Nordic Axe Detail

Nordic War Axe

This ongoing project is to create a set of equipment for Skyrim based on actual Norse artifacts. I took liberty to make their design both less plain and better fitting for the Skyrim high fantasy while making sure the weapon would be recognizable to any historian.

 

First up was to make a Norse one handed axe. I chose a bearded axe head found at Gotland in Sweden for my design.

 

 

Modeled Result proportioned to match closely to Skyrim's original Steel war axe so it would work in the character's hand. I wanted the same proportions so collision would look right.

 

Click each image for a closer view

Getting the weapon playable in the game wasn't difficult, requiring an export to .nif format using a 3ds Max plug in and using a fan-generated tool to then connect the appropriate model data and texture paths in the .nif file.

 

Hindall wields his axe like a true dragonslayer!

I followed the example from the Skyrim High-Rez pack and designed my textures at 2048 maps. It makes sense since the weapons are close to the player. I saved them using DDS with mip maps. What was interesting to discover is how the Creation Engine uses the alpha channel of the normal maps to hold specular data.

 

I created all the materials though a combination of photo manipulation and hand panting, mostly hand painting. I used fireworks to create the dragon carving.