Shotgun | Production Flow Chart

I started by importing the reference for my model. I knew I was going to use this image for texturing later, so I tried to find a model with flat lighting.

I blocked out the main body of the gun using the extrude tool and shaping it. This stage was mainly about trying to capture the shape of the gun. I kept my topology clean and low-poly and constantly used the image as a reference point.

I then added the main barrel of the gun and shaped it to the scale of the reference image. I then inset the face at the front of the barrel and 'poked' it to avoid n-gons.

I modelled the trigger and trigger guard primarily using the extrude tool. I used the extrude to just trace over the shape of these parts in the orthographic view mode. Kept high enough poly to maintain detail but still as low as possible.

I then modelled the barrel release primarily using the extrude tool. I tried to keep it low poly while adhering to the shape of the actual part.

I added seams in ideal places for UV unwrapping. I used the reference image to see the locations of actual seams in the weapon. I thought about the main sections I needed to texture (Barrel, trigger, under-barrel, handle) and split the gun up accordingly.

I then opened photoshop and created a blank canvas with a size of 256x256 pixels. This is because later PS1 games used this resolution for their texture map.

I then split up my reference image into four main parts. I tried to take up as much space on the texture map as possible in order to maintain texture quality.

I then organised my UVs according to the texture map I created. Their are a lot of overlapping UVs since I needed to save space on the texture map so the UV map looks extremely messy.

This is the final result of my modelling.