Sword Model

[Azlon]

I just got back into PlaneShift and also started playing with 3ds max. When I was surfing for pics to model from the forums, and the website I found this sword named ShadowBlade by one of the users here.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/Kieve/shadowblade.jpg

After about 2-3 hours of fooling around this is what I have so far.

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/5836/sbrender1to9.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1538/sbrender2pw7.jpg

Does anyone know what happened to the Laanx Wheel of Wishes? I was looking to see what other people were doing with their models, and to gain help in modeling/texturing.

[Kieve]

Hey, that's not bad at all... very nice.
Two suggestions though - narrow the blade's thickness a bit, and add a "Mesh Smooth" modifier to it (with the iterations at 0 - that should clean up those hard poly edges without removing the sharp points or turning it into a blob).


...aaand, sorry, but I don't remember the Wheel.

[Illysia]

As I recall. The Wheel of wishes went down a long time ago.  But it is a good job. 

[Azlon]

Thanks Kieve for both the original pic to model it from, and for the constuctive criticism. I will def add those steps in. I was hoping out some texturing would aid in making it look less polygonal.

I'm sorry to hear the Wheel went down. I was really looking forward to other people's work. Does this mean I am left to troll the forums to look for what I seek?

If anyone has any good links or tutorials for mapping or texturing please let me know. That is my next step.

Thanks.

Edit:

Here is the sword made thinner, and I think it does look better.

 

I think I should make the hilt at the top a bit skinnier. The yellow circle represents what area I am referring to.

Here is another pic from the side to place emphasis on the MeshSmooth at 0 iterations.




Edit #2:

Here is some texture. Painfully brought to you by 2 hours of watching some videos on UVW mapping.




I am proud of myself! Now I am off to model something else. If anyone would like to help me they could send me some reference images since I have to wait a few days to get a scanner. Just pm me with the images. please.

[Kieve]

Well done!
Would like to see some of the pulling fixed on that mapping, but for a novice effort it's really good.

[Azlon]

I think in order to fix the pulling, I will have to redo the UVW unwrapping and try to get all the sword spread out in the map instead of just the sides. Thanks for the advice and begining image.