Katana low-poly

Prime8 · Mar 2016

I thought it might be a good idea to "quickly" rework my old high-poly katana and create a nice textured low-poly (not that low) from it.

First thing I learned was that reworking old stuff is NOT much fun and probably it wouldn't have taken much longer to just create the whole thing from the scratch again.

I want to post my progress here, comments and critiques are welcome as usual.

Finished the high, low-poly and baking, next step will be to add normal details.

OLD high-poly

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/te/is3u9btvscw2.jpg

NEW

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/zf/ehlq0buubz37.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/6a/sq8iqty0hgu0.jpg

Prime8 · Mar 2016

Low poly with first rough material pass

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/lu/q90mh5xtpuez.jpg

Edit: initially uploaded the png files instead of jpg, fixed that.

Shrike · Mar 2016

Looks nice, the blade should be rough not glossy tho Im pretty sure. The layered steel pattern is really rough

Panzerdraco · Mar 2016

Personally I'd tone down the gloss on the hamon.
The hand-sharpening usually really takes the shine out of it.

Prime8 · Mar 2016

Panzerdraco said:

Personally I'd tone down the gloss on the hamon.
The hand-sharpening usually really takes the shine out of it.

Shrike said:

Looks nice, the blade should be rough not glossy tho Im pretty sure. The layered steel pattern is really rough

Thank you!
I agree with you, the blade is too glossy.
The metal itself is not very glossy due to the sharpening and the metal structure itself, however the blade is usually polished and oiled which adds a second glossy layer. It's a bit tricky to find the sweet spot. If I make it too rough it looks like an aluminium sheet.

All other materials aren't finished either yet.

" The layered steel pattern is really rough"
Do you mean the style or how it is done? The style is quite rough, but that is the style I wanted. There are tons of hamon styles I didn't want to go with the usual smooth wave. The transition itself is a bit hard, I probably smooth that a bit.