I was going to make a scene with drow, but didn't have any swords I liked, because IMHO, drow would often use short weapons, because of the dirty fights they get into, ie, assassinations, tunnels, alleyways etc, where a long blade is actually a hinderance.
The blade is meant to be adamanine thus the look
for those interested, I made it in Rhino 4, rendered in Maxwell, textures made in Photoshop, runes are Photoshop brushes by other folk.
Honestly, my first thought was, "oh neat, artwork!"... then I opened it and thought, "wow, he actually made a sword and took a picture!"... then I looked closer and thought, "wait, that -is- art, it just looks like a photo!" :D
Well done! And it looks perfectly Realmsian to me.
*bows*
Photrelaism isn't my normal thing, I liek very stylized look in 3D, but for model work, it's fun ;)
Lord Karsus
well it's meant to have poison flow down the blade which I think would be a magical effect.
cheers!
thank you!
I always imagined Drow blades being made of darker metals. Not quiet black but an obsidion or such. Just a darker shade of iron I guess. I'm not sure if I have a source for this preference but I think it fits the mojo better.
seriously. If something is pure black or almost, unless it's a logo or some simple thing, it looks crap, because in real life, you never get pure black, and it won't show up well.
think about it a minute.
Obsidian is very lustrous, unlike metal which is reflective, also obsidian isn't worked like metal, it forms many very intricate shapes, all of which throws off lots of interesting highlights and also subsurface scattering occurs because it's not 100% opaque (like jade and marble, light penetrates and refracts though into it's surface a very short distance).
If you did the same thing with a black blade it would look hell of a boring....and I want interesting:D
metal is flat...well, my blade has a fuller done in a way like hand hammering which add slight curvature but nto enough to theow lots of difference lighting.
So making it pure black = boring.
you gotta rememebr, I positioned the light specifically to shine off it.
Question: How long did it take you to make this? I am curious as I work with quite a few artists
well, it is dark, there's a lot of light on that scene, so it would show, and normal steel can't look like that, unless you did streaking with a set of different bluing agents then laquered it ;)
In the dark of drow cities it woudl be very dark indeed.
No worries though!
Shiftkitty,
hehe well you'd need ot get a good swordsmith to make one.
Raven Armouries in England is one of the best but EXTREMELY expensive and has a 2 year waiting list. Hm, I wouldn't mind "Snaga" the axe of Druss the Deathwalker from David Gemmell's books.
other folk get things made in India, there's a small region where that's the local trade, making arms and armour!
unundindur,
ta!
about 15 days it took to make, in RHino and Photoshop.
jagged, in reality = bad ;) looks neat, but bad for snagging, so I only did one jaggy bit :p
that one you'd do nasty stabs and flowing slashes, not heavy lopping strokes.
