WIP -Stylized Katana Sword

robertvovk · Feb 21 2026

I found a concept art for a katana sword by IWSE Zhang that I really like because it has more of a comic book stylized look. After gathering some references and making sure I understand the basic shape and form of the sword I started modeling. I am still not quite sure how detailed should I go with the high poly as I think a lot of the sword details can be done with textures. Here is my blockout so far:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/7y/ggksomtjgn8t.png

Concept Art:

PureRef

robertvovk · Feb 21 2026

Almost finished with the base model . I am just trying to add more details now. I am probably gonna try to do the red straps and ropes in zbrush because I find it quite challenging to model them since there are a lot of knots and different variations. Here is the model so far:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/8g/b7hsq04bf12l.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/lb/c0wqlqqxxiqb.png

kosh3d · Feb 22 2026

Great concept choice, love Zhangs art!

I think you rushed into the highpoly stage a bit too fast, I would have spend more time in the blockout making sure I'm matching the proportions correctly. You have a lot of problems in that area, most obvious is the sword handle and the cutout. It's also hard to tell from that perspective but I'd say that the sheath tube gotta be slightly more curved to comfortably fit the sword.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/m5/jqkhu4ztvdt2.jpg

robertvovk · Feb 22 2026

Thanks for the feedback, wil fix that soon!

robertvovk · Feb 27 2026

Some of the photos of my progress. I have added more detail and fixed some of the shape and dimensions issues. I am still working on the rope on top of the sheath, but I am about to sculpt some wood and metal details in ZBrush. I will probably keep it fairly simple and focus on just the big shapes and details, such as the large cracks in the wood as the rest of the details can be hand-painted in Painter, I think.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/re/yd6s3s7n9soc.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/86/lbovcjc74h16.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/5k/ar8l73dzulcu.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/7p/in14rodbwhmt.png

Ashervisalis · Feb 28 2026

Hell yaaaaa thats sick.

robertvovk · Mar 11 2026

I ran some render tests and some of the ambient shadows were too strong(the metal piece at the bottom of the sheath, for example), but that was just because the object weren't close enough to eachother. The rest of the model was fine, so I decided to move on to texturing. I also prepared an ID map to have an easier time texturing.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/3y/dgs8bw2o4sbt.png

The low-poly model is about 27k polys, which is quite a lot for a stylized asset like this. I would argue that it is a hero prop after all, so it is okay for the brief. I think that I might reduce the polycount a bit more once I have time, before I put this in my portfolio. I am only using one material because I think it is enough for a stylized asset like this. Here is the UV checker map. The texel density is around 17px/cm

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/10/ay3mslrlitf6.png

robertvovk · Mar 11 2026

For the texturing part, I was taking inspiration from an 80lv tutorial by Alice Hu, who was designing a stylized hand painted-textured Pokedex, which was similar to the style that I was going for and also created by the same concept artist. I knew I would be using Unreal for the final render because I needed to add the outline to the model, and I think it is way easier to do that in Unreal than Marmoset. I set up my render scene in Unreal first and created the outline using a duplicated model with inverted normals. I know this isn't optimized way of doing it as it doubles the polycount for the model but it was giving me a decent result so I went with it for the brief. Then I would continue to switch between Unreal and Painter to compare the renders. Since I am working mostly with just the base color texture, this gave me a fast way to see the results of my texturing.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/jv/9uyzmcco0a4s.jpeg

robertvovk · Mar 13 2026

I did some renders for today's deadline. The texturing is not finished, I still need to do more work on the gold parts, and add more wood details and maybe play around with roughness more, because at the moment it is too uniform for the whole model, and I want to see how it is going to look if I add more variations

Turntable

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/a5/30u0cqx3e3w8.gif

Render

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/9l/z3nph2bmx5ao.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/4j/iiwz94fylfl9.png

Albedo

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/v4/p6jr7u9glxtb.png

Ashervisalis · Mar 13 2026

The black outlines make me think of Borderlands a bit. you could push the style a bit towards that and texture in some comic style ink, would be neat. Either way, its looking cool!

WIP -Stylized Katana Sword

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