepts to 3D Firearms

Then in the following content Fox Renderfarm will talk about how to bake normal ID and make the material with Substance Painter and in 3DS MAX high poly and low poly, finally rendering the effect.

First, let's take a look at the final result:

This 3D gun refers to the works in the game "Call of Duty", is also a style of firearms that is very popular, not only in terms of shape, but also the production of materials are top works. The main color of this 3D gun is pure black, which looks very low-key, but still gives a bright feeling, because the performance is very realistic and gives a sense of metallic heft. It is rich in detail.

And we can very clearly see the difference in its roughness, highlighting, metallicity and other parameters properties. The various materials make the whole 3D gun look coordinated, and the texture of the metal is after a long time of use. Metal parts will also have fallen ash and wear. The overall style is still very much in line with the requirements of high-end games in our market now. At the same time we also look for other real firearms pictures to use as a reference to analyze the metal texture and the traces after use.

1. Modelling

Any gorgeous model is slowly outlined in detail with geometric shapes, so you can initially use only simple geometric shapes, it is important to know how to grasp the proportion, as well as splitting the structure. Some structures will be more complex to do as one, UV is also difficult to expand. We can divide the barrel, the body, the stock, and the magazine parts. There is a scope that can be done separately. After determining the shape, then go to each piece separately to add lines to outline the structure and refine.

2. Optimization Modeling

In this part you have to pay attention that you need to try to produce all visible structures. Proportions are still important, and inaccuracies need to be fine-tuned. When it comes to the finer parts you must not focus on only one structure to do. Delay too much time in a structure, the final bulk may lead to overall incoherence.

3. Modelling High Poly

You need to be careful not to let the high poly have a distorted surface as much as possible. The best line is a loop line. You can add the chamfer command in the model editor to adjust the softness of the line, and add the turbosmooth command, provided that the low poly is divided into smooth groups first. If the chamfer command does not work well and needs to be modified, you can also adjust it manually. Ensure the smoothness of the lines at the corners and reduce defects.

4. Modelling Low Poly

Low poly is obtained by reducing the number of faces by high poly. Some structures or lines that are very messy are not suitable to be reduced. You can use topogun to topology to get low poly, and then make adjustments in 3DSMAX. Try to make the low poly wiring neat, do not have a distorted surface, in order to facilitate future UV work, improve the utilization of UV.

5. UV Unwrap Low Poly

Here you can see that the uvS are very fragmented, and there needs to make a certain gap between each uv, because the mapping is a pixel concept, if the gap is too small will lead to the interpolation of your mapping pixels, and it will be very difficult to deal with the location of the seams when drawing.

Also need to pay attention to the placement of the uv, one is the spacing, one is the size of the ratio, the structure with a relatively large area, or the place with many details. You can enlarge the uv a little, so that the uv accounts for a larger area, the accuracy of the mapping is also increased.

6. Bake Normals

The normal line is equivalent to the high poly model, and there are many ways to bake the normal line, 3DSmax can do it, Substance Painter can also do it. We use Substance Painter to name the baked normals.

The first thing to do is to match the high and low poly models inside 3DSmax to split the structure. Do not bake where the model is interspersed, or the articulation will have a serious black edge.

After splitting, naming. Similarly, the same structure of high and low poly models, the naming should correspond, for example, qiang_low corresponds to qiang_high naming suffix.

Low poly models are exported in FBX format, high poly models are exported in OBJ format. It is recommended to export in batches, because if the normals need to be modified, you can focus on that batch for modification and then pour it in, which is much more efficient than the whole export. Less waiting time.

Substance Painter baking normals: with average normals (average normals selected), the structure of the hover piece will be distorted, but the edge seams will be fine. The effect of using vertical normals (without average normals selected) is the opposite of average normals.

Sampling 4*4

After getting the two normal maps, use Photoshop to merge the UV selection maps: vertical normal - average normal, sorted from top to bottom. Select the selection map to reduce a few pixels and then enter the vertical normal to add a mask directly.

7. Texturing

First, create several groups corresponding to the entire gun with several materials, then put a fill layer in each group to give a different color, and then add a color selection mask to the group and select the corresponding structure.

Make each piece of structure has a basic formula, first make the basic material (base color), then make a bright dark color to highlight the volume of the heavy feeling (fill layer + black mask + generator), and then make bump, mottled, dirty, old, dust, scratches and other details.

Now is time to export the mapping. Use the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+E to export the texture. And export Substance Painter's background scene image, because you will need it later.

8. Rendering

Here we use the Marmoset Toolbag, but you can also use Fox Renderfarm for a faster cloud rendering. First import the model FBX file into the Marmoset Toolbag, then find the location of our Substance Painter mapping and the scene map, give the model a material ball, and paste our mapping on the right side of the Marmoset Toolbag. Click FlipY to flip it.

Then select the image in Sky and choose the Panorama.exr environment image in Substance Painter, change the environment background to darker. You can also change the Mode to Color according to your personal preference.

Then play two lights to illuminate the sense of volume, add sharpening inside the camera, adjust the curve. These can be set in the rendering menu.

Click Settings to set our picture size accuracy. In Image you can adjust the Width, Height and Sampling. The higher the sampling, the higher the precision of our image, but it means a slower output. Choose the output format. Just leave the rest as default. Click F11 to output the image.

Summary

Above is all the explanation, now you can try it yourself to convert 2D concepts to 3D firearms. Maybe you also want to learn how to make the hard surface of firearms. Fox Renderfarm always provides you with first-hand news about 3D modeling and cloud rendering services. Thanks for reading!