INDOOR GUN TESTING RANGE
Personal Concept excluding Rifle by Eldar Safin
As part of my post-graduation project, I decided to create another props and weapons piece from an ArtStation concept, the Serium Sector Assault Rifle by Eldar Safin. I did a more futuristic rifle this time and my friend chimed in saying that he'd love to use the rifle as part of his animation portfolio by creating different player states while using the rifle. That gave me an idea and I decided it'd be nice to have the rifle in a gun range environment in Unreal.
This environment was actually partially inspired by my first time going into an indoor gun range with my friends during one of the term breaks, it was really quite an interesting experience and we enjoyed it, even the ones who weren't really into guns to begin with. Like with any other environment pieces, the props can tell a story and I figured that with a more futuristic gun like this, it would be brought to a range for test-firing prior to commercialization or the like, hence the pelican cases in the rear with all the various accouterments like optics and muzzle attachments.
I also decided to add an extra still render by creating a smaller environment for a rifle rack. Compared to the rifle rack for the Precision Rifle, it is a little more low-tech, but I decided to play with some decals to create emissive displays on the modular walls. The render for this rifle's storage rack was actually path-traced rather than real-time unlike the other shots in the gun range. The real-time version didn't look half bad, but the lighting looked a lot better with
path-tracing due to it calculating Global Illumination more realistically.
FLYBY
BREAKDOWN
Props and their Processes
Just like the Gunsmith Workbench, the piece had quite a few elements that were based in real life. Probably the most obvious of which were the weapon attachments that're copyright friendly versions of actual muzzle attachments and gun optics.
I found that the manufacturers of said attachments usually had PDF manuals which gave specifications like dimensions and different angles of the products for reference. Sometimes when that isn't enough, I make use of review videos on YouTube that usually provide the additional angles needed to get the props accurate to the letter.
Due to only really having been to one indoor gun range ever, I figured it's a good idea to look up a few more places to get an idea of how I would build the environment. They are for the most part utilitarian and designed for practicality, so I wouldn't be having a gun range looking like the inside of a starship. That said, there's still room for futurism to be snuck in, so I decided to create a holographic range control UI from scratch using Illustrator to make it more striking.
References Board
Range Booth UI
Just like the UIs from earlier, I made use of Bump Offset nodes to create a parallax effect for the holograms and added 2 noise maps moving in different directions and speed to break up the emissive values so things don't look too still. The same breakup was also used for the gun cloth's emissive map for the same purpose. The UI on the booth's screen was created in Illustrator.
Booth UI's Material Network(Left) and design(Right)
Attachments
Probably the most complex part of this piece would be the weapon attachments, even more so than the Assault Rifle that's arguably the centerpiece. The muzzle brakes especially are difficult due to the topology and the fact that it is hollow and can't exactly be cheated from angles. Getting the boolean shapes for the brakes wasn't too bad, but retopologizing the mesh afterwards was a challenge. The optics and suppressors aren't that much easier either, you'd think something like the suppressor would be easy seeing that it's a cylinder with a hole, but it's a lot more complex than that. The optics meanwhile, have indentations that are not exactly very topology friendly, especially for the scopes.
Muzzle and Optic Attachments In-Game
Props and Modular Pieces Laid Out
