Learn to Make Realistic Double Karambit with Plasticity

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Anatolii Kenc. I’m from Ukraine and I’m 19 years old. When I have free time, I create new works for my portfolio. I started to be interested in 3D when I was in the 9th grade at school, and that's when my journey in 3D began. In the 11th grade, I started to take it more seriously and make projects to improve my skills. I didn't put them in my portfolio, but my brother, who is also engaged in 3D graphics, gave me a lot of feedback, and I'm very grateful to him for that because he made my way into 3D easier after I got into my first project, which was Stalker 2. In general, I have worked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, War Thunder, etc.

Double Karambit Project

Here is the software I used:

• Plasticity (modeling)
• Maya, Blender (low poly)
• ZBrush (detailing and wear elements on high poly)
• RizomUV (UV mapping)
• Marmoset Toolbag 4 (baking and rendering)
• PureRef (references)
• Photoshop (creating alphas)
• Luminar Neo (render post-processing)

I started practicing with a new modeling tool for me, Plasticity, which is a very good modeling software. Making this knife there was much more convenient and easier than in other software I’ve worked with. Why this knife? I had been looking for something to do for a long time. Since this is my first practice in Plasticity, I wanted to make something not very complicated and thought a knife would be a good idea. I didn’t have much practice with weapons, so this was a good opportunity. I had been looking for a knife to make for a long time, and I liked this particular Karambit – it’s quite simple in design and a good model for a first practice.

Next, I started looking for references. First, I gathered references of the Karambit itself for further modeling, as well as references of other knife models for textures. Always look for as many references as possible because when you have too few, it will be harder to approach the modeling and texturing stages!

Modeling

As I mentioned earlier, the main software was Plasticity. I did all the modeling in it. First, I made a blockout of primitive shapes to get the right dimensions, and then I started detailing the body, blade, and other parts.

It's very cool that you can make complex shapes in Plasticity quite easily. Most of the modeling I did was using loft, curves, and boolean operations, of course.

To make a high-quality high poly model, I gave a large number of polygons in Moi3D, and then in ZBrush, I used Polish Crisp Edge.

For retopology, I used PiXYZ, Moi3D, and Blender. I have a very dense mesh for the low poly version since this is personal work, and here the number of polygons is not important. This is not a game-ready model, where everything would need to be logically optimized.

To deploy UVs, I used RizomUV. I split the UV into 2 UV sets with 4K textures and 140 texels per cm to get pretty good texture quality.

I made most of the details, starting with the basic and larger curves. Unfortunately, not all of the curves were preserved – some, like the ones on a large pen, are missing, so I won’t be able to show you those.

Texturing

I used Substance 3D Painter for texturing. At first, I just added basic materials without wear, dirt, and so on. Then, once I had selected the appropriate materials and colors, I started detailing and adding wear, dirt prints, and other effects.

To create realistic and unique wear on the blade, I looked for a lot of references. Since there are four sides of the blade that need to be uniquely textured, I spent time manually working on the wear. I drew everything using the stencil with alphas that I bought on ArtStation.

Conclusion

To summarize: to create an attractive prop, you need to find an interesting object that has several different materials and smooth shapes. It’s important to gather as many references as possible and spend as much time as you can on texturing. If your texture is purely procedural and not well-detailed, the asset won’t be interesting. You need to add more unique details, more color variations, and more story to your object. Procedural textures alone are not enough.

Personally, I chose this knife to practice Plasticity. The model itself is not very complicated because the shapes are simple, but there were some challenges, like with the blade, for example.

I wish everyone who is just starting out to be inspired by creativity and, most importantly, to practice a lot, learn from their mistakes, improve their skills, and put their soul into their work.

Special thanks to 80 Level for providing me with the opportunity to share my skills.

Anatolii Kenc, Hard Surface Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine