Attempting to model a dagger
 

Hey all. I'm starting up again on modeling and began to attempt to model a dagger and have already gotten stuck on a certain area.. The handle. The handle is woven which is proving to be quite difficult for me to actually model (i'm no expert either). I'm trying to achieve as much photo realism out of this as possible, and don't believe it would look all that real if I just kept the handle relatively simple with bump mapping..

Anyway, wanted to start a W.I.P. on what I am doing..If anyone can think of a better way to work this handle, don't hesitate to throw the ideas my way :p

Here is the wireframe of the handle and blade so far.

Here's the actual dagger that I am working with. Courtesy of BladeGallery.com :)

Nice so far :)

depending on how close you are going to the handle, you might want to considder not to model the leather, but texture it instead of geometry. Perhaps a simple cylinder as handle with a few geometry bumps into give it a bit of definition..

I actually found a good way to recreate that style of wrap (well actually.. someone else did it, i asked them how and then tweaked it but forgot who).

Make a torus and make it very wide, with the inner whole very wide so the width from inner whole to outer edge is very thin. Thats your material. Grab some edges and mold it to be a little squarer. Then grab all the verts on one part and scale them in. It will look like this

*break to go give an example*

Sorry that took so long. Had a little trouble, havent touched maya in a few months...

Well heres a quick example of what i mean.

Althouigh with that style of blade youll want to smush the cords more and add a texture to the handle beneath. Cords are grey handle is green in this image.


You can IM me if you need more help. But im sure someone will be along with better help soon.

whoa, that torus idea just might work! hehe, never thought of that. I'll definately have to give that a shot, thanks!

If you take more time and have a little more imagination than me it gives much better results. And if you put a real texture and not 2 basic shaders:)