Evilsbane - Fable Blades Master Sword no .1
polycounter lvl 11
Started working on this about a week ago.
Design by Brendan Olszowy and Jefferey J Robinson
Reference images / Real Sword
I'll be posting updates as I go. Tell me where I can improve and point out if you see something blatantly wrong. Same old song and dance.
The aim for this is a mod for Syrim and rendering in Toolbag 2 with PBR textures.
LASTEST UPDATE:
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Design by Brendan Olszowy and Jefferey J Robinson
Reference images / Real Sword
I'll be posting updates as I go. Tell me where I can improve and point out if you see something blatantly wrong. Same old song and dance.
The aim for this is a mod for Syrim and rendering in Toolbag 2 with PBR textures.
LASTEST UPDATE:
[SKETCHFAB]e8c3e852e0874f07a25da115033d93d4[/SKETCHFAB]
Replies
low poly wireframe
I'm having some issues with the bake, which can best be described as gradient banding. Here's a shot from marmoset of the issue.
I'm exporting the high and low poly from 3ds max as obj. The bake is from xNormal v3.18.3 with a resolution of 8192x2048.
You can also try playing with your smoothing groups so there's less extreme of a gradient in the normals.
Some sword blades do have subtle lines on that are a result of polishing.
@billymcguffin Thanks for the tip. I tried baking as a tiff and converting to 8-bit tga. It does help with banding and introduce noise, as you said. There is still a bit of noticeable banding around the top and bottom of the fuller. I might rework the low poly to conform more to the high poly's shape.
tiff to tga normal map
I'm focusing on getting this thing into Skyrim, Toolbag 2 and PBR textures are secondary. I usually use 8-bit uncompressed normal maps in Skyrim, dds format. As is, they are large so 16-bit maps would be absurdly large. I will stick with 8-bit maps and try to mask it as best I can with detailing and wear.
I will be releasing this as a mod when all's done.
Almost everything was done by overlaying normal maps in photoshop. I had to use some baking magic to get the corrugation-looking detail correct.
started tweaking textures for PBR in Toolbag 2
Have a close look at the difference of your leather materials and the ones in the reference photos, there's a lot more texture to the surfaces. Also look at how the gold details on the scabbard have a heavy recess around them and then bump back out but are still part of the same piece (zoom in on the Hylian crest for example), whereas yours come across as thin and almost stuck on separately.
The blade and other metal areas look really cool though I'd consider giving the pommel some tarnishing which you can see in the final reference image.
Keep it up, awesome stuff
Here is a small update on the PBR stuff
I took Monophobe's advice and added more surface texture to the leather bits. I've made a few small changes to the metals.
At the moment, I'm using specular instead of metalness. Given that UE4 uses metalness, I think it might be the way to go when doing PBR materials. I might make the switch before I finish this thing.
The scabbard looks a lot better now and way closer to the reference images - always great to see people responding well and acting on feedback.
If you're adding this to your portfolio I'd suggest making some new renders without the huge light glares as it distracts from your work. Guessing you're using TB2 for renders which I don't have but I'm sure there must be some nicer HDR skies that will work well.
Since my last update I've switched from specular to metalness. I'm also trying to match the color variation of the bronze from the reference.
I am using TB2, however, I'd like to get it into UE4.
I'm calling this done. I switched to metalness and made a few small changes to the materials.
I don't currently have a portfolio, however, is this render portfolio worthy? 3D is just a hobby, at least at the moment. Hence the lack of a portfolio.
EDIT: As for the Skyrim mod, I have something loaded and ready to fire, but it's not completely ready. I'm undecided whether I will finish it or not.
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