Fantasy Sword

[hjonD]

Hello everybody! I wasn't sure if I was supposed to introduce myself somewhere, so I just skipped that step... I hope it wasn't rude of me

I'm new to both 3d imaging and Cheetah 3D, so I'll try to learn as much as I can from you

This is my first acceptable work.. help, critics and comments would be appreciated (link points to a zip file):
Click here!

[Francois]

Originally Posted by hjonD

Hello everybody! I wasn't sure if I was supposed to introduce myself somewhere, so I just skipped that step... I hope it wasn't rude of me

I'm new to both 3d imaging and Cheetah 3D, so I'll try to learn as much as I can from you

This is my first acceptable work.. help, critics and comments would be appreciated (link points to a zip file):
Click here!

Welcome in this forum
Well, for someone new at 3D and Cheetah3D, that's nice ! I like the detailed image as well as the design. Maybe I would have rotated the wings by 90°. Now you need the caracter that goes with it ...
And whenever you need help, there are a lot of us here just waiting for your questions

[frank beckmann]

Hi.
(Maybe 180°.) Nice modelling. The handle is too small in diameter related to the blade in my eyes.
Unfortunately the mov is a bit dark. Could be interesting to use a red emissive material for the eyes rendered with radiosity.

With kindest regards
Frank

[podperson]

Nice modeling.

In addition to Frank's comments, there's no counterweight (pommel). I realize that there's a huge Manga tradition of outrageous sword designs (it's also affected World of Warcraft's designs) but you don't seem to be going for that kind of look.

Here's a fairly typical "outrageous" World of Warcraft sword design:



And here's an actual, real longsword:



If you're going for realism, a typical knight's broadsword weighed around 1.2kg*. (Consider just how little metal was used to keep it that light.) The handle is a thin piece of metal wrapped in wood, leather, and string, or sometimes wire. (Consider how much it's going to hurt when you hit something hard with a piece of metal held in your hand, and now consider that when fighting someone with a sword or sword and shield you'll be doing that a LOT.) The blade, handle, and pommel are a single piece. A small crosspiece stops holds the guard in place. The other stuff is attached afterwards.

* from "A Knight and His Sword", the author actually went around and weighed all the surviving broadswords he could find.

If you're going for ridiculously exaggerated Manga style, you still need to "nod" towards realistic designs (even the most outrageous designs still have pommels, even if they'd need to be made of neutronium to counter-balance the huge blades).

[Dranix]

@pod: The photo shows no longsword, thats clearly a 1,5-haender aka Bastardsword. The Grip is much to large for a longsword.

[podperson]

@Dranix -- I don't think you're right.

The "bastard sword" in D&D is a "hand and a half". Historically (according to SPI, see below), the bastard sword was a long rapier (or "estoc"). If used two handed, the second hand was on the blunt part of the blade close to the hilt (the estoc was primarily a thrusting weapon designed to bunch through or between plates of armor). Note that Wikipedia gives a different account of the estoc, and conflates longsword, bastard sword, and hand and a half.

According to Wikipedia the weapon pictured above is a Swiss longsword. Wikipedia is not super reliable, but it's certainly more reliable than D&D. The D&D "longsword" is pretty much something that never existed. It's either a knight's broadsword (2.5lb) or a barbarian warsword. Historically (again, according to Wikipedia) a longsword is a bastard sword is a hand and a half.

Way back when I played RPGs there was a game called DragonQuest (by SPI) which had a completely different set of weapons from every other game (including RuneQuest) on the market at the time. The odd thing about DragonQuest is it was designed by wargame designers who would start every project by doing historical research. Imagine that. DragonQuest didn't have a longsword or bastard sword in it.

P.S. every vaguely credible photograph I can find of a "longsword" shows an extended grip. I haven't swung around a 4' long metal sword, but I'm guessing it's kind of strenuous, and an extended grip makes sense (even though swords weighed a LOT less than fantasy role-players think they did).

Also note that D&D made a lot of senseless distinctions. E.g. the longsword was a one-handed sword, as was a broadsword. In the game, broadswords did more damage to human opponents than a longsword but less against large opponents. Go figure. The worst case was polearms, where D&D included many weapons with different names which were, historically, cosmetic variations of the same thing.