Post 8 - The Red Iron Blade

 

Papercraft Project - The Red Iron Blade. pt.1

The Red Iron Blade is a video game weapon from a popular MMORPG game in Europe, Metin2. I chose this blade for my project because the game has played a significant role in my childhood, and why it was so great. Because the Red Iron Blade is one of the most prestige weapons for level 30, for my younger self and my friends, having it was the ultimate goal. (as we had 0 clue what we were doing and could not get past level 30 at the time.)

My character holding the Red Iron Blade

I began my creation by tracing an image of the sword in rhino, and developing a proper outline. Once I got a proper understanding of the shape of my sword, I proceeded to duplicate the outline, removing the lines inside my sketch and extruding it. 

Of course, during the creation process of this piece, I had to bare in mind that this would in fact be made out of paper. To account for that, I chose to make the shape of my sword simpler and eliminate the majority of the curvature for the sake of craft in the later process. 

The later attempts to work on my sword were the desperate attempts to form the surface, which I soon found out I cannot do in one go, and can not do by hand. 

A sword has four mirrored sides, which means the easiest way to go about this would be to split it into four sections and work on one which I can then mirror and put together like a puzzle. 

But the actual sword was not the only thing I split into four sections. 

I decided that it would be reasonable to do this in sections, which is why I selected one part of my shape, cutting away at it until I saw a satisfactory outcome with boolean difference as the video showed, and put it together to make my desired look. 

Although by doing this I gave myself a lot of extra work, the pieces came together slowly and resulted in something I was very happy about. I thought my sword looked very good. Although it was in pieces, the structure of this weapon is one that's very complex and difficult to do with paper. 

This way, it would also be easier to craft and put together. 

Once the shape of my sword was complete, I decided to also create the decorations present on the sword. While this was pretty difficult to do, the model I had to use from my game really helped me with the process.

When I get to prototyping, I will cut out these shapes and place them in the appropriate areas for accuracy and an enhanced look. 

Overall, I have learned a lot throughout the duration of this process. It required a lot of problem-solving and experimenting in order to achieve the best result. This experimentation in turn has helped me better understand the logistics of the program and the creation of 3D objects of my own in Rhino, thus supporting my own self-improvement and allowing further self-reflection.