Hard-Surface Modeling: What's Important?

The first most important aspect of my work is strong modeling skills, including understanding how the simplest shapes such as proper bevel sizes can have a large impact on my materials. Many artists (myself included) while studying 3D early on make the common mistake of working with very rough bevels. This means that you end up with a non-uniform flow to your curve that looks very unnatural and can even affect your bake. Guns are manufactured and do not have these issues, every bevel and edge should be considered. Another issue I often see is not having enough support loops when working with subdivisions, this ends in long gradients when working with edges and curves.

The second most important thing is texturing because this is what breathes life into your model and allows it to tell a story. This is how you reflect how the gun was used and where, by adding small details such as fingerprints, oil smudges, and the wear which reflects how the gun was maintained.

Instead of the usual workflow, I chose to show you some tips and tricks.

Side Views & Blockout

Sometimes it is hard to find good side views of the asset you want to model (a problem I had when doing my Cyberpunk 2077 fanart). What you can do is getting images that have a perspective and bring them in a flat side view with Photoshop.