The ‘llama cannon’ idea was originally a reference to auto-snipers and those on the receiving end of them; for the longest time I had difficulty picturing the artwork incorporated into a weapon finish: I thought it would be too ‘tacked on’. So I left the project on the backburner... until two things happened: the R8 was introduced to the game, and I chanced upon Elvis’ handgun collection!...

The king loved his guns. He famously shot his old TV sets creating a new spin on the term ‘TV remote’. The model I found most interesting was an ivory handled Smith and Wesson. It had engraved flourishes with various animals adorning it, presumably things he’d shot; I researched that style of gunsmithing further and found similar styles - all featuring ivory handles with ornate engraved flourishes on the metalwork. This method of finish seemed like an excellent approach to the R8 as a dark body and bright grip would be a direct inversion of the base texture.

I set out to create my own version mimicking the real life gunsmithing processes, adapting placement of detail to work best with the ingame model views. My first idea was to make one called ‘the deer hunter’ named after the dark 70’s film featuring several scenes of russian roulette, but on seeing how the R8 is held ingame I quickly noted that the only decent UV real estate was on the upper spine of the grip as the hand covers all other areas most of the time - this limited where (and how much) detail could be optimally placed for users to appreciate it. However on focusing on this small area I immediately thought of the Llama Cannon artwork because of the head shape with the ears bleeding off either side - I placed it in a mockup - and it fit almost perfectly! Plus it looked hilarious... When an idea like this clicks it becomes the driving force on a project, it had to stay. So not a sniper rifle this time around, but the joke still holds!

There will be no surprises that the Gunsmith application finish was the most suitable in order to have a high phong exponent on the base metal with custom detailing on the grip. I took the model into cinema 4d and painted / erased the flourishes crudely using the mouse - this was a totally off the cuff process but I managed to get a sense of flow whilst seeing how each component worked as a whole. Once I got it how I liked it I took the UV into illustrator and created the flourishes as smooth paths with varying stroke widths -- after a lot of tweaking I then duplicated and outlined the paths, adding in the bulbous end tips. To achieve faux depth (which generally speaking I hate btw!) I took the final flourishes into cinema 4D again and added depth with very minor displacement/bump mapping - then rendered the flat texture from 3 different angles depending on where it was situated on the model - the end result was hardly discernable but it felt like the right thing to do for the sake of authenticity.

The metal llamas were from very rough and basic pencil sketches I made using the old quick trick of drawing circles for rib cage, head and pelvis positions whilst observing llama skeletal structures from a diagram I found. For its tactile appearance I saw a video of how a real life gun engraver added shaped metal objects to weapons and used that as a visual goal, as well as the redesign of the Ford Mustang Horse emblem for ideas on where and how to add detail through bevels. This was also taken into Cinema 4D with a bump map texture and a light source to achieve a metallic effect. The colouring and tweaking was mainly done in Photoshop for speed and control, I found it looked best when matched to the bullet colour.

For the Patina colour I took inspiration from ‘the big kill’ in tf2 which is Sam’s (from Sam and Max) side arm. Hence it starts off factory new in a blued tint but very quickly fades to different shades of gunmetal, ending with an aged yellow/brown battle-scarred state. I think I prefer Field tested over factory new as it’s more authentic looking, but to be honest the Llama is the star and any wear looks pretty decent!

Let me know what you think below, or leave me a message at SWAGCORP.