Week 3 (20/01/25)

This week was the third week of my Jian Sword project. This week I finished the texturing the sword and created a simple stand for the sword to be displayed on. I kept the stand simple as I didn't want to draw too much attention away from the sword as it is the main focal point. The stand was easy to create as it wasn't very complicated and I had already created a wood texture for the sword handle and sheath. I made this texture into a smart material, changed the colours and roughness and added some wear to the edges.

At the beginning of the week, I received some feedback that the wood texture I created would look better smoother as I was going for a clean and maintained look for the asset. This was a simple change as I removed some of the added detail, altered the height of various layers, and adjusted the roughness of the wood. This improved the look of the asset and added a polish to it. Whilst I was altering the texture of the weapon I had the idea to add a mark/brand to the weapon as this was a common thing for smiths to do. After some quick research on different Chinese symbols and their meanings I decided to brand the handle of my sword with a lotus.

I decided that the lotus would be a good symbol mainly because it is known as the 'gentleman's flower', which I believe is fitting for the 'gentleman's sword', and is a symbol of one of the eight taoist immortals, He Xiangu. The way I did this was by drawing out a lotus in photoshop, in white with no background, which I exported as a png and imported to my substance painter file as a texture. I added this texture to a layer, which I made tri-planar and cropped to the shape of the box, and positioned it on the handle before adjusting the height level. I then duplicated the layer, blurred the texture, darkened the colour, and increased the roughness slightly. I did this because I wanted it to look like the image had been branded onto the handle using fire/heat. You can see the image of the lotus below:

I informed my tutors that I did want to extend the project and create some more weapons to go with the Jian sword. We talked about the weapons that were used in ancient China and they made some suggestions on possible weapons I could create. After some research I was torn between two weapons, these were:

The Tang Dao - A short single edged blade that had the opposite meaning of the Jian sword. The Jian is a sword of elegance, knowledge, and dedication whereas the Tang Dao is a warriors sword that was mainly used for the purpose of causing damage.

The Guandao - A large polearm with a curved single edged blade at the top. This polearm was/is seen as a weapon that requires tremendous strength to wield efficiently and lighter versions have been and still are used today in various forms of martial arts.

After researching and deliberating, I decided to create the Guandao as I believe it is similar enough to follow the main theme of my project whilst being different enough to further challenge my knowledge and skill. If I decide to continue the project after creating this I will create the Tang Dao.

I have begun modelling the Guandao. I am breaking it down and creating it in sections like I did for the Jian. These sections are: the blade, the guard/connector, the shaft, and the pommel,

The plan for next week is to finish modelling the Guandao and to texture the asset.

Here is an image of the finished Jian sword and the stand:





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