Ok, let's go then. While watching Kent's livestream, I decided to start already my blocking.
I'll give some background for reference :
My profile :
Hobbyist. I tried to use Blender a few times over the last years but never got into it, only completing very random youtube tutorial, not learning anything really. I decided on an Andrew Price's advice in one of his video to subscribe to CGCookie, and I'm halfway through in the Modelling Bootcamp. I also participated in the vehicle contest after the Hard Surface Modelling part 1 tutorial.
My project :
According to Kent's guidelines, I decided to choose the sword as a goal, but for some variation, I chose a japanese katana. The main reason is that, in my dreams of "what could I do with Blender?", representation of japanese samurais is one of the main things.
My working planning
Each day, I take the train for 1 hour and a half to come back from work. I plan to use that time to progress in my homework. I'll be updating this thread with my progress, problems and questions each day.
Reference images :
Scale reference
Parts
Handle
Guard
Blade
Let's see how good (or bad I can make it)
Day 2 - Continued
Ok I decided to get a few things done before calling it a day :
First, I started to model the attachment of the butt cap with a hole in the grip and a leather piece attaching both together.
Then I decided to start taking care of the blade. The topology is incorrect, so there's a need for fixing near the tip, but it's already not too bad.
Where I'm at now :
Tommorow will be Tsuba (guard) day!
By the way @theluthier , are we supposed to prepare a scene? Or is it just bonus? (I see quite a lot of people doing it).
otowa I'm pretty sure it's a bonus. I remember him saying in the live stream that it is required in order to get an A+++.
otowa dude, this design is wickedly cool! Love all the work you did so far. Keep it up! 👍🏻
Small hint for today's later update :
Regret : Regret is a feeling of sadness or disappointment, which is caused by something that has happened or something that you have done or not done.
Example : He decided to model a nice elaborate Tsuba as the highlight of his Katana for CGCookie. He then had some regret because of the complexity of the task.
See you soon, people.
Day 3 - Tsuba Day
So... I've been looking at this kata quite a lot, now that I'm close to completing the modelling.
2 things in my mind : This handle fabric looks too... not sure about the correct term here... Stiff? Straight? I need to give some randomness to it. If someone can suggest a good way to make it appear more natural, let me know
Reminder
vs
Anyway... The second thing is that the central piece of the katana is the Tsuba. And it's a good display for decoration.
Tsubas come in all sorts of shapes, material, colors, themes...etc...
To give my model some substance, I decided I should go to something somewhat elaborate, but that looked reachable to me.
That was my choice:
The method was simple, but tedious. Like for the kamo, I went for vertex modeling. And damn that was loooong. It took me all my train time (so 1H30) of adding vertices, duplicating feathers, mirroring wing, and doing the head.
So I ended up with the following flat result, that I then extruded.
I added a disk below it, and used a mix of Bevel and Subdivision Surface modifiers to get the sharpness of the contour, and the roudness of the global shape.
I guess it's ok and I could leave it like this. But I have at least to clean the head a little (damn it looks derp compared to the original!) and if you look at the reference, all of the golden parts have some ... bumpiness to it, where my model is completly flat on top. The thing is I modeled without thing about that so if I want to update it I'll have to find a trick.
Edit : Of there will be some positionning issues as well...
otowa I guess that both your issues could be solved in the shading phase, Bump is your friend, although I'm not sure how Eevee is handling Bump. There must be some tricks to get that working. But I don't think that should be concerning you during the modelling stage.
And your Tsuba ( is that correct?) looks great! You did that in 1.5 hours? Amazing!
spikeyxxx Thank you. I'm trying to play a little with the "randomize" tool and it gets a little less generic in terms of shape. It looks less like repeats... Hmm... Not sure about the way to go...
Trying to randomize the handle fabric to get a more natural look... What do you guys think?
Original
"Randomized"
spikeyxxx I guess I won't confirm the randomizing right now, and put it aside until the end, in case it messes too much the model for the shading step. I'll put it right at the end if needed.
Ok.
Added some kamon near the guard, made the crane look less derpy, and fixed some blade topology.
I consider myself pretty much done with the katana. Since I still have time, I may had a sheath, and maybe a menuki, which is a decoration put just behind the fabric of the handle.
Maybe...
otowa this katana looks bad ass, love those details! I would definitely go with the randomized look btw, looks more realistic. Keep it up man, you’re doing great :)
ssmurfmier1985 As I mentionned, I'm just being a little bit careful, because in order to use the randomize function, I need to apply the array modifier. And I wait the time I'll be sure I can do it without any doubt.
otowa smart :) before you do, make a duplication of it and store it away in another collection. Or save that version with another name as a backup blend file. That way you can always come back to it if need be.
