Handpainted Fantasy Sword

Semi

Looking for feedback on these swords, mainly on the design and topology. The model I worked on was the one on the left, but I felt the shape was really awkward, and the sword would be hard to use. What do you think? The UVs and color are super temporary, but if you think the colors dont fit, id love to know. Thanks!

Youshi

Having a hard time reading the textures, the silhouettes are okay, and they work as a sword.

I would take a different approach to the construction that will give you much cleaner results.

- Develop a high poly
- Retop
- Bake AO, Cavity, Gradient/position, and maybe even and object space normal map.
- create gradient maps
- Touch up with hand painted strokes

You will end up with a much more professional result.

Semi

Thanks, I was actually wondering if that would be the better approach. The bakes will definitely be cleaner 

Semi

Current high Poly, added some wrapping in order to break up the shape a bit, but I dont think it work super well. Its maybe a bit lumpy but I think ill fix it with the bakes. Would love to have your opinion! 

Semi

Added some textures on top of it with some gradients and corrections in SP, definetely really fun to do.  Removed the wrapping. I still have some darker spot in the textures that I'll need to remove, but I'd love to have more feedback! Thank you and have a nice day

Youshi

Wraps are really simple to do! just need to problem solve!, This is a great video to watch from Josh Singh, he uses Zbrush in a very simple but effective way in this tutorial, great for beginners.

Skip to 28:30 and you can get an idea on how he does wraps. super simple, great results for stylised meshes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL75R0K_j7g

Semi

@Youshi
Sorry though I answered, thanks for the video, it's probably not gonna help for this project since I removed the wrap because I thought they were out of place and a bit cliché, but this is definetely some really useful info!