Double check the tip of the blade; compared to the ref yours seems to taper towards a narrower tip by a small margin. On the opposite end, the reference has a much thinner section where before the blade edge stops at that angle. This is partially because the curved edge where the blade begins to taper towards the cutting edge is much stronger and smoother on the ref; yours is much flatter and inconsistent. Don't place such curves by hand; use subdivision with the least amount of geo (control points) necessary to form these curves, or use tools that can create perfect curves (like falloffs or soft-selections).
As an example of that last point, I grabbed a kurki pic I had and did this in ~5 min. Simple control points = minimum hassle, accurate curves, easy to adjust. The bottom blade should have double control loops to keep the edge widths consistent, if I were doing this for reals I'd do that and also have ensured the control loops were at equal distances by using the Slide tool rather than just adding loops. Not sure what the max/maya equivalent terminology is, but the idea is hopefully clear.
Rework the Materials a bit. The Handle looks like glossy Latex Leather or some kind of that. I Think the handle is some kind of hard rubber / ABS Plastic.
Add some Roughness Variation to the Blade, and a bit of wear.
I love the way that came together! I also love the detail on the writing on the blade, though isn't it turned 180 degrees from the real one?
I agree that the leather looks too shiny. It looks like it was oiled up. I like the flatness of the blade, though. I've seen metal that looks like that, and it looks just as un-real in real life. I think the original had a little bit of steel at the sharp edge, though.
@Gazu yeah I scrapped the materials used in the ref, reworked the model and the texture to go for a different style, explained in one of the photos posted previously, thanks for the input though the leather sure is glossy. It was far less in quixel, marmoset pls.
@wccrawford yeah definitely is crazy glossy but I'll upload how it looked in quixel! Something weird went down in marmoset so sad. Still happy with how it came together overall though
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As an example of that last point, I grabbed a kurki pic I had and did this in ~5 min. Simple control points = minimum hassle, accurate curves, easy to adjust. The bottom blade should have double control loops to keep the edge widths consistent, if I were doing this for reals I'd do that and also have ensured the control loops were at equal distances by using the Slide tool rather than just adding loops. Not sure what the max/maya equivalent terminology is, but the idea is hopefully clear.
Moar things, variations of the steps taken to reach my smoothed hp ready for bake onto the lp.
Ended up changing it completely texture wise also, will upload final result.
I Think the handle is some kind of hard rubber / ABS Plastic.
Add some Roughness Variation to the Blade, and a bit of wear.
I agree that the leather looks too shiny. It looks like it was oiled up. I like the flatness of the blade, though. I've seen metal that looks like that, and it looks just as un-real in real life. I think the original had a little bit of steel at the sharp edge, though.
@wccrawford yeah definitely is crazy glossy but I'll upload how it looked in quixel! Something weird went down in marmoset so sad. Still happy with how it came together overall though