3D Computer Graphics – Blog Post Week 03 – Part 2

This week we were asked to chose a model from a museum in Visby that we were then asked to replicate in 3D using a specific theme as a reference. After a brief tour of the museum and some general background on the items that were on display there we were asked to take photos for later reference, we were also asked to get some information about the object that we ultimately chose.
I chose this knife as my model:

The reason why I have chosen to model this knife was that I have never gotten around to model one before. I have always wanted to model a knife, and now that I had a chance, I took it. I think that this knife has a very interesting look to it. It has a very comfortable amount of detail to it, perfect for this assignment. I especially like the hilt because i believe it is what gives the knife it’s character.

During the Nordic seven-year war, where Poland, Denmark and Lübeck went to war against Sweden, a danish fleet of Lubeckian ships were headed for Gotland.
This knife is believed to have belonged to a Danish admiral who perished in a devastating storm outside the port of Visby on the night of July 28, 1566. The storm brought down 14 warships and somewhere between 6000 and 8000 men within hours. The dagger itself is made of silver and is used as a sign of honor.

I will try to model this knife as if it could exist in Skyrim i.e. make this as close to the original as possible, there will off course be deviations but i’m going to try at least. I’m also going to try and emphasize the age of the knife, it’s old and i’m going to try and keep it that way. There are inscriptions on the hilt of the knife which i will definitely keep as I think it helps convey the knifes significance and status. Since I’m trying to keep it as close to the original as possible I’m not going to leave any of the detail out.

Some of the things I’m going to try and avoid are making the knife too large or too shiny.
Even though it belonged to a great Danish warrior it doesn’t have to mean that it has to be unnecessarily large or shiny.

One might think that warriors of that specific time and age (1500 – 1550 ) fought with weapons much less sophisticated than the knife I’m going to model. By making it as close as the original as possible, maybe I could prove some of the general misconceptions wrong.

There are always risks with modeling something with a reference, especially when you aim for a result that’s as close to the original as possible. I believe the risks associated with modeling this knife apart from straying too far from it’s original design is the risks you would face in any other modeling process, overlapping faces / vertices, open edges, ngons, multiple edges / vertices and so on.