@otowa This thread is proving to be a wealth of insight. Thanks for taking the time to share so much about the process and the project in general. I’ve googled and youtubed more about katana’s in the past week than I ever before!
I’m glad to see that you randomized the shapes in the grip wrapping. I watched a timelapse video of the wrapping process and clearly there’s significant effort to making the pattern *perfect* (at least as perfect as by-hand can be). So there is a perfection involved in this particular model but experience has also taught me that perfect is often more boring than interesting in CG. So the choice to randomize is a good one.
In fact I may suggest randomizing a little more. It’s a “soft” recommendation though. Right now I can’t really see the randomization unless I’m close to the handle. If I could read a little more of the grip silhouette randomness in a full view of the katana, that’d be ideal. If you don’t agree with the note, I understand. I see a plenty of reason to leave it as is now. To make it more random would make it feel a little more used and less pristine, which may not be what you want.
The detail in that tsuba! Looks great and surely a tedious task. Nice job!
Overall you probably won’t be surprised by the A+ I’m giving you. You clearly have put a lot of effort in the project so far, the model is high quality, and sharing the insight is invaluable.
Keep up the good work! 👏
