Fictional Ceremonial Knife

FancyMug

Hello Polycounter!
I've been working on this fictional ceremonial knife in my spare time. No real plan with this, just kind of freestyling with it and having fun. I do want it to look over the top, maybe even a little garish. Any thoughts/feedback is always welcomed. Thanks

Ascherrit

Hey FancyMug, 

It looks nice. But for a knife, in my view, the edges of the blade will be more sharpen. Then seems to rounded to me.

Krystian_Zem

This looks great FancyMug, All of it done in Zbrush? And I agree with Ascherrit, the blade should be sharper, even a butter knife would cut better than this

MarcoAntonio

The blade is way too thick and the handle is way too square.

FancyMug

@Ascherrit Thanks for the feedback. 
@Krystian_Zem Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I'm going for a fancy butter knife lol jk. and 99% done in zbrush, a little done in Max. 
@MarcoAntonio Thanks for the feedback. 

So I did a little experiment (I seen this kind of example on polycount before, just never did it for myself). I did a quick retopo of the blade and baked two different normal maps. The left LP has a normal map with the HP blade looking like a butter knife (more beveled). The right LP has a normal map with the HP blade being very sharp.
So the farther away the blade moves from the camera, the more the edge disappears. 

So I'm a little reluctant to make the edge really sharp because the light will fade faster the farther away the blade is from the camera. I've kind of always been under the impression that what plays better in the light will look better. I don't really know what to do, or what should be done. I open to suggestions. 
Any and all opinions, critiques, and commentary are always welcomed. Thanks!

Ascherrit

I have search some references. 
What kind of material do you want for your blade? (Metal? Bone? Other?)

On these references (with a bone blade) the blade is thinner at the end than at the start.  And it the same verticaly.



Try to do this on your blade and I'm pretty sure that will give you a better result .

FancyMug

@Ascherrit Thanks for the idea for the bone.
Its been awhile since I've got a chance to work on this. I did get some time over the weekend. 

Update:
I finished the sculpt, retopologized and uv'd. I baked using Substance Painter. I think the bake turned out pretty good. 
I am not moving on texturing. I'm trying to decide what type of materials to use. I think the bone is looking pretty cool
All C&C welcomed. 
(WIP)

Normal Map Bake


Final Zbrush Sculpt


Material exploration