For my
project I chose to model the Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda video game
series. This was my first time ever using any modeling software so I chose
blender and spent some time learning it from YouTube videos. I made my life easier
by choosing a background image of the sword to use as a guideline which made
sure everything looked proportional and symmetrical.
The handle
was the easiest to make as all I did was extrude a cylinder along the image
which was extremely simple and took about 5 minutes. After that I modeled half
the blade by extruding single vertices along the background and by translating
sections of different thicknesses to get the desired depth. Then I would mirror
that half of the sword about the z-axis to get a perfectly symmetrical blade. I
did the exact same thing for the guard except it took longer because of the
more complex structure. For the triangles on the blade, all I did was make the
image and have it ever so slightly sticking off the sword so I would be able to
texture it and have it show.
After all
the modeling was done I started to add texture to the sword using different
materials to give it different colors as well as different reflective
properties. For the blade I made it very shiny as well as diffuse light so it
looked like a bright blade instead of a mirror, with a silvery colour. As for
the handle I did pretty much the same thing as the blade except I made it appear
less bright and more polished as well as gave it a navy blue colour. I did the
jewel at the base of the blade as shiny as I could as to make it look like polished
gold to which I got close but unfortunately I could only make it look like polished
bronze instead. Lastly, for the triangle pattern on the blade I made it a solid
bright yellow so it would look like it was glowing even with just a little bit
of light.
For the
scene I went with something simple and chose a neutral checkerboard floor
without any reflectivity and I also made a simple stone pedestal to which I
could rest the sword in. As for the light, I have it set up where the light
source is a large light emitting plane off to the right of the scene which adds
a lot of nice depth to the sword so it shows all the details and edges really
well.
I would have
to say that overall this was a very enjoyable project that took me about 15
hours total including learning time. Everything went quite except the couple
issues I had was getting some of the materials just right and also making sure
all my curved blade sections by the triangles had enough faces to make them
look smooth and curved. I definitely will have to do this again in the future.