how do I model the blade of a sword?

Dastan

How do you create a blade like this? curves or box modeling? What about the edges? I am thinking about creating a box and just merge the edges and work on the details.. but I once made a knife using CV curves and it did work.. so.. what is the best option?

http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs15/f/2007/016/5/7/Sword_Of_War_by_stefanmarius.jpg

Chai

curves, surely you are joking ?? :P

this can easily be done via subd surfaces ...

PhattyEwok

The main shape can easily be sub-d modeled

The intricate work can either be done in Photoshop with height-maps and normal map converters

or

You could create them with splines and use the extrude modifier in 3ds max to beef em up a bit and then bake them with the rest of the sword

Snowfly

I actually think curves would be great to get the general shapes done, and convert to poly to get in the fine bevels. And I would definitely consider curves first to create the lacework and inscriptions.

Best option is up to you, whichever is faster or more comfortable to you, the end results are the same anyway.

Mark Dygert

I agree with snowfly, it doesn't really matter what method, they all get you to the same place its whatever is easier for you. Personally I use 3dsmax and using splines to knock in the outline then drop a edit poly on top and as long as its a closed spline its going to create geometry. Splines work great for objects like that especially if you're tracing it. But box modeling it would probably work just as well too.

Dastan

Ok so what I am trying to do is the Master Sword used by link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but now I found that the blade has not being as challenge as the side piece of the grip, the one that goes on both sides, can you guys help me? There is a picture of what I did so far with a few pictures of reference for the sword.

Vrav

Browse this sticky, it'll probably help. Just have the confidence to try new methods and the humility to rework something until you get it right. Look for the "CGChain Fundamentals" videos, probably somewhere in that thread - once you understand the basic principles of subd / poly modeling, you'll see it's only a matter of controlling edge flow in your favour, and if something is confusing, you will find you can just poly model the topology you need from scratch.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56014

Dastan

Interesting...

Now that you mentioned subdivision surfaces, I got a little confuse because when I am modeling in Maya and I press 3 on the keyboard I get the smooth mesh preview, and it does exactly what it says, it shows and let me work on smoothed version of my mesh without any changes on the standard mesh, and that is really nice.

But when I go and convert my standard mesh to subdivision there seems to be no turning back, I get stuck with the subdivision so.. when you say subdivision you mean the "SubD" mesh in maya, that let you subdivide individual groups of faces and work in different levels of detail, just like Mudbox does or.. smooth mesh preview?

throttlekitty

In Maya, the smooth mesh preview workflow is much, much better than the subdivision surface workflow.

As far as converting the smooth mesh into a 'real' one, save that step for last, and do it from a duplicate in case you need to go back for changes.

CheeseOnToast

Dastan wrote: »

But when I go and convert my standard mesh to subdivision there seems to be no turning back, I get stuck with the subdivision so.. when you say subdivision you mean the "SubD" mesh in maya, that let you subdivide individual groups of faces and work in different levels of detail, just like Mudbox does or.. smooth mesh preview?

I think the problem is that you're converting your poly mesh to a true subdivision surface rather than smoothed polygons. What you need to do instead is select your model and choose mesh>smooth[options]. Make sure division levels is set to 2, and apply it. That'll give you the same result as smooth preview. If you keep the history of the mesh intact, you can change the level of smoothing by choosing the "polySmoothFace" node in the channel box and changing the number of divisions.

Dastan

I found that if I use the Modify > Convert > Smooth Mesh Preview to Polygons, Maya does not destroy my creased edges as it does when I use Mesh > Smooth instead =o and ow.. I just found out that if I use mental ray to render the scene, it uses the smooth preview mesh instead of the standard one, and no need to convert or smooth it =o

Dastan

Ok, I did the sides but, now I need to do the piece that attaches the blade, but I can' t find any picture that clearly states that pieces, I found some toys that are supposed to be replicas but.. hard to trust

Dastan

when I import it to mudbox I get some problems with some non-square polygons, do I need to rebuild the geometry or what?

A-N-P

If your going to be sculpting your sword. It's best to keep your geometry in quads (4 sides polygons) Try to avoid triangles and N-gons. (Non 4 sided polygons) This will make your model much easier to sculpt and will result in much less artifacts and troubles along the way.

Keep working at it.

Dastan

I am almost there xD xDDD

Dastan

I need help to convert the NURBS blade for polygons in order to get it to mudbox =o

THE 5

This way?
Rightclick (quad menu) -> convert to editable poly

Dastan

Dastan wrote: »

I need help to convert the NURBS blade for polygons in order to get it to mudbox =o

but I don' t know how to make the 4 patches to become a single mesh without getting a messed geometry as a result.. they get converted in a weird way..