Jailbreak: Source

A key element of the majority of mods, is guns. Lots of guns. But to have guns, you need to model them… or steal them from FPS Banana, but that’s just cheap.

Modelling guns is actually surprisingly easy, and in this new series of tutorials, I’ll be teaching you how to model, UV map, skin, animate and compile your gun into game, so you can start shooting your friends with it! We’re going to be modelling the HKG36c, it’s quite a complicated model to create, so I’m throwing you in at the deep end… but at the end of it, you’ll be able to make any weapon your imagination can come up with! So before you start, download the reference image below, as we’ll be using it to trace the outline.

So, open up XSI (in this tutorial, I’m using the current release of XSI, namely XSI 7.5)… First things first, lets set up our reference image as a rotoscope, so we can trace the outline. So in the Right window (bottom right), click on the drop down menu currently titled Wireframe, and choose Rotoscopy Options from the list. In the dialogue box which opens up, click the button labelled “New” and find and select your G36c reference image. Close the dialogue boxes by clicking OK, and return to the main screen. Now click Wireframe again, and click on Rotoscope, and your image will appear. Maximise the Right viewport by clicking the button next to Wireframe.

What we’re going to do is use the Curves tool to draw the outline of the weapon in sections, so on the left hand side tool bar under Create, choose Curve; Draw Linear.

Now, all you need to do is left click on the image to draw linear lines around the edges of each section of the weapon. Start where I have, with the grip, and click all the way around, but JUST do the grip for now. We’re going to do each part of the weapon in sections.

When you are finished you will have traced all the way around and come back to the original point, just click on the first point to seal the curve. It should look similar to the below image.

Note for users of XSI 6 and below: Instead of drawing the last connecting line which finishes the curve, right click and select Open/Close. This seals off the Linear Curve so it’s a complete section, XSI 6.0 and below doesn’t seal the curve in the way that 7.5 does automatically.

Now, repeat this process for each “section” of the weapon. Once you’ve finished a curve, just join it up with the original point, and press Spacebar, then select Curve; Draw Linear again to start a new curve. Just break it down mentally into weapon parts. For example the section above the clip can be regarded as one section, and the clip is another. As you go along, try to find common “points” between two “sections”, for example, where the clip meets the body of the weapon, join the two points up, so they become one. In XSI 7.5, this is automatic, but in previous versions, just get it as close as you can.

When you’ve finished outlining all the sections, reduce the Right viewport down to it’s normal size by clicking the icon next to Wireframe again, and check it out in the 3D Viewport (top left). You can rotate by holding down S and the right mouse button to view it.

Now, we need to tidy up the lines before we go any further, as it will make changing the curves into polygons a much smoother process. So, go to Object select mode (top right tool bar; Object), and select all the sections at once by using Shift + Left Click and drag select them all. Now press T to go into Point selection mode.

What we’re going to do is select lines of points which should be straight, and make them straight. To do this, drag select a line of points, then go into scaling mode by pressing X. Ensure that both COG and Global are active on the right hand side, then click in the Y channel just above and change the “1″ to a “0″. This lines up all the points perfectly along the Y Axis (horizontally), like below:

Find all the points on your curve sections which should be straight, and do this to each one, then do the same for the Z axis (any points that should be vertically aligned), like below:

Once you’re all done, the outline should look nice and neat, and rather like an HKG36C Assault Rifle, which is rather neat!

In the next tutorial, we’ll be turning this outline into a polygon mesh, and making it three dimensional!