Prepping for 3D modeling of silver dagger

Last week all the students of the 3D computer graphics course were sent to look for interesting objects at the historical museum of Gotland (Fornsalen) that we are later going to do 3D models of as a hand in assignment later in the course. In order to do 3D models of real life objects a lot of good references photos have to be taken from different angles and some good close ups for texture reference. In this post I will write about what object I chose, the object’s history and my prepping right before creating its 3D model.

There were tons of beautiful and interesting things to choose from at the museum but I did find one object that really stood out from the rest.

This silver dagger was found in the bottom of the sea near Kopparsvik, Visby. The dagger belonged to a Danish fleet admiral named Jens Truidsøn back in the 16^th centry. Truidsøn’s fleet as well as some German fleets sank in that area during what later became to be known as one of the biggest storm disasters in Scandinavian history. More information about the tragic incident can be found in the following link: http://www.magotland.se/1099

I chose this object because it was at first sight very visually appealing with all of its intricate patterns on the hilt and its overall stunning shape, but also because of how well preserved this dagger was amongst the other items found in the museum. I just can’t imagine the sheer work that had to be put in to creating this dagger and how expensive it might have been at the time.

In order to get a general idea on how to go about modelling this dagger I used the references photos taken of the object to draw an edge flow plan on top, breaking the object into separate shapes as I went. Below are my edge flow plans for both the front and the side and my texture references.

          Edge flow plan front + side

         Texture references

Not minding the history of this silver dagger I can tell, just by looking at it, that it probably belonged to someone either rich or important or even both. You can tell that by looking at the clean, sophisticated and tasteful shape of the object that reads rather royal and posh. It is very symmetric and the details of the hilt have been put a lot of effort into making. I wish to incorporate most of this into my 3D model. This is a dagger that would fit perfectly into the hands of the main playable character in a first person game.

The visual style I’m going to strive towards is more of a realistic style like the one found in Skyrim. It does read fairly Skyrim to me already so what I have to do is to simply keep it as close to the reference photos as possible. Because I believe this dagger would fit perfectly in a first person game as the weapon of the player character, I will model it accordingly. When you know 3D objects in games are going to be close to the player most of the time, it allows you to add more polygons into the typology to make it more detailed and look nicer.

I will try to emphasize the clean deadly sharp blade of the dagger to convey to the player that this is indeed a dangerous weapon and also put extra care into the rounded box shape on top of the hilt. The reason being that the player character’s hand will most likely be covering the main part of the hilt and only the top of the dagger and its blade will be seen. This is also why I chose to ignore the details in the main part of the hilt because it won’t be showing as much.

This dagger is somewhat complex when you look at the shape connecting the blade with the hilt and the blade itself with its rounded groove. There are many places where mistakes can be made that will eventually lead to even bigger problems when doing the texturing. This is where my inexperience will come to a disadvantage. I might minimize this by keeping my edge flow plan in mind and later stitching the wireframe correctly. I will also try to take advantage of the tiny shapes presented in the object when UW mapping to try hide the seams as cleverly as possible.