Two things I did

[Balthazar]

I started out with the easiest thing I could think of.....a ball.... I then thought it would be cool to make an entire set of billiard balls....and viola.

 

 

I think had the hankering to make a sword and did this.

 

Does anyone have any pointers on how to make the blade look like real metal? I used the "metal" material, but it doesn't seem to work.

[bentothemax]

Hey, nice job

 

 

The sword, for the blade to look realistic, you need an enviorment.

 

For metal i would suggest, a dark grey, 80 percent spec size, 90 spec intenisty, 10 reflect, 50% reflect blend, 1 rough, 5 rough scale

 

 

Ben

[jon]

two things will help your blade:

 

1) i've never seen a sword with a dead flat bade. there's at least a ridge or grove, and occasionaly evil glowing runes that suck the life force from it's tormented victims, leaving them a hollow husk of a thing, succeptible to your will, unless they make their saving throw.

 

2) environment maps make things look reflective, otherwise it's just reflecting the void of your empty choreography.

 

-jon

[Balthazar]

jon.... ha ha ha, I think you and I would get along great... I'm still learning everything.

 

The blade DOES have a ridge:

 

I would LOVE to make a sword with runes and/or runic fire lettering etched into the blade.... but that's later on down the road, when I've learned how to do that.

[jon]

i see the ridge... it'll pop better with an environment map.

 

i've only ever seen roman swords with that 90 degree chisel at the point.. most middle age blades were rounder as the sides converged on the tip.

 

not a recommendation, just an observation. ' ' )

 

-jon

[Balthazar]

i've only ever seen roman swords with that 90 degree chisel at the point.. most middle age blades were rounder as the sides converged on the tip.

How's this look? It took me a while to get the added CPs to play nicely with the materials

[nixie]

For etched runic symbols, try making a bump map (black and white) just the text (black) and the background (white/grey) and add it as a new decal to the blade, change the type to bump map and see how it looks. Make sure its not harsh edged, blur it a little -depends on what you want.

 

personally id take the roughness off and leave it smooth, and you wont see reflections in it if theres nothing to reflect!

 

Hope it helps - Nixie

[Balthazar]

How would I add a texture to the bump? Say if I were to write ABC on the sword and wanted it to look like it was glowing molten lava, while keeping the rest of the sword grey and shiny.

 

Also, Is there a Lettering wizard of some sort? I've seen a couple projects where things had letters on them that were actually splines. The letters looked really nice, as if they were a font, rather than were modeled.

[nixie]

This is something iv never dealt with but there is a font wizard (makes geometry out of text - you choose the font) But im not sure if its inside am or seperate. Try right clicking and choosing wizards whilst in a modal window. you could place this on top of your sword and give it a glow property

 

Regards - Nixie

[Balthazar]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I would also like to make another sword for that. One that will scare the crap out of people. A sword that could be held by the geekiest computer nerd and still strike fear into the heart of the most experienced warrior... AH HA HA HA HA HAHA!!!!!....... ok, sorry about that. I would like to make a more realistic and darker-type sword for the runic one.

[Julian]

How would I add a texture to the bump? Say if I were to write ABC on the sword and wanted it to look like it was glowing molten lava, while keeping the rest of the sword grey and shiny.

You would need to add a decal containing three images: a bump map with black text on a white background to make the text look recessed, an ambiance map with white text on a black background to make it glow, and a color map with text in a lava pattern and an alpha channel that makes its background transparent.