The Witcher 2 silver sword

Mawcos

Alright polycounters, I'm gonna try to make the silver sword from The Witcher 2! Would be very grateful for any form of feedback/critique

I've only yet managed to put some references together but can't find a really good one, if someone could find some good refs feel free to post them here!

Mawcos

This is going to be the basic concept I'm working from. I copypasted some parts from other witcher swords so it would be more interesting imo.

marcobar

I recognized one of your ref photos as the replica sword CPR was awarding in a contest about a year ago. After a bit of googling I found this gallery: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.122221261290116.20376.122196397959269&type=3

Lots of different angles there, and all the better seeing as it's a real-life object you could work from.

Mawcos

Thank you marcobar! Just what I needed

Mawcos

Currently doing the high poly of the grip.

Bek

Also if you want more refs the in-game name for this sword is Aerondight — they're different designs between TW1 and TW2 though. Most difficult part will be deciding how you do the lowpoly for the wolf's head.

Mawcos

Thank you Bek

Mawcos

Small update

Mawcos

Started working on the blade


Trying to figure what the best way is to tesselate these part, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Crazy_pixel

solid modeling keep it up :thumbup:

Mawcos

Crazy_pixel: Thanks!

Mawcos

Progress on the blade. Having some pinching problems though, gonna try and fix that.

Itholon

I just made the same sword, from the same references, what are the odds? Also, since i am begginer, I am quite happy, you posted nice screens, so I can try and make similar blade, had some problems with the blood groove. :thumbup:

Mawcos

Itholon: Nice! Sure you do that! I'm fairly new at this as well so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Kimon

Looking really nice so far!
And, later, when you're making the low poly, don't forget to check the triangulation, it get's extra important when you want really nice reflections like on a blade or something. I max you can show hidden edges and flip them like you want, it should e something similar in maya!

Mawcos

Thanks Kimon I will keep that in mind

Mawcos

Working on the pommel, the details on the wolf's head are probably gonna be made with height maps.


Here's how the whole sword looks this far

Itholon

Nice, I made the pommel in same way. Only problem might be with the N-gon, that will fill out the edge of wolves head.

Itholon

Also I noticed your grip is fully round, while it should be quite flat. Ref: http://tinkerswords.com/2009022hilt2small.jpg

Mawcos

Ye but I'm modeling my sword from a whole other reference.

How the grip is made differ from sword to sword, the one I'm modeling from happens to be round

Itholon

I am modeling mostly from the artbook. And there is same sword, but with flat grip, but as I can see the real version is round. Now I am confused. Or maybe they just made the swords in more modular fashion I guess.

Mawcos

Hm, strange. Oh well, It's not like your version is wrong or anything And if you would want to change the grip either way, you just need to scale it.

Mawcos

Finished with the high poly of the pommels wolf head. I know the tesselation is crap but didn't spend so mush time on it since it's very small and it's just gonna be baked down.

Mawcos

How the handle looks this far

thepapercut

Really solid model my good sir. Keep pushing at it!

Mawcos

thepapercut: Thank you!

Itholon

Well I got my blood drain like this. Doesn't seem to cause any problem yet.

Mawcos

Itholon: Nice!

Mawcos

Working on the lowpoly

Mawcos

Took a couple of days to just relax, but gonna start work again now

Here's the finished lowpoly with baked normals and wireframe

Mawcos

Pommel with normals from a handpainted height map. I'm not satisfied with this part but gonna call it done for now. Don't want to get stuck with this so gonna keep working on the texture.

Mawcos

Update. Been working on and off with the textures, and boy was I glad when I saw that Quixel Suite was avialable for the public as an open beta for a couple of months! Now I can get some nice renders and my texturing-procces will be a whole lot faster I'm still gonna finish this sword with "traditional" texturing. I think I'm gonna see how it looks when I make the textures from skratch with dDo later when I'm done with my original textures.

Mawcos

Texturing done! And the whole project itself. Going to start with another portfolio piece so that I have as much as possible when the summer ends.
Alhough I will go back some day and edit some things that need to be fixed.

Crits are still welcomed