A knife!

[st0lve]

I just made my first real model, a knife. The reason I made it was because no one have started on a knife model for Gang War, so since I always want to do new stuff, I started on one.
Anyway, here are pictures~~

The polycount is just 520, so there is still much I can do with it. I'm making the blade thinner and I'll redo the chips...

Comments anyone?

:cheers:

 

[Maxi]

It's a bit... eh..well it's a bit meh...

 

[ray_MAN]

I hope it is WIP. This isn't a grreat model at all. The teeth look like the were just a few vertex adjustments.

 

[st0lve]

Yeah, ofcourse its still a WIP, I know that the chips suck, but if you just read a bit, then you see that I'll remake them...

 

[IchI]

Hmmm, is blocking and has no real theme to is, except been blocky. The is just boring and the guard is boring as well. The whole theme to the model is a bit boring and the spikes on the knife are way to big. Your not killing killer whales are u? I hope not I would sujest looking into some knifes that are already made start work on one and minipulate it to your own style. This is what most people lack when they start modelling they try to be totaly original without any reasearch into something u are going to model. Nearly 90% of the time it just won't work your quality of work will drasticly increase when u know the structure of somthing u are goign to be modelling.

 

[Maxi]

Yeah and get a few referance pics and work off them... you'll get a much nicer looking model then what you would get if you were only to make it from your head.

 

[st0lve]

Ok, thanks for the tips etc.
Anyway, here is some more I did after I posted it.

• Made "new" blade, thinner one
• Made a handguard with spikes on it

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Yeah, yeah, its stilly blocky :| But I have just been modelling for about 5hours (inc. learning) in total

 

[Maxi]

Dude, if your just starting read a tutorial!!! and now for the C&C:

It's to blocky to be used ANYWHERE.

The spikes look *badly mad*

Since when does a knife have a handlething? and with spikes?

Imho it looks like a cross between a pirate sword and a chainsaw... :/

NOTG EDITED B Y STONE HONEST *whistle*

 

[ray_MAN]

I think it is terrible. I don't want to be mean I just want to be truthful. A tutorial would be very good. Remember this, models take time.

 

[clarky003]

:frown: theres no need to use the S word dude, I dont see much constructive critisim going on,, just , read a tutorial.. which is an obvious way of saying I cant be arsed to comment constructively. Pls dont slander people for trying, its not terrible. .. I dont think the moderators would be happy. :thumbs:

 

[Maxi]

Also please post your images as JPEG and not bmp... right now they are very large and people with modems will have a hard time loading this page.

 

[st0lve]

Um, they are .jpg's not .bmp's...
The reason for the "pirate" looks, is because I'm making it after a miniature I got (from the boardgame Necromunda, witch is the "base" of Gang War). I just got to make a more powerfull looking blade, because its not a feeble knife
btw. ray, try to give some constructive crits, not just "terrible", whats terrible?
C O N S T R U C T I V E~~
and another thing ray (yeah, pretty much talk to ray now), I can't say your gun (this) was anything more sexeh looking that my knife.

 

[Wazz Pants]

the only thing you need to work on is the blade. right now it looks like crap.
You need to make the blade at least a 2 poly wide column all the way down instead of the 1 poly column it is right now. the column that's on the outside will be used for the spikes and such .
I can't really explain it all that well so I'll show you what I mean.

If you follow the pic you should come up with a decent knife.

 

[IchI]

hmmmm. Just looks like the other one. Try think more of reality weapons and not something a cave man made out of wood.

 

[st0lve]

Try think more of reality weapons and not something a cave man made out of wood.

There is a thing here IchI, that you say wrong, actualy in the underhive (the poor part of the city Gang War takes place in) they take what they can get, they do not have to have the best weaponary, a thing witch is a little sharp is fine for them.

Anyway, I have started all over with the blade (5th time? ), and now I'm making a more "normal" looking blade. I'll prolly post pics tomorrow :rolling:

 

[st0lve]

w00t, knife transformet into a sword:

Made a more "clean" style on it now. Still very low pc - 604
Constructive Crits. please :rolling:

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling:

 

[simon]

604 for something like this is still way to much, when i look at your model i should guess about 250 triangles ? max 350 ? you can make that model look alot better with 604 triangles, if i whure you i would stop the knife model and start to follow a tutorial on weapon modeling, cause i think your doing it all wrong, better to learn it the right way than the wrong way imho, you'll like modeling alot more when you do it correct, even though it's a bit harder to learn, good luck !

 

[Javert]

MUCH better, but still gotta work on the handle, you know what I mean. And of course, the more detail the better, just spend some time on it
Good Luck.

 

[Wazz Pants]

The thing killing the poly count is the handle. look at it, its like almost perfectly round. I'd bet that the handle (round part) is 450 polys by it's self. cut it down to a 8 sided thing and only have a few grooves cut into it.

 

[OCybrManO]

First, this might have been a good weapon model for Quake... but for HL2 it is sorely lacking.

Now, about the modeling job itself...

Why are many of the triangles not connected to each other (most noticable in the blade possibly because of its shape)?

Each part (like the blade, the spiky guard thing, and the handle) should be a continuous mesh... not a bunch of primitives slapped together and left unconnected. That is neither a way to get good looking results (especially on detailed models) nor a way to make an efficient model.

You seriously need to take some time to read a few tutorials and start from the beginning. There are a lot of things that you won't be able to learn without some help... and a tutorial is more patient than HL2 forum-goers (and usually more knowledgeable).

 

[st0lve]

#17: 604 is not really much, the cylinders are 12 sided (the inside one is 10), I can easly make them 8 sided, but then it will maybe be to blocky.
#20:I know I can lower the polycount on the blade (I made it in 8 parts, but I only need 6), and I can also lower it on the handle, but I like the looks of it now. And I do not really care about how hard you are hiting me, I just learn from it

I know I got to read more tutorials, but I really like to try out my own things

 

[simon]

what can i say.. i was bored

i modeled your knife the way you modeled it, as low triangle as possible, you have 604 triangles, i told you that was alot for your model, i'v modeled the same knife with only 399 triangles, so you can see it's less triangles and it looks better also, i'v also made a wireframe of it, so you can see how it looks like, if you have 3DSmax 5.1? i can even send you the .max file if you want, just trying to help you out mate :cheers:

 

[st0lve]

It sure looks better than mine...
If you can export it to a MS3D file (I didn't find any way of importing .max files with MS3D), then send it to me, so that I can have a look at it (see what you have done different from me).
btw. how many sides are the cylinders?

 

[simon]

you can count them on the wireframe model?, i used only 8, cause the player model still come's over it... you don't see the handle, you can still add alot more detail, don't forget it's only 399 still, it can easely be made 600 or even 1000 triangles... (but that would be pretty high for just a knife
i can't export to that extention, just look at the wireframe, you see it all anyway
hope it helped

 

[st0lve]

Yes it helps I won't do anything with it atm. because I going out soon.

 

[st0lve]

I made 399 polys now :rolling: ¨
Well, its not quite like Simons model, but I did lower it down to 399 and it doesn't look that more shity :imu:

 

[Maxi]

It does look better now... but still it needs more detail... this is the HL2 engine not HL.

 

[OCybrManO]

#20:I know I can lower the polycount on the blade (I made it in 8 parts, but I only need 6), and I can also lower it on the handle, but I like the looks of it now. And I do not really care about how hard you are hiting me, I just learn from it

I know I got to read more tutorials, but I really like to try out my own things

That's my point... you shouldn't be making something as simple as a knife's blade out of 8 parts. It should be one continuous part. In MS3D I found that the easiest way for me to model was vertex-by-vertex (add a few vertices, connect them to make polygons, repeat until you get the desired results), because their interface was rather clumsy on the other stuff. In more advanced modeling programs I tend to lean toward "box modeling" (that's starting from a box and extruding/cutting/moving verts until you get what you want)... and it took a while to make the switch. That's why I don't want you to get in the habit of making models like this. You'll have a hard time switching to a better method when you finally realize you need to.

Trust us... read some good tutorials and feel free to ask questions. You won't learn the cool modeling methods and tricks all by yourself. I learned most of what I know from tutorials, other modelers (many from the polycount forums), and practicing the methods I picked up from those places. Very little of it was free experimentation... because it is horribly ineffective.

... and we have to hit people hard to beat things through their thick skulls!

NOTE: MS3D can import/export models in 3DS format.

 

[ray_MAN]

Um, they are .jpg's not .bmp's...
The reason for the "pirate" looks, is because I'm making it after a miniature I got (from the boardgame Necromunda, witch is the "base" of Gang War). I just got to make a more powerfull looking blade, because its not a feeble knife
btw. ray, try to give some constructive crits, not just "terrible", whats terrible?
C O N S T R U C T I V E~~
and another thing ray (yeah, pretty much talk to ray now), I can't say your gun (this) was anything more sexeh looking that my knife.

I never said my gun was better. I know it sucks. And I am sorry for my comments about terrible. That was totally uncalled for. I never said my gun was better, I wasn't comparing it to anything. I was merely saying your model wasn't good. It has gotten better. Oh, and my gun has under gone a complete facelift. I have learned models take time and so does learning to model.

 

[st0lve]

A redo:

Now its 284 tris, and I can always make some improvements.
btw. I didn't read any tutorials

 

[simon]

it's not about making it as low poly count as possible, you can have 500 or 600 triangles, the knife you have now just isn't nice enough for HL2, just make it look nicer now, add more detail, if i were you "again" i would just stop modeling on this knife, and start working on a tutorial (seriously..)
i had a cool tutorial on an AK-47 but i'v lost it :/ sorry (if someone hase a cool tutorial please paste the link for stolve)

laterz

 

[GOoch]

http://ran3d.com/TUTORIALS/GALIL/galil01.asp

There you go m8 Enjoy

 

[st0lve]

I need MS3D tutorials, but I don't want on a modern gun or something real. And I can't do the "block" method, because I do not like it. So it got to be a poly per poly tutorial
But simon: I just tryed to see how low poly I was able of making it, and since its under 200, I can add almost whatever I want.

 

[Maxi]

Read a god damn tutorial, use google... damnit you won't learn anything properly on your own without any tuts....

 

[simon]

Gooch !!!
happy newyear m8

stolve, that's the tutorial i ment.. do it, and get your hands on a 3DSmax copy.. cause your program sucks and listen to maxikana !

laterz

 

[st0lve]

I know I need to get 3Ds max, but if I dl it, its always some fux with it :\ If I just had a working copy, I'm sure I would have taken the time going through the tutorial, but with MS3D, no.

 

[GOoch]

Happy new yea Simon m8 all the best fellas

Stolve m8 you need to sort 3DMAX out with out a program like that or Maya ro totaly wasting your time.. But i think you all ready know that

 

[st0lve]

Is Maya free? A guy I know said so, but I didn't find any download link :\
I know I need another prog than MS3D, but thats all I got atm.

 

[ray_MAN]

There is a free version of Maya but it can only be used with UT2003. There is a free version of 3Ds Max called gmax, but it won'y load saved scenes with the latest version of Hotfix for Windows. Your best bet is XSI|EXP. It will most likely come with the HL2 SDK so you can get a head start on it. That is a program you need tutorials on. It is difficult to learn but you will get used to it. Here is a link to Maya PLE:
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/maya_ple/index.shtml
link to gmax:
http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/
link to XSI|EXP:
http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/

 

[Stingey]

am i the only one liking this model ? its frikking cewl
the simple look and the blade look soo cewl.

Dont give it a crome skin but rather something rusty and hard looking