Putting an edge on a blade

Support Modeling
1

Bonjour,

I’ve been modelling a katana for the past 2 days, and I was almost done when I realized that my sword didn’t have a distinct edge. (What I mean by that is there wasn’t a noticeable difference in the shine of the material.)

Thinking I could just select a bunch of vertices, separate by material and then tweak the material I had set, I tried exactly that… except that it didn’t work.

I’ve tried looking online but no luck so far.

That’s why I have crawled my way back here, battered and defeated, looking for guidance.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

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2

There isnt much geomtry to see… for examplethis simple 5 sides thingy has just a shiny material ans something to reflect on and you see the shaper side of the blade:

blade
blade814×733 41 KB

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3

You can’t add a martial to vertices, only to faces :slight_smile:

4

I was hoping to have a rougher sorta unpolished iron for the back though, not a whole shiny blade.

5

Is there no way then to actually give the blade a shinier edge?

6

Well you just need to model the part you want to be shiny and then make it so… if you don’t have geometry, add an edge loop

7

The HDRI you are using is very diffuse and even lit. When people render metallic objects, they usually have light setups or HDRIs with significantly more contrast so that the shapes actually get highlights.

image
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Try at least the studio one, and rotate it in place to get the highlight you need.

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8

The reason I haven’t set up any lights yet is because it’s a model that’s going to be used for an animation I’m working on that’s testing the toon ‘filter’ or however you call it.

That’s why I’m worried about it, because I want to exclusively have the sharp edge shining during the actual animation.

9

I see, I’ll try that out.

Edit : Okay, I know I said I’d try it out, but how does adding an edge loop help? I’ve tried it but it doesnt seem to do anything. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

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10

In a katana, the edge / hamon is actually duller / rougher than the spine of the blade. Sort of a dull gray.

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11

Really? I’ve been searching up museum katanas, and it seems to be the reverse.

image
image1500×1500 170 KB

12

Wait, this idea might be a little dumb, but what if I artificially just paint an edge. Is there a way to make it shinier then?

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13

It looks that way because the shiny part is reflecting the dark background. The rougher edge is not. Trust me, I own one.

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14

easily- use the painted texture as the Mix Factor on a MixShader node. Paint in black and white. Use Glossy BSDF for 1 input and your sword material for the other (or something like that)

15

Ok, I’ll take your word for it.

Edit : Now that I’m looking at the image closer, the spine seems to also be very bright.

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16

Ooooh, that’s really smart. Thank you!

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17

That’s the backlighting coming through I think.

18

mi_ima_46d3a58425
mi_ima_46d3a58425890×590 65.5 KB

19

One more note…the pictured blade has a “battle finish” rather than a mirror finish, so the spine of the blade would be shinier in a higher end piece.

20

To add to @joseph 's comment…( was working this up while everyone took the thread far beyond where I read…)
Split the textures…assign one to the Blade and one for your edge…DON"T Make the edge SHARP but add a bit of Bevel to it to get reflections…in your selected Blade section texture add your roughness hammer marks whatever…then in edit mode select the area you want sharp to shimmer sparkle, etc add new material and assign it …make it shiny…

quick mock-up…

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image1278×935 144 KB

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