Sten MK

Goals

I really like the shapes of weapons and equipment of the last century.

Weapons of that time have their own crazy features. At the dawn of design there were no established standards and there were a lot of experiments, as a result of which very interesting specimens were born.

In this article, we will talk about the Sten MK, a very legendary weapon with a unique and memorable image.

Flipping through the tape, I came across a full-size Sten toy shooting orbs, and next to it were products of modern weapon models with modern body kits, so the idea was born that if you take a museum exhibit and add to it a “new life” in the form of modern body kits.

Reference

Okay, I still don’t understand how I haven’t been banned from Google yet, because my searches might suggest that I’m building my own small workshop or weapons depot.

So seriously, the first thing I’m interested in is technical drawings. As I wrote earlier, I’ve been working with them all my life and they can tell me all the necessary details and shapes of weapons.

This time I was lucky and a drawing of the necessary weapon was walking on the Internet (in fact, this is very rare, and they will never be found for modern weapons).

Then it is advisable to find a video dedicated to the complete disassembly of the weapon and/or you can disassemble it yourself in the game World of Guns: Gun Disassembly.

This will give us an understanding of the functionality of the parts, and once we understand how it functions, we can better understand the proportions and reflect this functionality in textures.

Then there is a search for photos of museum samples or weapons that are sold on various sites (it is best to look for used samples). On such sites there are usually photos of huge resolution and the entire palette and variability of textures and defects are visible.

And finally, the models of other artists/photographers.

You can find ideas for rendering, additional details and adding artistic value to the pictures.

High Poly model

I modeled mainly in Plasticity and usually I start modeling with a bullet. It is the starting point for the entire model since we know its size and dimensions and based on it we can easily set parameters for the “barrel” part of the weapon and make more accurate dimensions.

But in this case I already had the drawings, so I just modeled according to the already set dimensions.

The only thing I can note is that I model mainly in the middle+ polygon. I observe all shapes, but I don’t make chamfers in 0.001 mm.

Having finished with the standard version of the Sten, I also modeled parts of modern body kits (butt, sight and silencer). And it’s time to send these components to Blender.

I did it using the bridge (Plasticity Bridge to Blender).

Still, using this bridge, I set up a large grid for the models, divided them by size so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the dimensions in ZBrush, and with the help of the bridge (GoB, GoZ) from Blender, I moved the models to ZBrush to create a full-fledged High Poly.

This is where the most “fun” process begins and it takes place in four stages:

1. We add Crease 30 and do Divide several times to smooth our grid.
2. Remove unnecessary values via Del Lower and transform the grid via DynaMesh, choosing a more optimal value between pixels that hurt and hang for 10 minutes.
3. We add Polish or Polish Crisp Edges, depending on the fineness of the edges.
4. We go through the Decimation Master, so that the reverse file does not destroy Blender along with our computer. We send it back through GoZ and you are great.

We do this formula with every detail of our model (bolts and repeating parts can be removed and left in 1 copy, then we copy the already baked ones).

Along the way, you can also draw with brushes to create defects, welding, and various High Poly things that will be difficult/lazy to do in Substance, and our High Poly model is ready.

Low Poly model

Since this model is only available in ArtStation, I save myself from the fate of retopology and through the previously mentioned bridge for Plasticity, I set up the necessary polygoning for the Low Poly model (sometimes you need to experiment with values for different areas).

Sometimes I remove something in the Plasticity file itself, which is already perfectly baked and sometimes I have to do small changes with the model in Plasticity in areas of strange shading, but in general it is several times faster than a full-fledged retopology.

Of course, this is just garbage for gaming processes, but in my ArtStation projects I go deeper into the study of shapes and textures.

UVs

In the deployment, I rely very heavily on three addons for Blender: Zen UV, UV PackMaster 3 and Texel Density Checker.

Since I model in Middle+, my Low Poly models do not have strange small chamfers, and with Zen UV I make a primary scan, which I then correct with my hands by adding and removing Seams.

Due to the imperfect Low Poly, sometimes there are controversial situations with islands, which can either be fixed by adding Edge or merging Vertex, but the main thing here is to monitor the shading.

Then, as everything is expanded, I divide the parts of the model into separate groups, such as “Grips, Barrel, Frame, and so on”, and then fit them approximately the same texel.

If the islands in the group fill less than half of the tile, then you can simply raise the texel by 2 times and reduce the texture resolution (instead of 4k make 2k).

This completes the UV creation, but as a result, objects will still pop up during baking that will have to be fixed.

Baking

Before transferring the model to Marmoset, we need to organize and prepare everything. First, I want to avoid incorrectly baking the AO map.

To do this, I set the animation key for all objects to 0 on the timeline, and set the second key after 30 frames, in which I will separate all objects from each other.

Naming is also extremely important.

Since we have separate groups divided for UV, we already have names for objects, and through the keyboard shortcuts “Ctrl+F2” we simply rename objects in these groups.

As well as through the same combinations we can change parts of the names, instead of the standard ones in Blender “.001” to “01”, replacing “.0” with “”.

Finally, we can transfer the disassembled and named model to Marmoset. Here I bake basically three maps: AO, Normal and Curvature.

I flip the Normal map by Y, use Sampling 64 and 16 bit/channel for textures, export the textures themselves to PSD.

In general, baking always goes without problems if it was done well in previous iterations. Sometimes you need to control the Cage in the Low model, and if there are any texture problems, I already fix them in Photoshop.

Texturing

Before that, we collected a large number of references and the most important thing that I forgot to mention is the variety of these references.

It is very good to have various options at hand from weapons that have just been released from the assembly line to rarities that have lain in the swamp for many years.

This gives us more scope for texturing. We don’t need to rely on one option, there are different painting options in different frames, the degree of wear, the moment of use, and so on. My task is to assemble an attractive visual image from these reference points.

But before I add the first basic structure, I open Marmoset again and put the model in it, put on the first test light, and look at the base frame.

Since I’m doing work for ArtStation, the final render is important to me, which I’ll adjust in this scene and throughout the work, I’ll render repeatedly, plot and see how it looks already on the render.

I build the textures themselves according to a simple logic. The layers in Substance are arranged on a time scale:

• First off the assembly line (base color + Noise variations).
• Then there are color changes in the operating conditions of the weapon (Color Correction).
• Then there are deformations (Changes in the Normal map and Scratch).
• Then there are new uses (the weapon is lubricated and it gets dirty all the time) (Oils and Dust).

Another small digression: in the last couple of months I got hooked on stencils in real life.

I go and just take pictures from the broken metal on the neighbor’s car to the discarded metal sheet and having already accumulated a whole mountain of photos, I decided that it’s time to test them, and that’s why this job was born.

• Base color: here I just set the parameters of the material (what metal, what color, factory stamping, and so on), as well as variations in color and roughness.
• Noise: as the name suggests, in this folder I set metal noises and their variations.
• Color Correction: in this folder, I have variations in the life of the model (wear, tarnishing, soiling, darkening, oxidation, metal deposits, and so on), often the largest group, in which you need to show the history of the model, create variations and heterogeneities.
• Scratch: group of model wear, scratches and deformations that were not, for example, painted over in the Color Correction layer. In this group everything is practically drawn by hand, all scuffs and scratches, based on Stencil.
• Oils: in this group, as the name suggests, there are oil stains and other third-party liquid contaminants.
• Dust: is the last layer, it reflects the last pollution, sand, dust, dirt and so on.

Rendering

The most controversial point in the works is that there is too much to understand both in color and in creating compositions.

In order to make good renderings you need to read a lot of literature and have a good viewing experience, which I am not yet satisfied with in my work.

The scene settings are shown in the screenshots, as well as most of the model is metal, and it likes reflections.

I experimented with different HDRI cards, and I have already processed the final renders in Photoshop using Camera Raw.

Conclusion

Well, that’s it. This article has become a checkpoint in my time periods of studying 3D modeling.

Thank you for reading and to the Games Artist community for allowing me to write this article, and good luck with your projects!