Hello.
This is my first post here. I was referred by a talented artist part of this community. I have to say I started modeling with 3dsMAX only - 3 months ago - , so take that in consideration when you're commenting :P.
So I modeled a sword from Warcraft 3 -Frostmourne-. This is my latest work.
As you can see , I didn't model the billy goat because I haven't jumped to Zbrush yet, but im very exited to learn. I work 4 hours a day on average. I hope this forum will help me grow professionally.
I would like some tips/critiques/impressions.
Replies
Quick question: Are you going to make a low poly of this? If so, maybe you should block the whole thing out in 3ds Max at a lower poly count then bring it into Zbrush to sculpt the details?
If you are just making a high poly presentation you will still benefit by blocking out the rams head and making sure everything works correctly.
Everything you say is correct and I agree. The pommel naturally gets too short etc...but i cant use zbrush yet. As i said ive got only 3 months of experience with 3dsmax but will jump into zbrush the next couple of months.
I know its idiotic to do somethings in 3dsmax when you can simply do it in zbrush. The ram is one of them.
Maybe ill do a low poly version just to see what it looks like, till now i have mostly high poly stuff.
Thank you.
Remove anything that doesn't affect the silhouette. Triangulate faces, you dont need all the edges to run through the whole blade.
How many faces do these cylindrical shapes on the handle have? 5-6 faces should be enough, don't waste geometry in things that are so small, spent it to improve the curvature of the shape.
And last but not least do you really need that much geo on that pommel? It's like half the polycount of the whole sword, yet it's 5% of the volume of the sword.
Make these changes and it should drastically bring down the polycount while not making a difference in the silhouette of the sword.
You have a good base, but you need to go back in and match the proportions better with the concept.
True , true... some polygons dont affect the silouhette , ill remove them by collapsing some vets... but i have a question ? they should be all triangles ...is it okay if there are some tris and some polys ?
And how many edges are supposed to end in one vertex ? 4 ? 5 maybe ?
You can end as many edges in one vertex as you want as long as it doesn't create shading errors.
These are things that you learn by looking at other people's work and experiencing with your own stuff. Most artist don't even think about it when making the topology of the ingame lowpoly as it becomes "logical" with practice.
Overall you doing great for 3 month worth of experience in max, so you should be feeling quite chuffed with yourself. You progress so far is great but the sword is looking a little dense tricount wise but we all make that mistake early on by throwing polys left right and centre.
The guys above have given you some great feedback and tip but I'd also like to throw one in as well. Try to exaggerate certain features (such as the pommel) by scaling them up. This helps identifying the asset from afar as it has a clearer silhouette.
All in all keep it up and keep posting your progress.