Wednesday 22 February 2012

Weapon Set Design

Task : Design a weapon set of 4 weapons, they must include a concealed weapon, a small weapon, a standard weapon, and a heavy weapon.

Sounds fun.

My initial thoughts were all ray-guns and death rays, however I wanted to veer away from the sci-fi area of things for a little bit. I landed on Western Sci-Fi instead with weapons from Firefly and the like, didn't veer too far as it turns out.

Firstly I did some research into the sort of weaponry they used within the series as well as the real life weapons that inspired them.


After looking at some research I then began work on each of the weapons by creating a 3D model of them to get the size and perspective right for each to create a more accurate looking weapon with straighter edges. After which I simply added more and more detail into it when I was painting over the template to create a detailed weapon.

The small weapon, a pistol, was the first to be created.



I loved the name of the pistol, the "Trusty Sidekick", hinting that it's a sidearm with a bit of a kick, which also suits it's appearance as it was based around a revolver or a magnum. I was a little dissappointed by the end result though as it lacks detail.

Next was the standard weapon, a rifle based off the Whinchester rifle





I knew from the start of this weapon that I wanted a lever-action rifle with bullets mounted on to the stock and a longer than necessary scope, not to emphasise that it is a powerful scope but rather it's not that high tech, hence why it has to be so long. Inspiration for the scopecame from the sniper scope in Saving Private Ryan. I was very happy with this rifle and I felt it had sufficient detail added to it such as the little decorations along the side of it, similar to the shape and markings of Mal's pistol in Firefly.

Next was the concealed weapon, which was a belt with explosives strapped to it.




I really liked the thought of this weapon as it really does have a Firefly-esque feel to it. The thought of purposely strapping explosives to a belt as part of some cunning plow or plan that would seem bizarre to anyone other than the Captain of the spacecraft, Serenity. I would like to point out that the purpose of this weapon is not to blow yourself up, but rather everyone around you, as the explosives are spring loaded and can be fired out in times of need all around the wearer, so that they're just out of the blast radiuses of the explosives. The inspiration came from a weapon I saw in a Deus Ex: HR trailer, as the main character fired shells out of his arms in all directions. I really liked the way this turned out as it looks like it would fit perfectly within the Firefly universe, especially as it has the writing and background that is seen throughout the Firefly series aboard the ship that says "Serenity", the ships name. I was also pleased with the level of detail I went into on this weapon, especially the reflections of light around the belt buckle.

That just left the heavy weapon then, and I had a fair idea of what kind of weapon I wanted to go for. Something that looked like part of an American civil war gattling gun. The gattling gun was somewhat rushed as I had left it to last and so wasn't able to do anywhere near as much detail on to it as I would have. When I first started off with this weapon I knew 2 things, it was going be called "Lola" and was going to be portable.

And with Lola out of the way all that was left was to bring them all together and maybe add a helpful diagram for the "Safety" Belt.

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