Maya tutorial : How to model a Sci-Fi Sword

hey everybody Mike here at image tutorials welcome back well guys I got another tutorial request today and today the question was can you model a science-fiction sword and I asked for a reference image so I got an idea what the person in question is looking for so that's we're going to load up as a reference so I'm going to go to my panel view go to my front view click on View image plane import image and let's see where's yeah there we go okay so that's we're going to work with now I received this image and I have no idea where this image is coming from but it looks to me like a 3d model so just in case you know who made this original let me know and I'll put that in the comment section to give that person credit for it and that said let's get started okay so we're going to start off by creating the blade here so for that we're going to create a polygon cube we're going to drag that out and we're going to do it a little bit of height not too much hit 5 for shaded mode and we're going to do a couple of things first we're going to go to our polycube one tab and then height we're going to add one subdivision so we've got one in the middle right there okay and then we're going to check out how far that point is going over there all right so for that we're going to go to edit mesh insert edge loop tool option box make sure you got just a single selected and we'll add a subdivision around there that looks about right okay then we're going to go to our top view hit f2 zoom in five for shaded mud and we're going to right-click go to vertex drags like these to hit R and we're going to push them towards a point I will hit F to zoom in to make sure that that's a nice clean point okay and maybe we'll stretch that out a little bit so right click vertex make sure you're in for Tex @w maybe it looks slightly better okay all right now that we have that we are going to right click go to edge and we're going to double click on that middle edge just make sure it's selected all the way around with the exception of that one okay and we're going to hit our and we're going to start to scale that out and we'll fix that back end in a sec just check our top view that's not too bad maybe a little of this cool okay and then we're going to right click go to vertex drag like these two head W and bring that back in and let's see what we have so far okay just get rid of that here okay not bad so that will be our blade now as you can see here we have this cross going on that's what we're going to model next so for that we will create another polygon cube give that some height we're going to position that on top of our handle or close to our handle so we can get a sense of what the dimension should be that's not bad we're going to hit ctrl D to duplicate e to rotate that make sure we're at minus 90 and we're going to select these two right click object mode select them both mesh combine okay modify center pivot head W bring that in now we're going to take this guy and we're going to set our translate values to zero so it's nice and central take that guy and bring that up hit F to zoom in just to make sure that we are aligned okay now that's going to be the final position pretty much let's just check our reference image here then we'll just move that up a little okay so it's fairly flat and as you can see it's somewhat rounded okay so that's we're going to deal with next so we're going to take this object switch to the few right here bring that down okay we're going to add our I'm going to scale that in that's not too bad let's just check once more to look at our image here and as you can see that this cross-section is well inside the width of the blade so we need to do the same okay so we're going to scale it down just a bit W so that's going to be the position now what we're going to do is we're going to create that rounded effect so we're going to go to edit mesh insert edge loop tool option box multiplies loops and we'll do five okay we're going to select five here and five right there hit Q on your keyboard right-click go to vertex we're going to drag select all the vertices with the exception of the two outer ones hit R pull it out just a little then we're going to skip one at each end do that once more and select the one in the middle and do that once more let's see if that's clean enough that looks nice we can do the same here do acts like those let's get them out a little take those do that again and take them in the middle and do that once more okay and the whole thing is softened somewhat so let's just check that in our perspective you okay right-click the object mode okay that's not what we want so we're going to do is edit mesh insert edge loop option box go back to your regular setting to add one we're going to drag one over to the end here do one there one at that end and one at that end hit Q on your keyboard right-click the object mode and hit three on your keyboard that looks a lot better okay let's see if we still have enough height on our object looks like we need to increase that little bit so select that hit R that's better okay so what's next so we have these double rings on top with these elements on the side so that's we're going to do next so let's create a sorry polygon cylinder drag that out pull that up give that some subdivision let's say 40 we're going to switch to our side view and f2 zoom in right click vertex drags at the top there hit our scale that in cool back to a perspective view and actually we should have removed the caps let's see if that's going to mess up my object and no it's not it's good check our reference once more all right right-click face select that edit mesh extrude hit our pull that in G to repeat W to pull up G to repeat again R to scale out again check that from our top view to make sure that we pull that out to the dimension that we already had okay G to repeat again W to pull up to give that some thickness and okay that looks good and then we have that diamond shape on top which is a separate object okay and we have these objects on the side here that we need to deal with so for that we will go to our top view like these two these two these two and these two edit mesh extrude hit our scale them out and it doesn't have to be 100% identical but we do want to have kind of a decorative look fuel that mesh extrude again let's see actually we'll undo that we'll go with this for now just do a quick check object mode okay that's fine okay and then we have our diamond shape on top here and for that we will create half a sphere so we'll create a full sphere first let out go to our polish here give that 40 subdivisions switch to our side view hit f2 zoom in right click face let's do a little bit more than half let's do this hit delete right click object mode we're going to move that in and up again after zoom in we're going to hit our we're going to scale that down and now let's position that once again I have to zoom in so we can see what's going on here we need to move it right there it's not bad I'll check it from this end let's bring that in have to zoom in I'm gonna hit 4 for wireframe mode so I can get it aligned that's good and then we're going to drag select our object mesh combined we're going to move it on top of the cross that we made so we'll hit five for shaded mode modify center pivot W move it over move it up they have to zoom in are to scale that down quite a bit and we'll hit four so we can see where we're at that looks good and that looks good as well let's check our height okay so that will give us that and we want the same on the other end of course so ctrl D to duplicate pull it down e to rotate flip it over 180 degrees at W you bring that up again and there we go okay so we've got the blade we got that cross-section now let's deal with this this looks like a regular circle and then we have these oval elements here so we're going to start with the circle and we'll do that by creating a polygon cylinder pull that up go to your poly similar tab that's the 40 subdivisions switch to our side view edit mesh insert edge loop tool option box multiple edge loops let's do to add them Q on your keyboard right click edge make sure they're both selected and then hit R and pull them out to the edge right click face select the top shifts like the bottom and then edit mesh extrude and hit our and pull that out and then push it down check to see if that's where it should be alright cool right like object mode hit e rotate that over to minus 90 and let's get that into position okay got our top view F to zoom in W to move up an in and half once more okay now let's check our reference image for a sec okay so we're going to bring that guy in here and we're going to hit our I'm going to scale that in and tell you to move it up bring that in check it from this few here bring that down I have to zoom in and as you can see we need to bring that down a bit so we're going to hit our I'm going to scale it down some more and then W and bring that in okay so let's see if that's too thin or not pretty close to our reference so it's not bad and we need to add some detail here let's see okay we are going to shape these sections here and as you can see they're ovals so that's going to be a bit tricky we're going to take another polygon cylinder pull it out pull that up 40 subdivisions let's do seven let's see does that make sense no six will do six well switch this you here move the whole thing over a little bit we're going to all right click go to vertex and we're going to select these rows and we're going to hit our I'm going to scale that in take one in the middle scale that in take that row and that row scale that in a little bit and then take our entire object and push that in okay I have to zoom in and now let's make the thing oval so I hit our right-click object mode R we're going to move that towards the oval shape that we need okay let's get that into position we're going to rotate that in this direction which will be 90 then rotate it in that direction minus 90 from a top view we're going to hit W bring that down and then towards our connect point let's scale this guy down quite a bit W to move in let's check our reference image for a sec okay so we've got a sense of what's going on we're going to bring that in maybe a bit bigger there we go still too small yeah that looks a bit better okay we're going to hit ctrl D to duplicate that I'm going to move that over and we're going to hit shift D to duplicate that over that is close okay as you can see we have to move it a bit so drag select that mesh combine modify center pivot at W bring that down after zoom in now I want this to be aligned in the middle like that alright so what's next so we got this ring here that we're going to create which actually looks very similar to this object right here so let's see how we can create that okay I'm going to create a polygon cube make sure it's absolutely square so we'll do five by five height is not too important I'll do let's see not in the height we'll do five by five there we go we're going to go to top view right click vertex shift select these and these so everything but the four corners and we're going to hit our and we're going to bring that in it's not going to be exactly the same but kind of like the points alright and then what we'll do is we'll add one edge so edit mesh insert edge loop tool option box regular setting we'll add one let's just make sure we're in the middle so we're going to bring that guy down a bit all right and then we're going to hit R and let's scale that out all right okay so now we are going to right-click face we're going to select these nine faces in the middle and we'll do the same on the back there we go make sure we got nothing else selected and then hit R on your keyboard and we're going to just pull that in like that right click object mode let's do a soft select so I hit three on your keyboard that's fine we're going to hit e we're going to rotate that by where you go right there minus 90 and we're going to move that into position so we are now in our top view at W move that over and that one was fairly up front here so he'd have to zoom in first make sure we're centered and then we're going to push that back until we're right there and we're going to hit our I'm going to scale that down to a point where it looks okay as you can see it needs to come down from that end so we'll check that right here at W bring that down there we go now it's still quite big and like I said we're not going to copy it exactly but we want to get pretty close so let's do this yeah not bad and then let's deal with the end over here okay now for the end let's see we've got going on here we will create a polygon sphere pull that out increase subdivision to 40 I'm going to cut that in half so let's go to this view here hit f2 zoom in right click face take half of that and hit delete let's check to see what we have right click object mode all right we're going to right-click face click and shift double click to select the outer row edit mesh extrude we're going to hit our and we're going to scale that out a little and then we're going to stake that row G to repeat our to scale in jeetu repeat and W to bring down okay we are going to switch to this view right here right-click object mode let's start to move that towards the end here we need to rotate it scale it and so forth so we're going to hit E rotate that by 90 then we're going to switch your views okay we're going to hit our to scale it down let's see where is the end here I don't hit F so we can see it a bit better we're going to move it over first to get it aligned so it looks centered okay check our reviews here we're going to bring that in and we still need to make that oval so let's see what we got all right so we're going to hit our on our keyboard we're going to start to stretch that out until it fits that looks okay but we're going to check it that looks fine that does not so let's see what's going on there there we go that's better yeah that's better okay so that should be about it okay what else do we have going on in our reference here now most of what's going on from this point on is texturing so just we're going to do next so I'll just yeah we'll keep this guy around for a sec all right okay now we are going to move in right click edge take that edge and hit delete all right and then right-click face just like that face flip it over select that face edit mesh extrude and we'll check that from our top view hit our and scale that in just slightly and down so you get this opening going on around okay and I'll show you in our perspective view let's move this guy out of the way come on and w/e move that out okay so you want to have this face moving around now we are going to right-click go to edge and we're going to take these two edges and hit delete I'll do the same here and hit delete okay alrighty now let's see how that is textured okay so we are going to right click on face like that face and that face right click assign it material 5e and we'll change that to black and we'll call that black alright then we're going to select our blade if you will and make sure that you don't select that face that's going around okay right click sign in material mi a underscore material X material tab presets Chrome replace and we'll call that Chrome we're going to select that face that's surrounding our object and we got those now do the same on the other end and looks like we got all of them okay I click assign the material let's do a Lambert change our color to green and then let's see if we can move towards blue green that looks a bit better and we're going to tweak that because we are going to let's see where is that setting okay glow intensity we're going to move that to 0.2 okay and we'll call that glow green okay now for this guy sorry my click object mode that guy let's say is that textured yeah okay okay right click assign existing material Chrome we will do the same for this guy and the end piece and for this section actually we need to separate that mesh separate mesh separate there we go so that object and that object and that one and the NPS assign existing material and chrome we're going to select these two alright right-click existing material glow green well select that section right there and assign existing material black alright and now this is going to be a bit tricky because there and actually what I'm going to do is just move this thing over so we can approach it easier okay let's switch to this view here now what I want is to have these sections in the middle Chrome so we're going to right-click go to face and we're going to select everything except the ones in the middle okay alright alright click assign the material and my a underscore X material tab presets glass solid and replace and we're going to scroll down and this color here is somewhat bluish and we're going to move towards the green that we selected and make that nice and bright okay and now hopefully that took let's see yeah I did okay cool and now we are going to select these sections in the middle so right click face these two these two and so forth that's one too much yeah there we go all right click existing material and Chrome now let's move that guy back into position right-click object mode move it back I have to zoom in so that looks alright excuse me so I think we got everything now let's see how this would be positioned the handle is fairly heavy so the blade is coming off the the ground of you all and because of the shape of the decoration here it's tilted to one side so we have to deal with that okay so we're going to go to this view here we can now get rid of our reference image select our sword mesh combine we're going to raise that until this is lying on the grid line okay and then we're going to hit the insert key or actually you can just hit the D key if you will I'll hold down the D key sorry and we're going to move our pivot point right there and then we're going to hit E and we're going to rotate it down until our handle touches the floor okay so that's part one now from this view we're going to tilt it to one side so we are going to move it in this direction and we have an object sticking out so that's actually going to keep it balanced and as you can see it's it's changing our object so that's not good so this is fine let's see what's going on here still all good nice combined yet we're still good okay so I want to tilt that but it's only going to tilt to there because of that point sticking out okay so that will give us this and to be honest I wanted to tilt the other way simply because I think that looks cooler no other reason than that okay cool so now we get our sword we're going to create a polygon plane and we're just going to scale the heck out of that thing there we go right click assign your material let's do a Fong E and let's change that color to green but let's say now I'm not green that's not good white will do just do a Y that's fine okay we're going to set up some lighting create light point light I can hit 7 on my keyboard so I can see what's going on I'm going to raise that up raise that back control the D to duplicate that I want to have one there control D and duplicate it over here and for that one I'm going to lower the intensity to 0.25 which is good and what I'm going to do is I'm going to add an external image for lighting why is that guy not hitting the floor there we go I'm just going to fix that okay so I still got my pivot point there so I'm going to rotate that so the actually the handle wouldn't be touching reason being that the weight is at this end this section is touching the floor and so is this so the handle wouldn't touch the floor so that's fine so we got the majority of our lighting setup I'm going to set up an HR eye image so I'm going to go to render settings switch to a mental ray which is important indirect lighting select global illumination and final gathering and final gathering because we are going to use that image based lighting which will act as a surface shader light source if you will okay caustics not really important we do have some glass going on but I'll select it anyway for a quality tab let's move that to about 1.5 my common tab I'm going to switch my image size taystee 1080 and now let's go back to indirect lighting image based lighting minimize that and my folder I'm just going to select a NHGRI file let's see what are we going to use for this let's do a dark black sky and hit OK we're going to set up our resolution gate and let's get this positioned go back one all right we do want to see some detailing on it so we'll do this alright okay so I'm going to hit the render button this one right here I'm going to pause the video so you guys have to wait for that and I'll be back one sec ok hang on well guys I stopped the render simply because I want to change two little things one is we got weight like going on so I'm going to take that actually take this guy and delete that take this guy and hit W and pull that up and out and decrease the intensity to 0.5 which is fine I hope that guy is OK and yeah that should be fine okay and I'm going to try that again see in a sec well there you go guys this is our final render of our sci-fi sword hopefully you guys enjoyed this tutorial if you got any questions just leave them in the comments and I'll do my very best to help you out and that's head thank you guys for watching and hopefully I'll see you guys next time thanks bye

Channel: Mike Hermes

Views: 43,779

Keywords: science fiction, sci fi, sword, obi wan kanobi, gladiator, game, game sword, mh tutorials, Tutorial (Media Genre), Star, Ninja, battle, fight, star wars, star trek, trekkies, How-to (Website Category), Autodesk Maya (Award-Winning Work), Warriors, Warriors (Literary Series), Samurai

Id: FZOpKqDeMzA

Length: 44min 51sec (2691 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 24 2015