Introduction My name is Ayush Banik, a 3D artist from India. I got into 3D through a random Blender tutorial back in late 2022, starting with that classic donut. I have worked on weapons for two games that are still under NDA, as well as some foliage and environment props for Dekogon. I'm still in engineering college, so working full-time is a bit difficult.EOTECH EXPS3 & G45The EOTECH EXPS3 scope and the G45 magnifier are part of my Full Internal AR-15 project. For references, I collected many high-quality images from EOTECH's official website as well as additional ones for texturing from The Weapon Room Discord channel. The aim of this project was to improve my texturing skills for black anodized and Cerakote coatings.I modeled this scope the same way I model all my other work: using a CAD/Blender live boolean workflow. For these two scopes in particular, I used Plasticity for modeling, MOI3D for exporting, and Blender for the low poly. The high-poly was derived in ZBrush using the process: DynaMesh > Polish > Decimate.For the topology, I exported the mesh using MOI3D and fixed the low poly in Blender. Some of the add-ons I used were Resample Mesh, LoopTools, etc. I always unwrap in Blender, straighten UVs using TexTools, and pack them with UVPackmaster. As for texture sets, each sight has its own UV set, since this is part of a weapon with removable attachments.MaterialsI love to talk about materials!The metal was very simple: a base with dark diffuse and specular, since it’s an anodized material, which is non-metallic and usually dark in nature. This was followed by a gloss and specular grain, and a metallic grain on the normal for the height.The next step is to put more normal details onto the surface, like milling.After that, I moved on to the color and gloss details. I added oil and fingerprint smudges layer by layer, as can be seen in the GIF below:After that, moving on to the dust, I did it in a way I really don’t recommend – manually. Every piece of dust was placed using a grainy noise stencil.Moving on to the sticker residue: I started with a little bit of glue and paper residue and worked my way up to dust.Parallax & Magnification EffectsFirst, I needed a height map, which can be created using just a simple black square. Next, for the depth, the following settings work very well, although depending on the size of the reticle, the “depth” option can be adjusted.Transmission set to Thin Surface works best, with “Use Albedo” turned on. Reflectivity should be set to Specular, with Conserve Energy turned on. And, of course, the alpha of the reticle should be in emission. Anything below 0.5 transparency works fine.One more important thing you will need in Marmoset Toolbag for this to work is in the Render settings: transmission needs to be at least 3 for the magnification to work.Magnification:The single most important setting for magnification is the Refractive Index under Transmission. Refractive Index at 1 = no magnification. As you increase the RI, you get higher and higher magnification, along with more distortion.RenderingRendering the asset was a huge challenge. I didn’t want to do a flat render on a flat background. There was also the element of showing off my WIP gun, as the EOTECH project is just part of the full AR-15 project.Here’s my rendering setup: 20% of a SWAT guy holding a gun. A major mistake I made was not scaling the SWAT model – my man is 6’9” tall. I should have scaled him to 6’.I use a lot of directional lights to light my scene because I don’t like to depend on HDRIs, so here’s my light setup without any directional lights and using just a simple lighting HDRI.After this, I added my fill lights:Then I added a few more key lights to just brighten everything up:Here are my lights. ConclusionA part of the appeal of creating weapons is to stand out, and I think that’s the most important factor if you want to get more reach. Most of the weapons have already been made over the past 30 years of first-person shooter history. The trick is to either make the best version yet or at least add some elements of your own that no one has thought of before. I added the sticker and markers as part of that, not to mention the environment renders compared to renders on a flat white or black background.One of the biggest challenges is making your work stand out. For example, when someone searches for an M4 on ArtStation, there will be a thousand thumbnails that appear, but the one from KEAL will always stand out to both beginners and veterans alike.Ayush Banik, Hard Surface ArtistInterview conducted by Gloria Levine #see #how #you #can #make