Katana hilt
by 
A more detailed shot of the hilt.
Blender 2.63
1000 Cycles
Textures Gimp
compositing in Blender
one photo used to create the ray skin
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I dont know but your first katana was better I think,
) and the detail on the handle was amazing. But now… its like a step back for me sorry 
I liked the combination of the red background with the golden material on the katana (I dont know how is it called
I also think the red worked better. The detail on the hilt is truly amazing though. There are a few funny things going on with the blade though. First it looks like it’s twisting so that when it leaves the image it’s no longer facing up. It’s probably just a perceptual thing because we can’t see the tip, and I think the light colored cloth contributes because the blade almost gets lost in it. Second, is the edge of the blade a single edge? If it is, I would consider taking the edge off a tiny bit.
Thank you guys, I really appreciate honest comments.
@Tom
You are right, lots of details get lost at this distance, they are still there, you just don’t see them
Its a little bit of trouble to choose the camera position for such a long object.
@Atlanisbase
Ahhhhh, once I read your comment and looked at the blade again, I can clearly see that, it is a weird perspective thing. It would definitely help if the metal fitting on the blade would be visible, since it is more box shaped.
The blade is single edged, but I actually don’t understand what you mean, sorry.
I see your point about the background colour, I should look at that again.
And for the details, maybe I can create a kind of split view.
Hoping to see some more comments before I start to create the next and hopefully final images
I don’t want to spam the gallery with too many images of this thing.
Regarding the single edge. In real life no two surfaces will ever meet at a perfect, infinitely thin edge, even a sharpened sword doesn’t have an edge one atom thick (or if it did, it wouldn’t stay like that very long). If you actually make the edge a very, very thin row of faces it will help eliminate the perception of the blade being 1-D.
And I wouldn’t worry about spamming the gallery others have posted more images of the same thing than you.
What you are writing makes complete sense, except the “1-D”
I will try it out today.
thanks again!
I’ll have to keep the suggestion about using a super-thin row of faces to make a blade edge in mind.
Useless information time…I read somewhere that the cutting edge of a Katana blade made by one of the legendary Japanese sword-makers hundreds of years ago was measured using modern instruments, and measured out to only a few microns in width – as sharp as a modern-day scalpel.:-O
I’m surprised seeing this features, thanks a lot!
@Robert
I think it might be a true story, but the sword must have been extreme fragile therefore useless for battle, probably thats how it survived the hundreds of years
I would recommend you to work more on the blade texture. There is a noticeable repetition pattern.
You put mine to shame i am depressed…must do better
I love the detail in the handle. One note of critique though, the Hamon on the blade is too regular, unless you were going for a manufactured look. (The hamon is the wave near the edge of the blade.)
The handle looks so finely detailed as to give of the vibe of superior craftsmanship, little details like having an authentic Hamon would really set the sword apart.
The more irregular and intricate the Hamon was, and the more stylish, was generally accepted as a mark of a better quality sword.
Thanks for the comments.
I’m not a katana collector or expert, but for sure there are many hamon styles.
The sources I use describe this hamon as sambonsugi, crafted by Kanemoto around C-1500, I’m convinced it is authentic.
At that time it was highly regarded, today it is considered… “monotonous, repeated pattern is a little boring”… didn’t read that before, but you proved it
@Scott
I’m not sure if a more irregular and “stylish” hamon was accepted as a mark of better quality in general. To me it looks like there are/were different ways of how to appreciate a blade depending on who and when.
However I could to some improvements on the blade if I ever work on this model again
The hamon style I will not change, I like this one.
Cheers!
Really beautiful render! I love the amount of detail in the hilt’s cloth/ribbon/material
I do like that you chose no-hi for the blade (personal preference is no-hi, can’t get why anyone would want bo-hi) and the tsuba is nice, but not in my preference ^^” Ah well, can’t assume everyone will have the same taste as me ^^”, Good job though!
haha I’m lost here, I know quite some stuff about Japanese weapons but I wouldn’t call myself expert
I though this one is a bo-hi, I don’t know what a no-hi is. I just checked my reference but couldn’t find anything as well.
Will you tell me?
Most certainly!
No-hi is the solid blade, I did mean to si bo-hi… being up working on stuff for too long does that ^^”
Ah well. Being up for 48 hours working did bear fruit, I got a farirly good grasp on how to make people
Maybe I understood.
haha! ah well ^^”
At least I can make humans fairly well-ish
Did you make the textures from scratch in gimp and or combined some brushes also? Just really amazed by the quality of the sword
Don’t really know what you mean by combining brushes.
There is only one diffuse and bump texture which are base on a photo use for the rayskin which is under the black wrapping.
All others are just black and white masks to blend different materials.