Again I need opinions on a prop I've created. This time though it's a ring-hilt sword. So...all you have to do is tell me how I can improve it and I'll be really grateful.

doesnt look to bad to me. the only real thing that jumps out is where the ring connects to the blade at the top, it seems like the blade is wider than the top piece of the ring. If it were me, i would probably move that piece up a little so that the rings intersect it at the middle, and expand it past the width of the blade. It looks like the handle thins a little TOO much at the bottom also, trying to get your bottom two fingers to get a good grip on that would take a lot of hand strength, it would probably be knocked right out of your hand with a good side swing. Overall a good mesh, im interested to see how it looks texured. You should also render it from different angles so we can see the rest of the mesh.

One of the blessings and curses of Poser is that it applies smoothing. It rounds out the polygons so that the objects look rounded. That's great for people (Poser's primary use) but doesn't always improve imported props.

Your blade looks rounded instead of sharp along the edges. I don't know how to fix it (in Poser) but I've downloaded some blades that looked right so I'm sure it can be done.

Hopefully someone else reading this thread will tell how to do it and enlighten us both.

I like the design of the sword. However, the handguards look a little oversized - in terms of thickness not length.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/

Another line of polygons at the edge, slight bevel?, is the usual cure for rounding. What is called the "blood groove" which runs the length of the blade could be shallower. I agree with the above comments regarding the hilt.... Is this sword supposed to be 2-handed? You might render a person with it so that we get an idea of scale. Carolly

unless it's something rediculously proportioned like "Jon's Paladin" sword,the blade looks to be about 3 foot long give or take. if that is the case,as regards the shape: 1) Hilt should be longer to counterbalence the weight of the blade.(a well made blade must have balance.) 2) some inlaid design on the doorknob looking things on the guard. (a well made blade must look the part ) 3) more ornate handgrip.(a well made blade must be comfortable) 4) blade looks too round.(a well made blade must be sharp.) Note: blade looks too long to be a stadard sword, but don't change that.

To get sharp edges you need to split the vertices that you don't want smoothed, in this case between the top and bottom of the blade. Most modelers can do this but the easiest way is most likely UVMapper's (Classic) Split Vertices command. HTH-Dan

very nice sword, the length of the sword looks ok to me (got a real 1), the pommel could be a little more ornate, I'd have swirly scroll work down the blade instead of straight lines, if not then black or gold lines instead, jewels on the hilt or make the pommel a ruby :) Rob