Hello, I’m Tal, a Graphic Artist since 2017 and Mini Scripter since 2019. I am currently working on a GFX and was wondering how to add gunshot particles coming out of my gun?
Please Note: This is not my GFX. I take zero credit for it, as this was found on Google.
If a more experienced Graphic Artist could assist me, that’d be great. Your help is appreciated.
Tal
I study in firearms, and have experience with GFX. When a gun fires its projectile, you want to add a few more elements you might not expect. First of all, for a still image such as a game thumbnail or icon, you don’t want to just search up “muzzle flash” on google and find a random muzzle flash you think looks good. When a handgun fires without any barrel modifications, there are 3 main elements to make the shot look realistic.
1: Adding your muzzle flash. This is the most important thing for making a gun shooting look like its shooting. I’ll show you a few examples of what not to do, and what to do correctly. Lets start off with bad and good muzzle flashes for a handgun.
Bad example:
Good example:
In this way, I can show you why the first muzzle flash isn’t great for a handgun. If you look at it, it has 4 “triangles” of gasses and heat escaping the muzzle. With an attachment such as a compensator or flash hider, it would work better. But on a standard handgun, the muzzle is just the end of the barrel. No fancy attachments on it. Because of that, the gasses and flame will just go anywhere they want.
2: Smoke. When a firearm shoots a bullet, it’s not just a flash and that’s all. You need to add elements such as smoke. If you want to create a more “old fashioned” gun GFX, I recommend adding more smoke elements. Black powder creates a lot of smoke, and is what makes a black powder gun more recognizable. Here are some examples.
With modern smokeless powder cartridges, it does not generate as much smoke, hence the name “smokeless powder”. Here is an example.
As you can see, there is a lot less smoke.
3: Lighting. When a gun fires, it generates light from the bright flash. For a good looking GFX scene, I wouldn’t recommend making it all so realistic, since it would be too bright. If your firearm has a muzzle device such as a compensator or flash hider, those gases are turned into directional paths, disputing the gases and making the flash less bright. Here are some examples.
These would be all of the main tips to add. Some things that aren’t necessary can really bug people off though. When a gun fires, you don’t see a trace of the bullet, especially in the daytime. When a gun fires without tracer ammunition, you can’t track the bullet (unless the bullet is very large). Bullets don’t just leave a “line” or “path” behind them. Here are 2 examples showing you what is good and not.
Bad example:
Good example:
As you can see, there is no trace. Now, tracer ammunition does exist, but they are different from standard ball ammunition of such. Another useless thing to add is bullet impact. Sure, if your image is directly supposed to show you bullet impact, do it. But if your doing GFX on a shootout, bullet impact is useless, because not many people are going to see it. You can always add it if you want, but it adds more time to create, and only gives a little more realism to your GFX. If your showing someone being shot (no means to enforce shooting people), they shouldn’t just spit out a gallon of blood. When your shot, within the first few seconds you most likely won’t realize the pain, and your not going to be spitting out blood. When a bullet impacts a body, it can take several seconds before bleeding starts, since the bullet is going so fast. And, it can miss any organs or something like that, which would minimize more bleeding that can occur.
But, now lets get back on topic and talk about a few extra things that are worth it to add in your GFX shot.
1: Bullet casings. If your shooting a firearm, it will eject a case out (if it’s semi automatic. Bolt action, pump action, or other else still ejects casings, but does so manually). What you should get right is the type of casing. Having an AR 15 eject 9mm casings wouldn’t make too much sense, and wouldn’t look right in your final render. For a rifle chambered in your typical rifle ammunition most people know of, you should have something eject out like this:
For handguns, you can add a simple “cylinder” ejecting out. To make it look like a casing, add a rim. The primer (the “dot” on the bottom of the cartridge, which holds the primer mixture.) isn’t needed unless you want a nice close up shot on your gun cycling. If you want a simple example, here it is.
Now, lets go on with extra details that aren’t needed, but can make your GFX shot look just a little more realistic.
1: More smoke. When you fire a gun, it’s not just smoke at the muzzle. Smoke escapes from the chamber, the casing, and even from ports (if the barrel is ported). If you do not know what any of these are, here are a few pictures to let you know.
Chamber:
Casing:
Ported barrel:
(In case you find the ported barrel image example confusing, the slide cuts near the muzzle leave open spaces so that the gases escaping from the ports in the barrel can leave the firearm.)
This is indeed a longer than average comment, but I’m here to help with firearms. If you need even more help, I’ll recommend you to learn about firearms yourself, as then you will know what to add.
