I'll give you this gun if you're not afraid to use it (and kill somebody/something with it)

[Romanji]

I tried to do a free-form model exercise, just to explore some modelling techniques - I couldn’t do it, it turned into a concept design project.
So I tried to come up with a design for my own pistol, but I couldn’t - I fell in love with a real pistol.
Its aesthetic left such a strong impression I couldn’t shake off - so I ended up with my own version of it.
In juristic terms, I still designed my own “concept gun”, but lets be honest here, I did as Picasso said - I stole it, and I am kinda proud of the end result.
I am not really a concept designer anyway.
I turned the concept mesh into a nice Sub-D model with UDIM’s and for good measure I also made a low-poly version ideal for real-time.
Can you tell which is which?

OK, lets get to the deal: I give you this gun but there are strings attached.

I don’t want money, attention, or praise but I am still greedy, I want to see it in action.
I don’t care who or what you shoot with it, the important thing is that the gun goes boom and then something falls over.
I am a hardcore Action-movie addict, so give me your best shot , making it R or X-rated would be the icing on the cake.
Of course I cannot demand you make a short animation just for me, this offer is intended / suitable for artists who already have murderous intent and are planning or in the process of the execution.
If you don’t have anything concrete, then why would you need a gun - virtual self-defense ?

Sell me / show me your idea and vision, show some work if you have something and its yours.
Don’t worry, its the thought that counts, I just want to see honest motivation, I am not gonna be judgemental about the rest.
I might even extend the offer and help out with something if it tickles my fancy.
That too is honest motivation, I know how to use a gun and I can make its usage look awesome, inspire me with your project and you’ll not only get the gun, but also an extra hand (temporarily).

The current state is this:
I am almost finished with 2 slightly different versions (in both Sub-D and Low-poly variant), but I am still fiddling with their textures.
There are some more variants and accessories close to being finished (longer frame/slide, frame with picatinny rail, threaded barrel, suppressor, extended magazine).
I could finish the first 2 versions in under a day, but I am taking a short leave from asset creation and focusing on Houdini VFX RnD for pyro sims right now.
I will post more once I have it sorted all out.

[Kologe]

Looks great. You can color me interested.
On the other hand, your offer begs the question to what extent the gun is animation-ready? Mechanically, I mean. Then again, it’s probably silly to ask, right?
I take from your description it’s probably not rigged (yet). Does it include a complete magazine?

So I do have that short film project where this might come handy.
The bad news is it’s nothing more than a five page script so far and I don’t even know when I’ll work on it again. Mainly because I’m eagerly waiting for the Viewport Compositor to support multi-pass compositing, which would immensely facilitate and streamline my storyboarding process for this.
The other bad news is: Nobody gets shot properly. There is an (albeit offscreen) attempt at a triad boss’s life though, whom himself fires a couple of rounds, but misses his mark.

The good news is: It’s actually totally just the first act of a (yet mostly vague) longer story, which, with it’s somewhat klichée cliffhanger-ending, poses as a self-contained short film of it’s own.
So assuming I should ever actually finish this, it might be followed up by act two and three, which would most likely see a gory death or two.

greetings, Kologe

[Romanji]

I have build an arms/fps rig in Maya some time ago, for testing purpose i threw the gun into Maya and build a very rudimentary but usable rig (without bones) just parenting the moveable pieces to control objects and limiting their range of movement - I have not yet used in an actual animation, but it works fine.
Rebuilding that in Blender should be trivial and I can do that.
I am not that good with rigging (especially in Blender) but a gun poses no problem.

From an mechanical standpoint - everything that needs to move (normal usage) is able to move and should work just fine, but you can’t take it apart for an cleaning animation, the interior is not modeled.
But there is a magazine, as well as bullets/shells, and I might even have some variations later (different ammunition, different magazines sizes, different color variation)
A couple of them already exist but not as finished asset.
I see you’re not in a hurry so rest assured - by the time you need a gun, I’ll have something for you.

[Kologe]

@Romanji

From an mechanical standpoint - everything that needs to move (normal usage) is able to move and should work just fine […]

Great, that’s exactly what I meant, and no worries, I would neither expect such a model to be fit for complete disassembly, nor need it to.
Let’s be frank, the idea alone of actually animating s.o. taking apart and cleaning a handgun makes me want to use one on myself, figuratively speaking .

@Romanji

there is a magazine, as well as bullets/shells, and I might even have some variations later […]

Sounds great, keep us posted, but as you said yourself, no need to hurry.

greetings, Kologe

[Romanji]

@Kologe

…the idea alone of actually animating s.o. taking apart and cleaning a handgun makes me want to use one on myself, figuratively speaking .

I agree, Its almost as bad as animating a character binding his shoelaces.

I have lofty animation ambitions myself, once I started with Houdini and I figured out a good muzzle-flash method, I experienced massive desire for feature-creep.
I now want to do an extreme slow-motion - basically bullet-time.

source: youtu.be/zbtyaKAMDdk?t=114

This fast expanding and rotating torus-shaped vortex gave me a headache for 2+ weeks, it’s still somewhat present at the back of my head.
I could fake it somehow and do it mainly in comp, but that’s like taking the blue pill.
Figuring out how to inject massive amounts of velocity into an simulation without visible delay in acceleration and without stepping artifacts is the key to art-directing them.
I know the path now, I just need to walk it.
Turns out that making a decent looking explosion is a little easier than reproducing this specific effect - if I had modeled a rocket launcher I could have been done with an animation by now.

[Kologe]

@Romanji

I now want to do an extreme slow-motion - basically bullet-time.

That sure instantly reminds me of that glorious FX-work in that one scene from ‘Killing Them Softly’:

Killing Them Softly [2012] - Markie's Death Scene [Slow Mo-1080p]

@Romanji

I could fake it somehow and do it mainly in comp, but that’s like taking the blue pill.

I sure like your attitude. How refreshing next to all those ‘I made this based off of concept art by SomebodyElse™’- and ‘I used shitbash-library XY’-cheapos.

Anyway good luck with your efforts.

[Romanji]

‘I made this based off of concept art by SomebodyElse™’

I surely feel tempted now that I have seen the scene (I haven’t before) to upgrade my ambition even further and throw a flip solver into the mix and have all this nice rain interaction…

[sacboi]

Looks like that gat was baked in marmoset…

although I don’t want it (…make my own hard surface game rez stuff) still if it were me generating a ballistic kinetic sim, I’d utilize a freebee workflow todo the job rather than highend SideFx voodoo plus possibly Ae motion grapics thrown into the bargain for the slo-mo pretties

[Romanji]

I actually used Substance Painter for the baking.
This project jump-started an unforeseeable strong interest in using highend SideFX voodoo for VFX and the surprising ability to endure vex and vops and all that stressful logic because the end results are really motivating me and pushing me further.
I am surprised this “phase” ran that long, but it doesn’t seem to stop…
Not really productive, but I am learning tons of new stuff and having fun doing it.

[Romanji]

I did not make much progress on the guns themself, I am still one step behind and ahead and doing test animation, RnD and such.
This is a result of that:

Here are the other variants that are done (except the final texturing polish)…

These are basically just frame and slide extensions and the front of the gun is slightly differently shaped (to make it more front heavy - I guess?)
Also ideally shaped to put a picatinny rail there.
So far there is only the extended version with picatinny rail, but considering they all share topology and UV’s, turning the longer into a shorter version is trivial.
The possible to mix and match these variations is there (short frame - long slide, or short version with long barrel).

And here is the magazine: