Crusadersword

Description
As most of you probably know, I\'m a big fan of sword models. This particular model is far from perfect, but it\'s a great start to modelling. It has its strengths, such as its unique and unusual design. It could use a few pointers, though.

First of all, some of the polyflow is good and some could use some work. I like the shape of the hiltguards, but they\'ve got way too many sides - many more than they need for the same effect. The same is true for the pommel, which could also use some rounding around the edges. The handle is also square. The shape of the blade is good and tapers to the tip, which is great. It\'s one piece that [i]isn\'t[/i] blocky.

Another point of contention: texture stretching. This is common with newer modellers who are not very familiar with the ins and outs of UV mapping. It usually happens with square or angular objects where the front and back are mapped and the sides are mapping perpendicularly to the front. There is a little on the hiltguard, but it\'s minimal. Most of it occurs on the center of the hilt guard and then on the pommel. There is one bit of stretching, not due to the reasons I was referring to, that I find a little strange. This area is the [i]entire handle[/i]. I\'m assuming it\'s an error in the UV map which should probably be fixed.

On to texturing. For a first model the texturing isn\'t as bad as I would normally expect. The author recognized the way a blade should look by making one side darker than the other, which shows that he was really trying to get it to look like a real sword. It seems, however, that most of the texturing is stock textures, but as a bonus they all have a little bit of depth to them - no flat textures here! I did notice, however, that both of the Crusader cross images are blurry - one due to stretching in the UV map and one due to the source image being blurry. That\'s something I would try to avoid in the future.

Overall if I were the author this would be a model I\'d be proud to call my first. It has a long way to go, but it has already come a long way for a first model and shows some real effort. With practice I can see this author making some great stuff. One last piece of advice, though: next time center the blade on the hilt, and try not to have it floating off to one side ;)

~Inyri