Atlantean Sword

NAIMA

Hello ,I wanted to remake the Atlantean sword of Conan the Barbarian for the Skyrim game and I started boxmodeling the object , but I am not actually sure how far I can box model befoure bringing it into Zbrush ...
any Comment or advice woudl be helpfull , also please give me your opinion on the modeling so far ...

thanks a lot ...

Updated!

not Sure if I showed them before but here is the final result I did some long time ago ...

More Photos here.

NAIMA

I guess no good modeling?

iniside

Look good. At lest for me.
What I would change is the bottom part of the grip. It looks like blob. I would make holes bigger, and more hard edged.

But if you have Zbrush R3 or R4 or any version with dynamesh, you no longer need to keep clean quad topology. Zbrush will retoplogize mesh for you. Just keep in mind to keep blur at 0, to preserve hard edges.

Other than that. Star sclupting and we will see what you will get .

NAIMA

Thanks , I am still working on it and the pommel is still a block to carve ...

here is another update that shows how I am blocking out the Pommel as well as some minor refinements ...

I think to bring it in Zbrush for detailing and adding the more difficult details ....

What do you think of this as a base for Zbrush ? any sugestions?

NAIMA

Btw I tried to use dynamesh to merge blocks together but even with max resolution seems I get very sloppy results ... any ideas?

Texelion

The dynamesh resolution is depending of the size of the mesh, because there is a kind of cage around it if I remember. If your mesh is bigger than the cage or too small, the dynamesh won't work properly. To have the good size, try to set your mesh as the same size of any zbrush primitive. For example, append a PMD3D sphere to the scene and scale your sword to the same size. But tiny parts like the pommel could still be too small.

Anyway, I like the idea. You almost modelized everything already, ZBrush work on this will not be really hard. I suggest to activate the "polish" option of dynamesh and hit the "crease" button before subdividing and let the smooth activated. If you subdivide without the smooth you will see the polys, but "crease" + "smooth" works really well, it will smooth the surface but keep the edges.

NAIMA

Thanks , I decided to split the box modeling in pieces to work on them separately so I guess I didn't need yet the dynamesh .... here is a WIP from the Zbrush work ... what do you think guys?




Also .... I have made this all with boxmodeling and after ported in Zbrush for detailing , I understand that the Sword is not Really 100% accurate in every scratch , scale or numbers of fibers sculpted on the pommel or stuff like that ... now Are those things important when making a 3d version reproduction? or Some flexibility is allowed when is handmade and not scannerized?

Is enough the resemblance or every detail must be 101% accurate if possible?

Like for example the small blockets of the final tip of the Pommel are more randomly made rather than following exactly the shapes on the original ... tough I also found that several Atlantean sword have very different minor details like Marto , Albion , the movie one etc ...

what are your opinions ?

Please be critical so I can improve ...


Of course I still need to add some other details like scales, scratches, random noise etc....

Texelion

Maybe some real Conan fanatic will hunt you down and probably kill you if it's not exactly the same...

But the players will just be gratefull if you doo a good looking sword with a good texture...

NAIMA

OK Here I completed the main sculpting , I just need to add some noise here and there I think ... what do you think of this boxmodeling/sculpting for reproduce the Atlantean Sword of Conan the Barbarian?

Does it look good ? is it worth calling reproducttion of theatlantean sword or is not?

How do you suggest me to furter detail?

thanks for any answer and comments ...

Jack Ryan

Very impressive!

NAIMA

Thankyou ..... what do you suggest me to improve or change or fix?

NAIMA

Hello .... this is how the Low poly model looks , 3500 polygons ...

what do you think?

BobtheGreatII

Looks like it came out really clean. Good job.

NAIMA

I am having difficulties in making a good texturing for this , first because polypainting and masking by AO in Zbrush to me is not working for some weird reason... then because I couln't find a decent picture of the atlantean sword to use as photosource so I just did the following :

1 used several types of smoothing masking in zbrush and painted over ...
first passed a very dark brown metal material
2 I then masked at the maximum and passed a metal texuture all over the sword so leaving some dark spots ...

3 I did some different degrees of masking to catch other areas of the sword that touhgt needed the more bright part

4 I have manually highlighted a bit some areas with a brush in gray lighter color ...

5 exported all pieces to xnormal and baked as vertex colors

6 I finally overlayed in PS some cavity maps generated from the original normal map .

the total polycount is around 4000 polys ... I cont to reduce eventually up to 3000

a usual sword in skyrim is 2000 and used several times , while this is supposed to be a "hero" object so only one ...


tough I would really really appreciate some comments , and most of all critiques and constructive sugestions to improve and make it better or the most close to the original possible ...

Ok here it is the very very preliminary wip attempt at texturing , it's hand made so is not photosourced , I will try later on to use more original sources if I can find , but so far I couln't find good pictures to use ...

NAIMA

Just reupping this old thread couse only 2 months ago I finally released the mod....and I am wondering if I can use as portfolio pieces the following two items ....

The atlantean sword and the father sword from the conan movie of 1982...


I would like to get a critical review of this work and how would be the best way to presenti as portfolio piece?



Here the father sword zbrush wip....



Atlantean Sword Zbrush Work in progress



Atlantean Sword Zbrush pre baking



Low Poly Base for Zbrush





In game models low poly and optimized .





And as a non pro, how ould you rate my modeling / texturing / work ability from one to ten if 1 is crap and 10 is a pro?

loki1991

looks really cool however i recommend looking into finding a way to reduce the poly count. the smaller details can generally be painted on and if done right gives the illusion of a high polly mesh with only a little sacrifice of detail. this model would only be decent in a cg animation, or a still picture, where they do have a larger amount of pollys to work with. however it's always good to avoid wasting any pollys.

NAIMA

The last images , are rendered in marmoset , the polycount on those are around 900 to 1000 tris., the details are from the baked normal maps and the speculars.
The low poly wires posted above were instead for the base mesh to be used in sculting once imported in zbrush , its not the same low poly model of in marmoset render.

NAIMA

This is an image that shows how is the actual Low poly model wireframe that is ingame .....

Shrike

The new versions look sweet. Here is a reference for the conan one, well too late now, but had this somewhere saved http://www.teraasekeskus.com/tuotteet.asp?osasto=fantasia&ID=2446
The new metal looks really nice, but try to not make it too noisy, it is really harsh on information and you AO is definitely too strong

NAIMA

I did more or less noisy and kind of dirt to match the environment of the skyrim game , but what shoudl I do to turn this into a portfolio piece? And is it worth for portfolios? Does it look pro or amateurish? What should I include , maps , views etc to present better?

NAIMA

sugestions opinions evaluation?

Aga22

kick ass. well done. i always wanted to make the father's sword...

NAIMA

thankyou , but is it of a professional wuality level? Is it good to use for portfolio pieces to show off my abilities? What else shoudl I furnish that with or how shoudl I organize its showcase as PF thing?

Bek

You could have optimised the low-poly more; for example do the monster's heads that form the crossguard need the teeth modeled in? Probably not. You might be able to simplify the crossguard/pommel geo in other areas too.

The texture does look overly dirty but it was for skyrim I guess.

NAIMA

perna wrote: »

naima: You say the lowpoly is between 900 and 1000 triangles. That can't possibly be right??

And yes, the lowpoly is the weakest part here. The polygon distribution seems random.

The principle of good polygon distribution is very simple: Use more geometry on large shapes than on small shapes. You've put an enormous amount of geo into tiny shapes, while the big important shapes are blocky. That's akin to carefully modeling out a zit on the face of a character while deciding to only use 3 tris for his nose.

Also, for a portfolio piece it doesn't make sense to make the textures crappy on purpose. If you absolutely need that look for a project you're working on, then make an alternative set of textures without all the random crap on them for inclusion in your portfolio.

What do you mean as crappy ?

Also why polygon distribution seems random on the Low poly? ( latest image )

I concentrated more polygon count on the details and less on flat surfaces as the blade ,that didn't require further extrusions .

Its a first person detail item , it is what is constantly in front of the player , and yes I was wrong on the polycont its not 1000 tris but 4400 tris

also its supposed to be a Hero item not just a random sword .

reducing the amount of details on the Hilt ( wich is what makes the most complex part ) would be very visible in game .

Its not for a mobile phone game but for a first person view item .

NAIMA

ok so the High poly is good but the Low poly is not and the texture is crap?

marcel gold

mate looking awesome from what i have seen looks awesome

NAIMA

Ok so in few words u sugest that I can use the high poly for portfolio but not the low and texture untill I make a less polycount evenized model and a new undirth cleaner texture?

NAIMA

not Sure if I showed them before but here is the final result I did some long time ago ...

More Photos here.