[WIP] #1 Glinstone Kris Dagger - research and blockout

Klodza

Hi guys! 

I have started a new personal project and wanted to share my progress so far. 
Currently, I have finished gathering references for the dagger I found in Elden Ring. After finishing the long quest from Sellen, I was rewarded with that beautiful ornamental dagger and immediately wanted to make a fan art of it. I used a lot of pictures I took in game myself but also found some concept art online of both the sword and the scabbard.  



In Maya, I made a slightly more detailed blockout of the dagger. I wanted to start adding a little bit of details now, as I know there's still plenty of details I will have to add later.



To keep myself organized I have made a roadmap of the project and set myself a deadline. The production of this dagger wouldn't take that long realistically, but I work a full time job so I'm taking into account the fact that I won't be able to work on it every single day.



Besides the blockout, I made a sculpt of a leaf in 2 versions. I will be attaching them later to the vines of the dagger. 




What's Next:
This is where the fun begins. I will be finalizing the basic shape of the dagger. Whatever details I can, I will add them now in Maya. Then I will start adding all the beautiful ornaments on the guard and handle in Zbrush.

Thank you to whoever is reading this post, feel free to leave any feedback so I can improve on it

See you later! 

Other works: https://www.artstation.com/klaudiamez

Klodza

[WIP ] #2 Sculpting Details in ZBrush, Retopology and Baking

Hi again, 

I'm back with some updates. I had my family over so I couldn't post anything earlier but I'm back at it again! 

Here's where I stand with the project.
Before I fully committed to sculpting everything I went back to Maya and refined the model to have it closer to the final shape. 



I did some tests regarding the ornaments on the pommel, just to see what would give me better results. I chose to go with the black mask and mouse pressure + inflate/inflate balloon while having activated radial symmetry. I wanted the ornaments to look manmade like on the concept art while being symmetrical to give it a harmonious look.

Sculpting:

Sculpting was quite fun, I was testing lots of brushes while making the ornaments. I watched a great tutorial showcasing how to achieve that clean, sharp look for the details and took example from it, I recommend watching it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RByXIvjcS7U&t=12s .
I started from the pommel and progressively went down to the blade. I had a few attempts at making this 'fabric like' wrap around the handle, I wasn't sure how to tackle it as it starts normally from the bottom and then sort of becomes one with the handle at the top. It has a quite unique shape, it's very similar to a celtic plaited knot. At first I sculpted those wraps manually straight on the handle but the result was not good. Then I made a separate model of it in Maya and dynameshed it with the handle but this way the hard edges in the wraps were getting destroyed.

The best result I got was unifying the wraps with the handle and not trying to merge the geometry or dynameshing it. If you know a better way of connecting meshes without ruining hard edges or details, please let me know



It was pointed out to me that some details are a little bit too smooth and could be more prominent. With the help of the tutorial I mentioned before I achieved a far better result. All using the dam standard brush.




The bottom of the hilt I sculpted using clay buildup and dam standard.  In Elden Ring the symbol of an eye appears almost on every model in the game, to emphasize that there is some greater force/thing always watching and always knowing. So I made sure to replicate this symbol on this dagger as well. If you look closer on the concept art, it does look like there's sort of an eyeball in there. 




Preview of the Sculpt: 

Retopology:

Retopology of this dagger was..an experience. I have realized quite too late that creating complicated vines that intersect with each other and the leaves will result in a quite difficult time in retopologizing it. Even though I tried to use the refined version of the blockout, it did not make things that much more easy. The intersecting vines I retopped in 3dcoat as it was far more time efficient and gave me better results than I got in Maya. 



The leaves I retopped in maya as they were not that complicated and didn't need to be attached to the rest of the vines, as long as they are aligned correctly and no seam is visible.

UV Unwrapping and Baking:

Next step was uv unwrapping all the parts of the dagger. I have straightened all the uvs that could be straightened and made sure everything has the same texel density and no uvs are overlapping. I did a few bake test bakes in marmoset and noticed few small artifacts where the cages of the leaves and vines intersect with each other, I will be correcting this later in photoshop as it's nothing major. This is the model already in substance painter with the baked maps applied.



What's Next?

I need to create ID masks of the high poly version, it makes texturing more organized and easier. Then I will use substance painter for the materials. I will start from the damascus steel and move up to the gold and gemstones. After this stage is completed I will be able to go in Maya and reduce the polycount as I increased it for the bake. 

See you in the next post!

Other works: https://www.artstation.com/klaudiamez

Klodza

[WIP] #3 Fixing baking artifacts and beginning of Texturing

Hi all! 
This will be a quick post with a small update.

Baking Issues:

I fixed the bake artifacts in photoshop with blur and smudge brush and
assigned ID masks for the high poly in marmoset then organized the dagger's parts into corresponding folders in substance.

Uv's ID:

Texturing:

I added basic materials including a gold smart material I have created previously for one of my environments. I still need to tweak it and add more surface/color variation and a dirt here and there. I will need to figure out how to apply that ornament in the middle of the blade as it's not a symmetrical shape. I might need to do it in photoshop and apply it like a sticker or with a wrap option in substance. 



What's Next?
Apply the ornaments onto the blade
Finish Texturing

Thank you for reading and see you in the next post!

Other Works:  https://www.artstation.com/klaudiamez