Week 4 - Futuristic Weapons

For this weeks theme we have futuristic weapons, once again we are asked to look at example of future weaponry and have to come up with some ideas for the creation of our own futuristic gun; one of the requirements however is that we retain it being a projectile gun.

To start i constructed another moodboard looking at both present day weaponry, a selection of imagined weaponry from games and media which both have present day and futuristic themes, i mainly focused on some of my favourite styles of guns, namely rifles and pistols (more specifically the hand cannons). Rifles have always been a favourite of my due to their complex structures and satisfying reload mechanisms, while pistols are great because of their presence and variety in various media that i like; the pistol is a favourite of characters in action games e.g. devil may cry or bayonetta so i wanted to work with guns that i liked the designs of as a basis.

To start similarly to last week i decided to do some practice sketching by using some selection of guns and drawing them to get a feel for how the various mechanisms and workings of a gun come together when being drawn, i made sure to include both pistols and rifles due to my moodboard, as well as a shotgun reloading because i was interested in the process. also a couple of ideas forguns as sketches in the space in between the guns.

I tried using the silhouette method to help me come up with some good general shapes for my guns, then i focused on good ways to occupy that space using aspects from my moodboard. the top gun i imagine being a shotgun of some description, having a wide barrel for a point blank scattershot, with a slightly exposed barrel for heat release as well as a window to monitor the inner workings of the gun, i also enjoyed making the safety a sort of flip switch, it gave it a more updated feel overall.

The second of the guns would be a rocket launcher, with panels to close and open the face for when it is to be used as a precaution to not use it accidentally. also i made sure to include two handles so it can be used appropriately for its nature as a weapon.

Here i worked on the designs i sketched out on my first page, and made some designs for some single handed or pistol like weaponry, the first is a heavy pistol the reloads much the way a double barrel shotgun does, only by bending to the side to reload the cartridges, i tried to also give it a more modern or futuristic feel by making both the trigger and the hammer (the thing you flick at the back of the gun) into more streamlined formats with them both being buttons of some sort, this being because i expect in future times for some guns to get simpler and simpler to use as demand increases.

The second of the guns is more inspired by switchblades or butterfly knives, as well as the anticipation of more covert guns being used in the future, with the theme of this gun being that it can be folded and flicked together when needed, this extending to the trigger as well which hides in a space in the grip when folded, the clip and reloading of the gun is also modeled after battery packs, with the top being able to be clipped open and allows for clip to be put in that way.

My final design both coloured and uncoloured were my carrying on from my usage of pistols and specifically going into the heavier variety of pistols. i got particularly inspired by my reference of action game guns as many of them contained a personality by being themed, coloured, named and designed around being unique. for instance i decided to call this gun "poppycock" as in the reference to being nonsense, then i themed much of the gun around the flower of a poppy, giving the barrel a poppy shaped head and giving several layers along the barrel to show petals, with the colour scheme reflecting that through the use of red for the petals, green for the stem and leaves (which is also decorated along the side to give a more personal flavour) and black for the head of the poppy, also making sure to reflect its more modern and gun like elements through some use of chrome colourings. the sheer size of the guns barrel really reinforces that this gun is a hand cannon of particular power, something of which i believe will be desired in a personalised and portable weapon in the future.