Sentry Gun Master Post

The Sentry gun project was, in my opinion, a disaster. Not a disaster where nothing was learned, however. I managed to learn some of the unity engine, familiarise myself with the conceptualization and 3D modelling of mechanical objects (somewhat) and use my first emissive texture, if that counts for anything.

But aside from that, I honestly do not think I've dropped the ball as hard on any project as this one.

First off, conceptualization. My thumbnails aren't actually awful. They're by no means fantastic (a friends girlfriend was not kind to them) but I feel they had some strong shapes and silhouettes behind them. I wanted to make a turret with personality in that it may have some sort of robot manning it, drawing inspiration from the Portal series. I eventually came to six designs I liked, so I decided to do some basic 3D models of them and then bash kit the models until I found a design I liked.

This was a stupid, pointless mistake that threw off the entire project. By attempting to create several parts for several turrets in 3D instead of just bash kitting in 2D, I wasted a ridiculous amount of time and ended up essentially modelling my way into a corner. I eventually settled on the spherical deign and committed to that, until I realised it was to close to another design I'd silhouetted the design from in the first place. With more time wasted and my morale at an absolute low, I threw together the most appealing design I could in the shortest space of time possible.

This is the design I ended up with. This design was the absolute best I could work with, and I tried very, very hard to correct errors in the time I had but the damage was done. The gun is bizarrely and sloppily glued on to the base, functionally only able to swivel slightly right and slightly left.

I got the mesh working in engine, and was able to follow and track the player. Unfortunately I had left this so late I didn't have the chance to do a high to low poly bake, or any PBR.

What frustrated me most about this project was the echo of a good design. I want to keep working on this so I can mould it into a strong, spider-like design with an intimidating, coiled eyepiece. I managed to waste my own time so aggressively that I ended up with a half done turret that, given the right time management and some actual attention to detail, could have been a pretty cool design. I learned a lesson about time management and planning unlike any other project I've ever done on this one. Definitely a project I'll revisit over summer.