Karolina Nathusius | 3D Game Props Collection | 2024

"The Sweetheart" REVOLVER

Realistic style weapon prop for video games or "What if Cupid had a gun?"

TURNTABLE
The Sweetheart is a rather peculiar weapon. Heavily personalised by its owner, the lovely Cupid himself, it shoots heart-shaped bullets with the purpose of "spreading love" at all costs.

WIREFRAMES
The weapon is adorned with delicate floral patterns. Its owner holds it so dearly, he even had its name engraved on the side of the barrel. The rear sight depicts a crescent moon, perfect for taking aim, whereas the front sight resembles wings, much like Cupid's. The barrel is heart-shaped as well, naturally.

CLOSE-UPS
These close-ups showcase a few story-telling details.
I included bloody fingerprints on the side of the revolver as well as the trigger and hammer, which is where you'd naturally find fingerprints.
One of my visual inspirations for this project was the character Tyler Durden from the 1999 movie "Fight Club" which is why I decided to include bloody fingerprints.
You can also find a manufacturer's stamp which quite fittingly translates to "handiworks with heart".

TEXTURE MAPS
Left to right: colour, normal, metallic, AO, roughness

3D VIEWER
I modelled the weapon in Blender using a common hard surface modelling approach. I created a simple, low poly model as well as a detailed high poly version to then bake the details down onto the low poly in Marmoset Toolbag.
I created custom alpha textures in Photoshop to create fine details like screws and decorative engravings.

HEART SHAPED BULLETS
The heart shaped bullets were my first idea which later led to the overall design of The Sweetheart. On the bottom, the bullets carry the message, "with love, xoxo".

REFERENCE BOARD

This is my reference board. The project started out with a rough idea for a video game character. I tried to imagine what the mythical Cupid could be like if thrown into a dystopian world. A god-like being, created for the purpose of spreading love and warmth, corrupted by the dark world he lives in.

The main challenge for me was to combine stereotypical and recognisable images of cupid with the overall idea and make it work.

I tried to combine the shape elements of "Sailor Moon" like hearts, wings and stars, with the rough and bloody demeanour of Tyler Durden and his somewhat flamboyant aesthetic. Another visual inspiration was games like Saints Row that often combine cold and rough textures with surprisingly bright and cheerful colour schemes.

After deciding that Dystopian Cupid would use a gun rather than bow and arrow, I drew inspiration from the movie Wanted and its "semi-mystical" physics, and decided to go with a hefty, front-heavy revolver.

Thank you for checking out my project!
With love, xoxo <3

HOLO GAME BOY

Realistic style, personalised props for video games or “Now you’re playing with power - HOLO POWER!”

Based on concept art by Clément ABBONA (Azeroh) I created these Holo Game Boy assets in three colour variations. Each one belongs to a different fictional kid, reflecting their individual personalities.

Even though the concept is futuristic in nature, my approach to the personalised designs was to reimagine a futuristic past–alternate universe 1990s if you will.

GREY
The grey Game Boy is loosely based on the one my brother and I used to share when we were kids.
The game on the screen is Mario Land 2, our favourite at the time. On the back, aside from fingerprints and overall dirt and dust, there are a few stickers of popular TV shows from the 90s. Underneath, you can see the leftovers of a previously scraped off sticker.

For the pink version, I tried to imagine how I would have personalised my very own Holo Game Boy when I was a kid.
It includes my name, messily written on the back, as well as a collection of different stickers. Most of them either shiny or glittery. The stickers all correspond with popular animated kids shows and Disney movies, like "Sailor Moon", "Barbie" or "Beauty and the Beast". The game on the screen is "Tetris".

PURPLE
My main source of inspiration for the purple version was my brother. He used to scratch his name into everything, which is why this Game Boy has both his surname and initials scratched into the grey plastic of the backside and bottom. There are also multiple stickers from the TV show "Dragon Ball" on it, most of them with rubbed and distressed edges from using the toy so much.
It is also the messiest of the three, with greasy fingerprints all over the front and back.
The orange "Digimon" sticker is placed on top of an older "Power Puff Girls" sticker (which was most likely put there by his irritating little sister and he wanted to cover it up). The game on the screen is "The Amazing Spider-Man".

In the middle of my reference board is the original concept art that these assets are based on. Around it, I collected different aspects of inspiration that helped me give the individual versions their own personalities.
I looked for different types of stickers, like the shiny metallic ones or those with glitter foil. I also liked the idea of distressed stickers that had been rubbed while playing.
I also wanted to incorporate the retro-look of the old Game Boy screens and swapped the green-ish light for the blue hologram look, adopting the actual games I used to play.

TEXTURE MAPS
This is an overview of the different texture maps, represented by the pink version.
Left to right: Base Colour, Normal, Emissive, AO, Roughness, Metallic

EARLIER VERSION
Originally, I created these assets about a year ago. In the first version I was trying to stick to the concept art as closely as possible. However, for The Rookie Awards I decided to give the textures another go with what I have learned in the meantime and I am quite happy with the progress I've made since then.

I gave each colour version its individual personality with stickers, different games on the screens, as well as variation in levels of use and dirt. I paid a lot of attention to how stickers would rub off over time and the way fingers leave prints on surfaces.

Things I would have done differently today include the edge flow of the model as well as the UV layout. Since I only had a limited amount of time, I decided to focus on improving the textures.

BEAUTY SHOTS
A few shots with more interesting lighting, just for fun.

Thank you for viewing my project with power - HOLO POWER!

H&K PISTOLS

Heckler & Koch USP Match or "Lara Croft's Twin Pistols!"

The H&K USP Match is a very recognisable weapon and I thoroughly enjoyed practising my hard-surface modelling skills on it. As a bonus, Lara Croft is probably my favourite video game character of all time and her twin pistols are iconic. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun on this project.

TURNTABLE
I placed the pistols in a dynamic pose in part to make the turntable more interesting but also to highlight the action driven background of the handguns.

WIREFRAMES
The H&K USP Match has a rather unique visual design. It's a heavy looking shape with strong angles. The many ridges, nooks and crannies posed an interesting challenge while modelling.

CLOSE-UPS
One special thing about Lara's pistols is their ambidextrous design, so that she never has to worry about which gun is in which hand when striking down opponents.

While texturing, I thought about how Lara would approach maintaining her weapons. This gave me the idea to apply my dust and grime layer in a slightly different way than usual. Instead of adding in dirt where it would naturally collect, I covered the entire model in dust and then strategically mimicked the process of cleaning it off with a rag. This resulted in natural looking “leftovers” of wiped off dust, as if done while taking a quick break from raiding tombs.

TEXTURE MAPS AND 3D VIEWER
The gun consists of multiple different types of metals and materials and it was interesting to figure out how to make them work in Substance Painter while texturing. Some parts of the gun are more metallic, others less, and it resulted in an interesting overall look.
Left to right: roughness, colour, normal, AO

REFERENCE BOARD
I chose reference images of guns that clearly have been used since scratches, smears, and dust fit the owner's adventurous lifestyle quite well.
I wanted them to look as if they came straight out of her in-game inventory.

The inspiration for my beauty shots came from the first Tomb Raider (2001) movie with Angelina Jolie. It ends with her butler offering her the guns on a silver plate.
I especially liked the contrast of the dusty and slightly greasy pistols against the meticulously polished, clean silver.

Thank you for checking out my entry for the 2024 Rookie Awards!