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Permafrost · Jul 2011

Hello there Polycount, for a long time I have stalked these forums, I have just recently begun diving into the world of 3D art, started in October. I'm looking to progress my skills as a 3D artist and possibly make a career out of it in the future sometime. Well, I see the norm for the first post is to throw some sort of WIP on here so heres a little model i'm currently working on.

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I'm still learning as im going. As of right now i think that im going to have to remodel the blade or the guard, since I modeled everything in pieces and it doesn't seem to be working out too well, and I messed up a couple areas. But the biggest problems i'm having as of this moment is figuring out how to model the design on the guard, and the design on the blade. Im using Maya 2011, if thats any help, and the renders are with Mental Ray.

Heres my main reference for this model, as of right now it may look a little different but I added in Materia where there should just be holes.

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Permafrost · Jul 2011

started re modeling the guard piece, C&C is very welcome as it can only help me get better. Any body know the best way to go about doing the design on it. Should I model it a second piece or should I attempt to make add in the edges and model it as one piece?

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P442 · Jul 2011

hi. When i first started learning 3D software, I would follow tutorials or videos and also went out and got books on the software I was using. I would suggest you do some tutorials and not worry about being awesome just yet. This sword requires that you have a stronger modeling and texturing foundation. Its great that you're trying this, but it will probably be better if you do less complicated stuff and come back to this.

Permafrost · Jul 2011

what would you suggest to start out with?

ErichWK · Jul 2011

Can't go wrong with starting with a good 'ol box.

Lucas Annunziata · Jul 2011

Start out with some crate and barrels. Simple stuff that you can completely mess up, then look back upon and laugh, but in a good way like a "I'm making progress kind of way". Also, when showing off what you're working like this sword, you could condense the 3 ortho shots there to one image, and ditch the black background.

bisse123 · Jul 2011

to Permafrost: Great start. I would not recommend you to do a barrel, crate, box or whatever these guys are telling you to do. From the get go, you should be making stuff that you think is cool and enjoy working with - the sword in this instance.
I think you'r off to a great start with this sword-model. You will learn a lot by taking on great challenges that from the outset is above your skillset (outside comfort-zone). Because this force you to think outside the box and use your creative skills. Then you can always come back and do another similar piece, where you apply all the stuff you have learned.

bisse123 · Jul 2011

oh btw:

But the biggest problems i'm having as of this moment is figuring out how to model the design on the guard, and the design on the blade. Im using Maya 2011, if thats any help, and the renders are with Mental Ray.

For now I would suggest not to model these details in. When you get to the texturing-phase, you paint the details instead.
If you want to take it a step your, you can model those details separately and then bake them down onto the base-mesh with a normal-map.

Permafrost · Jul 2011

I can understand starting out simple, but I started modeling back in October. I have already made more complex models, I modeled a bowling alley scene, a restaurant, and a pretty complex living room environment just trying to get the feel for different things. As far as my texturing skills I have an alright grasp on it so far. Heres a scene that I only did the textures on.

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A lot of it is photo-sourced, + a bit of PS to try and dirty up a bit of it. I set up the lights the camera and did the textures.
I do appreciate everyones input though, maybe I will put the sword on the back burner for now until I can figure out how to go about modeling the design on the guard, or maybe I'll just go about painting them in and possibly doing a normal bake off of that. But i'll decide on it, and work on getting textures right can never hurt for anything.

Oh and as far as the black background what would be a better color to have it as? or would screen grabs from the viewport be better, these shots are done in Mental Ray btw just in case I forgot to mention it.

bisse123 · Jul 2011

Actually in your screen-caps we can't see anything because there is too much geometry relative to the distance of the camera. I think your Mentalray renders are fine, just composite them together as someone else suggested and maybe use a dark grey color instead. If you need more hints on presentation renders, there's a particular one that rocks -> http://www.artemstudios.com/2010/tutorials.htm
Its for 3dsmax but you should have no problem doing it in Maya as well (though I'm solely a 3dsmax user)

Random model, rendered using this technique:

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Play around with gradients to make it appear more 3D and outer shadows/glow to emphasize the contour of the model like below:

P442 · Jul 2011

http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-training/free-tutorials/?cat_id=23&sub_cat=0

here are some free tutorials.

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