Need help modelling a tsuba for a katana

TheAxiom · May 2014

I'm modelling a katana and I've gotten to the tsuba. There are some really beautiful designs out there but I'm having trouble making one efficiently. (I'm not going for this design, this is just a simple example)

I begin with a spline, drawing over an existing template.

Then I attach the splines and use shell to make it three dimensional.

Lastly I need to chamfer or extrude the edges so I can turbosmooth the tsuba, but for that to work efficiently it needs to have clean topology. There is no way I can manually do the topology here myself, so I use Turn to Poly to do it for me, but that's shit and it's making turbosmooth ball up the faces.

I've seen images of all kinds of beautifully modelled tsuba's online, so I know it's possible but I can't seem to get around topologising it for turbosmooth. Help please! (:

jRocket · May 2014

You may want to start with a lower poly model so it's easier to manage all those edges, even if your fancy shapes are just squares. Then, once you've got the smoothing working, you can go ahead and get those fancy shapes the way you want them.

TheAxiom · May 2014

jRocket wrote: »

You may want to start with a lower poly model so it's easier to manage all those edges, even if your fancy shapes are just squares. Then, once you've got the smoothing working, you can go ahead and get those fancy shapes the way you want them.

That works fine for very simple designs like this one, but for more complex ones, having to do all the topology myself will take freaking forever. I guess it's the only way?

dzibarik · May 2014

I don't see a problem. If it is flat then triangles and n-gons are alright. If you intend to bend/deform it then it's better to retopo it by hand after booleans.

cookedpeanut · May 2014

Ok, the way I see it you need to break it down. At the moment you're trying to connect those complex shapes directly together, that won't work as you can see from the result.

Fortunately it's on a flat surface, so take advantage of that. As previously stated, boolean those shapes into the mesh, dissolve the edges and start the re-topo by hand.

However, you need to add in edge-loops to break the long stretching triangles/quads. So create inset-like edge loops around the shapes and then start connecting the rest.

Also, from the looks of it - you have far more edges than you really need, you could cut down on that.

fatihG_ · May 2014

Here is one I made not too long ago.

Basically you need "buffer" polygons around hard edges like cookedpeant showed in his paintover.
If you look at my example, I didnt really give a shit about the topology of the flat areas. Only the holes/details and what not have proper topology and an additional edgeloop to act as a buffer between the "crap" topology and the clean topology.

TheAxiom · May 2014

Okies thanks guys! Boolean doesn't seem to be as effective for me as it creates topology by it's self. If I just make it all out of splines then shell it out, it creates a blank slate without any edges for me to topologise it myself.

Appreciate the help everyone. (:

Need help modelling a tsuba for a katana

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