Tutorial: Creating a Hero Weapon for Games
The Gnomon Workshop has released Creating a Hero Weapon for Games, a guide to creating production-ready assets, recorded by Facepunch Studios’ Thomas Butters.
The workshop provides over six and a half hours of video training in Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter and Marmoset Toolbag.
Discover how to create production-quality weapons and props for games
In the workshop, Butters shares his workflow for creating next-gen, production-ready weaponry and prop art for games, from gathering references to final portfolio render.
He begins by modeling the gun in Blender, creating a blockout mesh using Boolean operations, then switching to poly and subdivision modeling for the mid-poly model.
Next, Butters takes the model into ZBrush, balancing real-world accuracy with creative freedom when creating the high-poly asset.
He showcases industry-standard techniques for generating the low-poly in-game asset, using the mid-poly mesh as a base.
Butters also discusses how to UV unwrap the model, and how to bake geometry-based textures in Marmoset Toolbag.
The next section of the workshop reveals how to create detailed materials from scratch in Substance 3D Painter, using project alphas and hand-painted scratches.
Finally, Butters switches back to Marmoset Toolbag to render the model, exploring how to create portfolio pieces that show the asset at its best.
Although the workshop uses Blender add-ons, The Gnomon Workshop says that viewers should still be able to follow it using vanilla settings.
As well as the training videos, viewers can download Butters’ PureRef image board, Substance file and final Marmoset Toolbag presentation scene.
About the artist
Thomas Butters is Lead Weapon & Prop Artist at Facepunch Studios, where his credits include Garrys Mod, Rust and s&box.
Over more than a decade working in the industry, he has specialized in character artwork, environment art, and designing vehicles and props.
Pricing and availability
Creating a Hero Weapon for Games is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.
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