The Sword Stand

I recently began designing a sword stand. My wife complained about the rather ratty looking wooden dowel rod contraption I have been using and suggested that I create something that would go with the decor and make a nice stand. The location is on top of a stone mantle above a fireplace.

The sword is a (I think) "Conan" 1st movie sword style and the other weapon is an Italian dagger with a black leather sheath. The sword was made in India and it's name is Hamingja (which means personal reserve of power.) The dagger's name is Gandr (which means witchcraft or sorcery.)

I decided to work on the design using Povray. The last image was the closest I could come to making the whole affair look realistic. Once I got the basic design completed, I took the dimensions to a local wrought-iron shop so they could actually make the beast. It will probably weigh a ton.

I decided to post these images showing the various stages that often go through to get from a basic idea to a completed image.

First I had to start with a basic design. I used "boxes" and "cylinders" in Povray to create the design you see here. The idea was to place the stand on a fireplace mantel, hence the long gray box it's sitting on. Notice the rings and other sections are all one element. This makes the model look a bit flat.

Next, I altered the camera angle a little and also began separating the elements to give the object a more 3D appearance. You will notice that I have the rings in the back of the stand at this point.

Now I have moved the rings to the front of the stand (general consensus was for the rings to be in front.) I also added a mock-up of the sword and dagger that would be sitting on the stand. I made the proportions as accurately as I could so when the stand was made it would match what I was expecting. I removed a center flat support since it didn't seem to add to the design.

This time I added some cylinders for the hilts of the sword and dagger so again I could see how the two weapons would appear on the stand.

The dagger was flipped 180 degrees to make it more balanced on the stand. I also added some texture to the walls to make them appear more "concrete like." Notice the sword and dagger have a more realistic blades at this point. I also added some brass edging to the sword blade and stretched the hilt/cylinder somewhat. The dagger now has a pommel.

Not much difference from the previous picture. The stand has gotten some "rust" and the camera angle was changed again.

Now the lights are altered. Instead of one general light, I now have two spotlights pointing at the stand. Notice that the rust was removed on that image.

Now I have added a third spotlight that has a warmer color and at the same time I changed the image that surrounds the entire scene to a more colorful version. The image really looks different now.

The background image was rotated to get some different colors in the image. I wanted more blues to show in the sword blade. I also altered the sword a bit by starting to make the hilt look more like the real thing. Brass sections were added to the handle of the sword and little curved ends were added to the brass guards along the blade. This time the rust was very strong.

Now the "horns" (weird curvy things on the handle) were moved back on the sword hilt. I started testing out rocks along the mantel to see how they would look. You will notice that the addition of the new stones darkened the image overall.

A lot more stones were added to flesh out the scene. All the stones were created one-by-one and placed by trial and error until they fit correctly.

The dagger pommel and handle have been refined along with the sword handle.

The mortar was whitened up a little and the dagger hilt was finally fleshed out. Notice both the dagger and sword are rotated a bit and don't sit perfectly straight up and down. The small brass plaque in the middle has become a bit too dull.

This is where I finally removed the surrounding image and decided to create the walls, ceiling and a floor that surrounds the entire scene. This made the image much darker, but also made it more realistic. This also made the rendering time go from 2 hours to 9 hours. I also made the brass plaque into bright bronze so it would show better and allow you to see the names.

This image is only slightly different from the last one. This version incorporates focal blur. Hard to tell the blur is there unless you compare this image with the last. Pay close attention to the sword blade. If you look REALLY close you MIGHT see a difference.

This is the last version. I dropped the focal blur because it added very little to the image and also quadrupled the amount of time it took to render. I also corrected the sword handle by giving the wood a more natural look (replacing the orangey looking wood.) The number of rings in the handle was reduced from 13 to 6 to look more like the real sword. The brass plaque was reduced in brightness so it wouldn't stand out as much.


You can see a larger version (1280x1024) here: Sword Stand
This is a photo of the actual sword stand in place.
A local wrought iron shop created the stand from the dimensions I gave them.
The stand is very heavy and made from black steel.