Well, after studying Next-Gen work flow and creation techniques I figure its time I start putting what I learned to use. For this I chose the Colt M4A4 Carbine as it has both hard and soft edges, so it would make for good practice in modeling a hi-poly Sub-Division surface model and then bake down normal map to use on a low-poly model. I'll be sporadically posting updates on this as I have school to attend, but once its finished I'll release it for use.

Going for full detail on the hi-poly so tri counts are not an issue, and neither is optimizing the mesh except where needed for the final Sub-Division operation. With how Sub-D works, there will be excess edges added at a later stage to control how the Sub-Division op affects the model (aka "Control Edges") this will ensure that all hard edged areas retain their shapes and do not collapse.

Step 1: Blocking out the shapes.

Im currently blocking out the main shapes and adding in definition to the curved areas. The receiver of the M4 is a difficult section due to the curves around the forward assist and the stock.


Updated:

Still working at the Hi-Poly a little at a time

Looks good so far

very very nice. me likey.
I agree with wonderboy

You could delete the useless vertex's in the center of the cylinder end caps and draw edges to make it into quads, it's a much more efficient way for cylinders that are flat on the ends.

Yeah, been there done that about the edgecaps for cyclinders. Mostly gonna worry about that for the Low Poly that gets the normal map.

Still plugging away at this. Adding in control edges as I go, which is a pain somewhat. Currently sitting at somewhere above 16,000 tris, should probably hit about 25,000, then jump to 100,000 after the Sub-Division.

Nice work so far. Though I must say that I mostly look forward to the scope, since that is what defines this rifle the most. (In my personal opinion)