Week 3 - Futuristic Gun

This week we were tasked with designing a futuristic gun which was mechanical in nature rather than plasma/laser. We could do either a two handed weapon or a single handed pistol. I decided early on that I would go for a single handed weapon as I like pistols, the more square shape makes for much more dynamic designs in my opinion. Rifles tend to be quite long always, where as pistols can be many shapes.

These are the designs that I had come across on the internet which really caught my eye in terms or shape and detail. The bottom middle example is a rifle, but I added it because I really liked the details and also what appears to be a revolving bullet container.I liked the idea of a futuristic magnum like the top left and bottom right pictures as well. I think that mixture of Western and Sci-Fi like in the TV show Firefly is really interesting.

I did some very quick 3-4 minutes sketches trying to create different shapes and ideas from the one previous to keep it fresh.

I originally thought I would go with one of the magnum designs like number 2 which incorporated the longer barrel and the rotating bullet cylinder. I had done 11 originally and looked back over them. My 3 favourites were 4, 9 and 10. There was something about the shapes and general style which looked authentic on those designs. I decided to draw a final sketch which would contain parts of the 3 that I liked. That ended up as number 12. I decided to make that bigger and more detailed so I could get it into Photoshop to start painting.

Even though I used a ruler, when I got it into Photoshop I realised that the lines may be straight but they weren't parallel. I spent a bit of time straightening the lines, making them bold and then painted some block colours in.

I added a background too and decided on a palette. I wanted to make it more interesting than just blacks and greys. I took some colours that could look like matte plastics or may be plausible as metals while trying to avoid too much grey.

Below is the final piece after I finished painting and blending. It took me FAR too long and that again is something I need to work on. I spent too long making it look really detailed when I think it would've benefit from being more rough. The form could have come from thinner, straight lines and bigger and looser brush strokes to give impressions rather than showing all the detail.

Mechanically the gun doesn't really work, I had detail in it almost of the sake of having cool looking pistons, dials and valves. Looking at it now it's complete - I'm not even sure that I like it. I think it looks too clean, pristine and almost airbrushed. I'm pleased with the blending and shadowing technically but from a design point of view I don't think it works. I want to try to make sure that concept art in the future will not take me this long, it's bad practise and doesn't necessarily benefit from the additional time put into it.