Modeling a detailed dagger in 3DsMax

In this tutorial I will show you how to model a detailed fantasy dagger in 3ds Max using a reference picture. This tutorial was requested on our forums and together with the request the user provided also the reference picture according which i should model the dagger. We will start the tutorial by adjusting and importing the reference picture inside 3ds Max using a standard material and a plane. After this first step i will start to model the blade using  poly-modeling technique starting from a box and by moving the vertex and edges shaping the box into the blade of the dagger.

After the blade will be ready we will jump straight to the handle and model all the details which I will see on the reference picture. Along with the high-poly model I will try to model also a low-poly model of this dagger which could be used in a game or in any environment where you need low-poly models. The final touch to the blade we will do inside Sculptris (free ZBrush). For rendering and materials i will use the MentalRay and Photometric Lights for realistic looking result. At the end we will render Ambient & Occlusion map and do some postproduction in Photoshop. You can watch the tutorial below.