simple old sword

Xazas · Feb 2014

Instead of starting another enviroment that I will never finish I decided to work on smaller projects for now with the goal of actually finishing them. I want to get more experience to get better at something with every piece.

So here is my first sword that I made and my first try at PBR.

Critique is highly appreciated, I need it.

I liked working on It and I plan on making more medieval weapons.

atomicguppy · Feb 2014

I am not sold that it is a real sword. It looks like the hand guard, handle, and pommel are all made of wood. Now, I am no expert, but I don't think that is how swords were historically made. I think those parts were frequently made of metal and the handle was wrapped in leather or hide or something. You might want to go back in and try to make those textures look more "metal-y".

Also, if the sword was used in combat, then I would expect to see some scratches and nicks where it hit other hard mettle bits, like armor and shields.

The model seems pretty good tho, it would be nice to see a wire frame. Keep up the good work man!

Erafic · Feb 2014

I agree with atomicguppy on showing us a wireframe, perhaps showing us the texture map as well.

To me the things that popped right away were the grip and the pommel. The leather of the grip one can see you've put in some extra loops to make those ridges, yet they dont get any love from the texture that just lays flat on top of them. Make them more torn, a slightly other hue or anything to make sure they're seen, otherwise they might not be worth the polys. Second, the normal on the pommel looks like its rusted and been drawn along something rough, quite opposite the smooth blade. It'd been better if the details on it actually followed the shape. [Example]

Its a nice start though!

Xazas · Feb 2014

Thank you both very much for the comments!

I worked a little on the handle and pommel. Brought in a a lighter tone on the edge of the rifts and made the handguard and pommel less noisy.

Also here are the requested wires and the texture sheet:

Xazas · Feb 2014

Mean while I made something new, a shield to the sword.
I learned a lot doing this like I tried to sculpt something for the first time. I sculpted the bolts and the edges od the iron parts. The wood I have to admit is photosourced, there is no way I could sculpt nor paint something like this.
The coat of arms is also not from me, but you get bonus points if you guess right where I'm from.

Critique is as always highly appreciated.

I should rename the thread since it is not only a sword anymore.

theStoff · Feb 2014

Hey xazas, your shield is looking pretty cool but the metal looks a bit like rock. I've had that issue in the past but mainly the wear/damage is to rough. You want a smootther surface with scratches. I'm also not sure if you have specular maps. If you do they aren't apparent enough so I would increase the intensity of the spec. As for your sword I notice you have even specularity across the whole blade. It should actually be brighter around the edges. You could also work your roughness map into the spec.

BlenderCube · Feb 2014

I think that the shield has a little too much contrast between the metal and wood, it looks like the wood has been repainted while the metal rim and head have been left. I would suggest chipping away at the paint to make it look like its peeling off and adding dents to the rim.
Unless you want it to look refurbished.

As it is, the shield is still a nice piece.

stevston89 · Feb 2014

The shield looks much better than the sword. I have a few crits. The metal has no spec on it whats so ever currently. Even old metal has specularity and areas would be worn down/ scratched allowing for higher specular response. The paint also completely cover the gaps in the wood, which probably wouldn't happen. To sell the paint I would remove it from the cracks in the wood, add some specularity to it, add areas where the paint wore away/ flecked off, and add areas where the paint pooled and you can't see the wood grain. Some images for thought.

Xazas · Feb 2014

Sorry for the lack of response, I had very little time to work on this last week.

Thanks everyone for the help, especially the images were very helpful as I was evaluating the dark metal very wrong.

I gave the metal parts another base noise for the normalmap and tweaked the base values of the diffuse and roughness to make it shine a lot more and I hop I got a more "metallic" look this time.

On the wood I chipped away some of the paint, however I am not sure if it looks natural enough and not to random. Also I tried to put in some paint drips.

simple old sword

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