What this post WILL focus on: This post is here to give you an “Eye for Design”. Making guns look like they belong in the universe. I am a gun-nut, and have spent a lot of time researching weapons both real and fictional. These are my tips on how you can make your fictional weapons look good to a savvy eye, and will offer resources to discovering more!
What this report WILL NOT focus on: I will not be giving you tools to create your weapons, nor will I focus on 3D Software or Artistic Techniques. You are an Artist, and I trust you have the skills necessary to craft your world your way!
With that said, I recommend these three programs for 3D Modeling. These are powerful tools that you can get for Free!
- Wings3D: An easy to use non-traditional modeler, simple yet robust!
- Google SketchUp: Another Non-Traditional program, deceptively powerful and very close to drawing!
- Blender: A real Meat and Potatoes program, it can be challenging to use due to it’s more traditional elements and user interface; but once you master Blender you can do some truly incredible things!
Hands-On Experience: Both your own and others.
Whether you are designing fictional weapons in a fantastic universe or recreating real weapons both modern and historic, getting your hands on real guns in real life is the best way to understand them!
One thing you will learn is that Guns Come Apart! They are machines, just like a radio or a car, and taking them apart is one of the best ways to understand them. This is called “Field Stripping” and most modern weapons can be disassembled with your bare hands or with very basic tools.
An AR-15 Field Stripped for cleaning
Ask yourself how your fictional gun comes apart, how can a soldier remove the casing to clean it? If some parts break how will that impact how the gun works?
If you cannot get a hold of guns due to your local laws, watch videos with real people educating about real weapons! Nutnfancy and GunWebsites are two YouTube channels that offer loads of quality content and near-expert knowledge on firearms. They handle everything from gun reviews, dis-assembly, as well as Philosophy on guns and gun use!
Understanding The Tool: Purpose behind the design
Every tool exists in a specific context, a hammer is meant for a purpose, a screwdriver for another; Weapons, no matter the time period, are no different than shovels and keyboards, they all exist for a specific context and purpose.Understanding your fictional weapon's purpose is key. Some weapons are specialists in their roles on the battle field.
- Sniper Rifles: Precise, elegant tools meant for long range, stealthy engagement. They generally have low magazine size, slow rate of fire, and have long barrels and powerful scopes. Sniper Rifles are chambered with very big and powerful Rifle Cartridges that deliver a punch.
- Machineguns: Heavy machines built to provide cover for friendlies, generally having large pools of ammo to draw from, and sport a very fast rate of fire. Machine Guns generally can fire the same ammo as Sniper Rifles.
- Pistols: Personal defense weapons, small and easy to carry, and generally a back up weapon. They fire smaller, less powerful cartridges compared to the others listed above.
Other weapons are more versatile, and can handle a variety of roles.
Sub-Machineguns: Also called “Machine Pistols”, the name explains their purpose. Small, light weight guns that fire pistol cartridges at high rates of fire. Used the world over by Police forces and Special Operations as a flexible platform.
Assault Rifles: The big brother of the Sub-Machine Gun, these rifles fire medium power cartridges. These weapons are a staple of modern militaries, and generally can be selected to fire one bullet at a time (semi-auto) or fire Fully Automatic with a high rate of fire.
Shotguns: Arguably the most flexible weapon platform ever built, Shotguns can be fitted to do anything from breaking down doors, riot control, close quarters battle, hunting, and even sports!
The History: Knowing your weapon’s past in detail
Whether in fiction or reality, all weapons have Designers and Design Goals; Always ask “Who was the designer, and why did they make the design choices they did?”. All weapons have prototypes, all tools have variants. Understand who the designer was and the philosophy they had behind building their weapon.Mikhail Kalashnikov (Real Life Designer)
A Russian tank commander during World War II, Kalashnikov saw that Russian troops often struggled to operate complex weapon systems, and knew that when a soldier didn't trust their weapon they were in serious danger of being killed.
He wanted to build a weapon that anyone could use, a weapon that would protect his Motherland and put Military Might into the hands of the people. He wanted a weapon that was durable, strong, and reliable. A weapon that would work in harsh conditions and would never let it's soldier down.
The result was one of the most popular and reliable weapons in the world. Chambered in the hard hitting 7.62x39mm Cartridge, it's a powerful rifle. With cheap parts and a very simple design, only having a handful of moving parts. It can work in the sand, mud, rain, and much more.
Eugene Stoner (Real Life Designer)
An American firearms designer in the 1950s, he jumped at the chance to design America's new infantry rifle. Stoner knew that ammunition was a heavy thing to carry. With more and more weapons firing at very fast full auto speeds, he wanted soldiers to carry more ammunition, and not risk running out at a bad time.
His AR-15 was built to fire the small 5.56x45mm Cartridge, it's small size meant that soldiers could carry more ammo. The Gun Itself was built for precision shooting at 300 yards, and made to be light weight.
During Vietnam, soldiers reported that the gun was having problems, failing to fire and jamming up with gunk and carbon build up. This caused severe problems and many soldiers lost their lives when their guns didn't shoot when they should have.
To fix this Stoner and the other Designers added a button on the side of the weapon called the “Forward Assist” that would force the bolt of the weapon forward, to insure that it was fully sealed and allow the gun to fire. This button is meant to be punched or slapped in an emergency, and is very durable.
Hal “Otacon” Emmerich (Fictional Designer)
From the fiction world of Metal Gear Solid, Hal “Otacon” Emmerich is a kind hearted nerd who loves engineering and Japanese cartoons. Tasked by his employer ArmsTech Industries to design a super weapon, Otacon was inspired by his love of Cartoons to build a Walking Battle Tank.
He built Metal Gear REX, a defensive weapon designed to shoot down enemy missiles using it's Railgun, little did he know his weapon would be used as a Nuclear Launch Weapon, a weapon that could destabilize the world! With extremely strong armor plating, and an array of anti-tank missiles, Vulcan cannons, and even a Laser, REX was a true monster, A Nuclear Equipped Walking Battletank!
However, REX was not a perfect machine. Otacon intentionally put in a Design Defect, the pilot is blind while inside the mouth-like cockpit, so they have to see using a sensor array called a Radome, the shield shaped object on REX's Left Arm. The Radome is a sensitive piece of equipment, and if destroyed it will leave the pilot unable to see, and force them to open up the cockpit... exposing them and making them vulnerable.
“It's not a weak point – I like to think of it as a character flaw. People just aren't complete without a character flaw” ~ Otacon
Knowing WHY someone built a weapon is almost as important as knowing about the weapon itself. Try to flesh out the history of the fictional device you are building and you will bring it to life.
How It Works: The buttons and doodads
Because weapons are tools build for efficiency, there is rarely a part, button, switch, or piece that doesn’t have a very specific purpose. Stoner's Forward Assist was a detail of the weapon that he needed to add from an engineering and ergonomic standpoint. The only reason he added an extra button to his weapon was to Save People's Lives! Remembering this is a good way to avoid “Over Engineering” and making your fictional weapon look silly.The design tread of Steampunk is a wonderfully bad example of Over Engineering. While the art is beautiful, and I admire the time it took to create the pieces below… In any practical universe the weapons are nearly worthless.
The Designer didn’t build these guns to be practical, they built them because they thought it looked neat… without an eye for design, your work will suffer.
If we look at either of these weapons from a practical standpoint, and using Stoner's Forward Assist as an example... What on EARTH requires a gun to have a Steam Gauge??? These guns would be horrifyingly dangerous to use in combat, and with all the over engineering involved... you are likely to have your gun either break in your hands or explode in your face!
Over Engineering is something you want to avoid! Remember, the only reason to have any extra buttons or doodads on your gun is if that Button or Doodad is designed to save someone's Life!
From Concept to Combat:
All art starts from concept art, and then slowly evolves into the final product. If you start thinking about practical design from stage one in concept art, you will be more adaptable in changing or altering the design to better fit in the universe.
Once you are satisfied with your concept, you’ll need to start building the weapon. Below is a video that shows one technique I like to employ, overlaying an image and drawing from it.
The video is someone building an AK-47 in Blender, but the principle is the same; constructing your concept!
Attachments: Function vs. Weight, the woes of a soldier’s backpack
Some guns have the ability to have attachments, add ons, and gadgets to help them adapt to specific roles. The cost of this extra functionality is weight, and weight is one of the biggest enemies of a person in combat.Think about it, if you are a soldier, a vast majority of the time you are not going to fire your weapon. You’re going to be carrying it around, hiking with it for miles, eating lunch with it, sleeping with it beside you, taking it to the bathroom. If a gun is too heavy, it will tire out a soldier LONG BEFORE they ever see the enemy.
So every component, gadget, and item that they attach to their gun had better earn that extra weight with functionality!
Wow... that is a lot of attachments... that must weight... what? 20 pounds?
Forget that! I'm not carrying it!
Much better, more sensible!
Chainsaw-Gun.... very dumb...
Much better! Very well designed gun... needs a trigger guard however, so there is a point deduction on that.
A weapon's weight is extremely important to remember! If a piece doesn't need to be on it, then don't have it!
An Example of How This Stuff Can Help:
This is a Rifle I built while writing this article. Using my knowledge of firearms I crafted a Bullpup Assault Rife. This rifle is designed to be a light weight, medium power rifle with very good accuracy; all within a small package.It uses a long stroke gas piston, fires the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, has a non-reciprocating charging handle, and is almost fully ambidextrous. One of the flaws of the rifle is that in order to fire it left handed without issues, one has to take off the case and flip a part to the other side. I like that quirk =^_^=.
I built it using Wings3D and Blender. It doesn't have textures yet but I'll get to work on that soon, this is just a concept anyway, it's not optimized for in game rendering because it still has all the internal components.
