I changed the pattern on the gaurd to something bolder, on the theory that that portion would have to read from further away than the pattern on the hilt (assuming an FPS style camera). Not sure if I like it; I might change it to something closer to the original.
Finally getting back to this after being pulled away by a couple art tests. First pass textures in dDo; gonna go back in on top of that and tweak the masks and hand paint some scratches and the fine engraving on the blade.
Only minor thing is, that the connection of blade and handle is a tad sudden, it's not visible how it connects to the handle. Just a minor one but it feels like the blade just sits on the handle without physical connecting to it.
Ok, tweaked the area around where the blade meets the guard (including making the blade a touch thinner) and put it under some better lighting. I think it's done now.
Looks pretty good so far I'd say it just needs more details. Some wear on the handle and such. Imo whatever ddo gives me for a gloss map I always end up painting over more details. So I'd suggest that. Go wild with hand painted details in your gloss/roughness map to give it that used feeling. As for overall material definition, I'm getting mixed signals as the handle feels very well taken care of (polished) but the blade feels old and not polished very much.
I love the detailing on this!
Somehow while the hilt is nice and sharp, the detailing on the guard reads as a little flat/fuzzy by comparison. I'd suggest sharpening it up a bit, but other then that it is really looking fantastic.
Thanks for the feeback Joel. I went in and painted in more abuse on the handle to try and bring it in line with the blade.
Thanks Marshkin, I see what you're saying about the guard. I don't want to go back into the sculpt at this point, but I did go into the AO map and patina mask and tweak it to try and bring out the details in the guard as much as possible.
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Any specific references for the design?
http://swordscollection.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/french-small-sword-xviii-century.html
I changed the pattern on the gaurd to something bolder, on the theory that that portion would have to read from further away than the pattern on the hilt (assuming an FPS style camera). Not sure if I like it; I might change it to something closer to the original.
Maybe see if a generic clay polish does anything to change the look?
That being said, I'll paint in some more occlusion where the blade meets the guard to make it feel more grounded.
Somehow while the hilt is nice and sharp, the detailing on the guard reads as a little flat/fuzzy by comparison. I'd suggest sharpening it up a bit, but other then that it is really looking fantastic.
Thanks Marshkin, I see what you're saying about the guard. I don't want to go back into the sculpt at this point, but I did go into the AO map and patina mask and tweak it to try and bring out the details in the guard as much as possible.