My first blender model, Opinions

[hellangeliv]

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j460/hellangeliv/Swordblend.jpg?t=1297630859

 

Just wanted you guys opinions on if this is a decent sword for the first try.

It didnt take me long to learn the basics of blender and make this sword, Youtube tutorials worked pretty well.

Also some help from friends that taught me to make basic sword models (R3vin,Lh, and Cloudsterx1)

I think it turned out pretty well for the first try

Anyway just your opinions would be nice, and i would like to know if this would be a sword you would use in a game such as oblivion,or F.O.

There it is. Sorry the pic isn't better.

Oh yeah, i took away the Guard, it didn't look good on the design of the blade. I'm working on the guard (i think that's what its called) now.

[Genzel]

I really like the design of the blade, and it is excellent for your first model! Can't wait to see what else you will make :thumbsup:

[WastelandAssassin]

i would have to say, this is quite an awesome sword you've made there

i like the fact that the design is simple and elegant, without any unnecessary parts extruding from the blade

 

you seem to have quite a gift for this

are you planning on making more??

also, are you planning on texturing your swords too??

[AllanOcelot]

Wasteland assasin is very kind aha.

 

The blade is great for a first model, but you may wish to add more details about said model.

 

For instance, that face and vert count are quite high for a sword.

But as you have said, this is your first, these things take time to learn...

 

For the design, I personally feel you have gone with bigger is better for the blade, unless it is meant to be, for instance, a claymore or a two handed sword in that case dismiss my previous comment.

 

The blade detail is nice and symetrical, just remember that every blade should be fit for purpose - if you are modeling a blade for oblivion, Id say it fits in, anything goes sword wise in that game, If its a blade for fallout, I would suggest it being a bit less elaborate.

Swords are a great way to learn how to use blender, Im going to start a tutorial seris soon on getting a simple sword from blender to NV in under an hour, so keep an eye out.

 

Last comments;

When working on a model, even if you have a good idea of what you want, always try to use one refrence picture.

For instance, if I am making a sword - I use a refrence picture for the sizing, but not the design....

other than that - its late here, and Ive not been very......polite in my critique, I apologise, but dont want you to feel pressured to make the next big thing.

 

For your next project I highly suggest making this;

 

- see attachment -

Use it as a refrence, and only make one side of the object - use the `mirror,' modifyer to complete the other side. Once mirrored turn off the modifyer and move some vert's around SLIGHTLY to give it a more realistic depth. Remember, not to follow it exactly. I look forward to seeing your results.

[Genzel]

Woah! I just noticed the poly-count, is that for the sword alone? The design is simple and sleek, but that is a lot of polygons :pinch:

You shouldn't need more than 10k polygons for a relatively simple sword.

 

You could take a screenshot of your model in edit mode to show your topology. If you really have over 100k faces on the sword you should definitely be able to remove some.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Genzel

[hellangeliv]

Wasteland assasin is very kind aha.

 

The blade is great for a first model, but you may wish to add more details about said model.

 

For instance, that face and vert count are quite high for a sword.

But as you have said, this is your first, these things take time to learn...

 

For the design, I personally feel you have gone with bigger is better for the blade, unless it is meant to be, for instance, a claymore or a two handed sword in that case dismiss my previous comment.

 

The blade detail is nice and symetrical, just remember that every blade should be fit for purpose - if you are modeling a blade for oblivion, Id say it fits in, anything goes sword wise in that game, If its a blade for fallout, I would suggest it being a bit less elaborate.

Swords are a great way to learn how to use blender, Im going to start a tutorial seris soon on getting a simple sword from blender to NV in under an hour, so keep an eye out.

 

Last comments;

When working on a model, even if you have a good idea of what you want, always try to use one refrence picture.

For instance, if I am making a sword - I use a refrence picture for the sizing, but not the design....

other than that - its late here, and Ive not been very......polite in my critique, I apologise, but dont want you to feel pressured to make the next big thing.

 

For your next project I highly suggest making this;

 

- see attachment -

Use it as a refrence, and only make one side of the object - use the `mirror,' modifyer to complete the other side. Once mirrored turn off the modifyer and move some vert's around SLIGHTLY to give it a more realistic depth. Remember, not to follow it exactly. I look forward to seeing your results.

 

 

my sword is a great-sword, and when making it i had oblivion in mind. Although my oblivion characters (an assassin, and paladin) would have no use for it. My assassin uses dual swords and my paladin uses the classic blunt style of weapons.Im new to this blender/moding stuff And i remember my only reason for etting into it, is because my request for a custom sword was failed. As noone took me up on my offer and i decided to learn blender and not rely on the help of others. How do i lower the poly count to my weapon? and if you dont mind explaining, what is poly

[AllanOcelot]

Hi Hell,

 

Please dont take my post to heart - as stated, it was good for a first model.

 

It looks like you used the `subsurf sword making,' way of making swords that I did in my early days.

This is where you use the defualt cube, apply a subsurf of level two, and edit it to get the basic shape then apply.

Doing thesword this way is quick, but gives a lot of smaller, pointless, but smooth faces.

 

There are various ways for you to lower the poly count - there are a lot of tutorials online that may well help, but I myself have not had the need to lower the count yet.Sorry.

 

What is a poly? To put it simply - think of it as a weight in your car. The car is your pc, and a lot of the weight is taken up by seats, glass ect, think of those things as oblivion if you like.

Now, think of your sword as a fat chick A REALLY BIG FAT CHICK!.....I mean, this bird is just so big, she puts the moon to shame.

Thats your sword. It will drag a lot of cars to a hault.

 

We want your sword to be the weigth of a paper cup, but we want it to look just as good as any other paper cup. To do this, we use a process called baking. ( you shall have to read up on this also). Reducing the poly count - or face count usess less system rescources. The less you use, in some cases, the worse your model can look, but a good modeler can find the right balance.

 

I wish you all the best of luck with your modeleing. Please post any updates.

Edited February 15, 2011 by AllanOcelot

[baduk]

Hi!

 

Yea as they said its got at least 50 times more vertices than you probably want in most swords. Its true that the sword is held near the camera, but not as near as the sights of a gun.

Its good to have only real high poly on places like the eyehole of a scope on a gun. and when you have lower geometry elsewhere it keeps the overall polycount down.

 

3d models have a neat feature tho, its called normal smoothing. There is this little button you can click to make your lowpoly model appear smooth. What it does is it takes the direction of 2 adjacent faces (normals) and then instead of at the edge having an abrupt change in the light reflection properties, it makes a smooth gradient. Later you can even make a normalmap for your model and that allows you to further tweak how light reflects off it to make it appear to have even more geometric detail.

 

It would be a good idea to try importing some vanilla swords and nice swords others have made to examine them in blender to get a better idea of how you want your model to be.

[LHammonds]

Hard to tell much with that screenshot other than there are a LOT of polys which has already been mentioned.

 

This tutorial might be something you'd like to go over. Although geared for 3ds Max, it holds true for other modeling tools.

 

Modeling High-Low Poly Models for Next Gen Games

[Alecu]

I don't really feel that high poly count is a problem. In the tutorial posted by LHammonds an important step was to model high poly count models and generate high quality normal maps and textures from those models. If you feel comfortable doing this, you might end up making high poly count versions of your model and bake normal maps and similar textures for a lower poly count model.

 

The sword can be a reference for a lower poly count model. In the tutorial stated above it says that round surfaces that bend around the details produce the best normal maps. So you might try to model a very low poly count version and bake normal maps from the high poly count one. The shape of the low poly count one can be as much a a box extruded several times ,with a subsurf level 1 modifier applied, to make a shape that encloses/is enclosed by the high poly count model and then bake the normal maps. It might be worth giving it a shoot though I don't know how easy it will be to bake those textures.