Dialup users sorry - images are around 3 mb total.
Ok since a load of people kept bugging me about this, i will write this tutorial, before you start reading if something is unclear you are welcome to ask me, except questions incloded in this list:
1) Where to get import/export plugins for 3ds max
2) Where to get 3ds max or photoshop
3) How to add item in game
4) Anything retarded
Ok so lets get started then, first of all find a 2d image of a sword, or draw one your self, i took a sideways sword in my example, i do not advise you that, mainly because mirroring and rotation are a lot harder then so its harder to make the objects match together later, so best rotate it in photoshop and resave it so it points upwards. Once you found the image you like, create a box in 3dmax, with length and width of the size of the image and height set like -1. why the same size, is because its easier to keep the right image proportion, later on you can resize the box to fit more of your styling needs. so anyway, drag and drop your selected image onto the box and you should get something like this.
Next once you have the box with the image, select the line tool and using the top viewport (try avoiding using perspective if possible at all for mapping out because its really hard to keep the third axis straight, while if you use the top layer it will automatically set z to 0 and only move around x and y so its easier to edit. So anyway starting with the blade, map out with lines half of your blade, use as many dots as you like but dont overdo it, your creating items for rose, not aion. so u should get something like this
after you are done mapping out one side, make a copy of the line you draw (make sure you select copy, not instance) and mirror it, you can use either the mirror modifier, or the modifier withing the spline edit it self, but the mirror modifier has 6 rotations while the one in spline has only 3, i used the modifier because of my weird sword angle i needed to do extra rotations to make the line fit properly into the picture. But anyway your end result should look something like this:
After that to merge the 2 lines you have into one object open the edit spline, if you used the outside mirror modifier you will need to manually reapply spline otherwise the mirroring will cancel out.
Next step is sealing off the lines so they dont have gaps, to make it easier without creating a bunch of extra points i took one line, and deleted the last point, then using the connect tool reconected them again, sealing off the top (repeat the same on the bottom too)
Then using the bevel tool i made the object 3d, using the several bevel layer options i gave the sword a thinning blade form making it more 3d than it would be if you would just bevel it once and thin out the edges later. Also be careful with the edges to try and not make them wave, you can see on the end of my sword the line isnt fully straight, but since that part will nto be visible i just said fuck it.
Next since im dont with the blade i hide it out of sight so it doesnt get in the way, if someone doesnt know where hide is, its here:
Then using the same technique as for the blade i mapped out the wings on the blade and applied the bevel settings, messing around till i got the the form as i like.
Next i duplicated it, mirrored, and then battled rotations again because of the unstandard object rotation i mentioned at start, so i think i got a couple pixels off on the x axis on this screen (fixed it later but didnt redo the screen, forgot)
After that you do some scaling on the both objects on the Z axis till you are happy with the thickness and move them around to fit each other pretty and all that mumbo jumbo.
Next is the handle, for the handle you dont really have to do mapping, unless its some complex thing, mine had some spiral on it but i got too lazy so i just used a simple cilinder, you can add a spiral around it, and merge it in, or whatever, this is rather simple and is not really revelant to anything. After positioning the tube in a way i like i mesh edit selected some of the top verticles and scaled them down, making a smooth transition into the rest of the blade.
Then made a lazy handle end
Using atatch once again i made the sword into one object, since we all know that rose is very gay about multimeshes.
Next goes the uvw mappin, i use a box cos it fits the best, but act on the situation, for a cannon for example a cilinder would fit better probably and so on
Then you do uvw unwrap modifier, and click the giant edit button, if you cant find the giant edit button then dont ask me where to find the giant edit button, because the giant edit button is very clearly visible, it on a giant button says edit (like 4 people asked me this already >.<) .
Ill let you figure out all the settings in this your selves since it will take forever to explain, not to mention there are numerous tuts all over the net already covering the subject. so fish out render uvw template once your happy with the layout you see
and then some mumbo jumbo magic and bam you rendered a wireframe of your model
after that lets make some uber kewl textures, first some hawt silver for the blade
and some hawt red for the handle!
and now save and drop the saved texture on your object (or you can go through the long and boring way of setting materials in the material editor) and you gets hot textured swords
Best way to get the right size, import an another rose object and adapt
i dont use nvidia plugs, i use dds converter 2, refer to icon on desktop, if you want to find it jsut google the name, plenty of downloads, it automatically converts dds back and forth fitting for rose with its default settings so you dont have to pain your self trying to figure out that retarded nvidia plug in, aplha conversions work fine too, also can convert directly from and to psd, which is useful to save alpha from existing textures already. and can also batch convert as many files as you want.
There all done, was too lazy to import it in game but whatever, the uvw mapping is fully functional, if you are using sparks converter make sure you export as 3ds from max, if you use obj you will lose the uvw data.
Cheers