In this tutorial I will show you how to model a Zabuza anime sword in a low-poly style in Blender.
Blade Modeling
I will bring in an image from Google images for a reference
I will rotate and move the reference to the proper position
I add a curve object and move it to the base of the blade
In edit mode, select the curve object and delete the vertices
I select the curve pen tool and begin to outline the blade reference – if you haven’t watched my curve pen tool tutorial, please pause this tutorial and watch that one first
Once I have the outline done with the curve pen tool, I open the object data properties tab and lower the resolution preview
In object mode, I select the blade, right-click and convert the curve into a mesh
In edit mode, I select the vertices along the blade and add faces
In object mode, I add a solidify modifier to give the blade a bit of thickness
I apply the solidify modifier
In object mode, I add a circle, rotate it around the X-Axis 90-degrees and move it into place at the top of the blade
I scale it to the proper size to act as my Boolean for the hole
In edit mode, I add a face and extrude the circle along the Y-Axis so it intersects with the blade
Under the overlays menu, I check the face orientation of the two objects – if anything is red, I use ALT + N to flip the normals
This needs to be done so the Boolean will work and also so the materials will work outside Blender – such as in a game engine
In object mode, I shade the circle smooth
I then add a Boolean modifier with the circle as the object and operation will be “difference”
I then apply the modifier and delete the circle
In edit mode, I add a small bevel to the hole I just cut out
If you are experiencing problems, you can change the support edges by merging vertices
To smooth out some of the square edges, I will add bevels to certain edge loops along the edge of the blade
In object mode, I right-click and choose “shade auto smooth”
To fix the shading issues around the Boolean, in edit mode I select the outer edge loop and scale it along the Y-Axis
Handle Modeling
I will add a cube – moving and scaling it to the proper place for the connector piece
In edit mode, I will continue scaling the connector piece
I select the top side edges and bevel them to round out the top
I will merge the two center vertices
Lastly, I check to make sure the normals aren’t flipped
I select the bottom face and extrude it to start forming the hilt
I then select the two side faces and use E + ALT S to scale them along the X-Axis
In object mode, I right-click and choose “shade auto smooth”
I also add a small bevel using the bevel modifier
I add a circle and scale it to the proper size for the handle
I move it up along the Z-Axis until it is slightly inside the hilt
In edit mode, I add a face and extrude it down along the Z-Axis
I add four horizontal edge loops
I move the lowest edge loop toward the bottom of the handle and space the others out evenly
I select all four edge loops and add a bevel
In face select mode, I use E + ALT S, I extrude the faces of these bevels
I then add a bevel to the edges
In object mode, I right-click and choose “shade auto smooth”
Materials
I make sure I’m in material preview mode so I can see my materials
I split the viewport and open the shader editor
I add a new material for the handle
I change the metallic to 1 and the roughness to 0.2
I change the base color to almost black
I now add a second material to the handle for the lighter metal
In edit mode, I select the extrude parts of the handle and assign the new material
I also apply this material to the hilt
I add a new material for the blade
I change the metallic to 1 and the roughness to 0.2
I add a gradient texture to the base color
Using the node wrangler add-on, I select the gradient texture node and use CTRL + T to add a mapping and texture coordinate node
I change the coordinate node from generated to object
I change the Y-Rotation to 90-degrees so the black is on the bottom of the blade
I also change the X-Location so the black is taking up less of the blade space
I add a color ramp between the gradient texture and the principled shader
I change the black color stop to a mid-gray and the white color stop to a light-gray
I also change the interpolation to “ease” so I won’t have hard edges on the material