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Post by old squirmydad on Jan 2, 2013 19:31:38 GMT -9
Just a couple of little things I was tinkering with. I wanted a central machine-gun turret on top of my Steam Ram, but the gun didn't clear the forward structure. So here's a little turret base ring in the dark grey color scheme. Also, some of my troops were getting tired of walking to the battle so I made this armored box; I didn't make a carriage but, just by lucky chance, the armored personnel compartment fits nicely into this wagon from WWG's Deadfall:Street's of Blood. Until I get around to making a support carriage I recommend everyone go buy this set from WWG, they're having a sale right now too. The new bits are here; dl.dropbox.com/u/2320000/New%20Cog%20bits/New-Cog-bits.zipHave fun!
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Post by Brave Adventures on Jan 3, 2013 3:06:52 GMT -9
That tank looks amazing! I really like the style of your vehicles. What program(s) do you use to make them?
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Post by Sirrob01 on Jan 3, 2013 11:08:23 GMT -9
More tanky bits for more mods . Liking the cart paddywagon.
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Post by old squirmydad on Jan 3, 2013 13:04:47 GMT -9
That tank looks amazing! I really like the style of your vehicles. What program(s) do you use to make them? Thanks, and "processes" is right. There's two main programs and then a bunch of intermediary bits to get me from point A to Point B. It goes like this; 1) Pen and paper to scribble out basic ideas and shapes. I don't brainstorm as well in a CAD program as well as I do on paper. 2) Make shapes in CAD program. My Cad program is called Vectorworks 12, I learned it as part of my technical theatre training but it works well for toy creation too. 3) Export DXF file, open dxf file in Metasequoia to proof, fix, and convert. I find that Metasequoia files work better in Pepakura than the straight dxf out of Vectorworks. 4) Open the Metasequoia version in Pepakura. Unfold, layout, switch every damn flap because Pepakura and I disagree on building methods. And here is a crossroads, depending on what I'm doing. I can export out of Pepakura as either an EPS file or a new dxf file. If I go the dxf route then I can open the file in Robomaster, which would give me my cutting file and print to pdf from Robomaster. 5) The pdf from Robomaster, or the eps file from Pepakura, then gets opened in Photoshop. Texture, texture, texture... 6) If I'm making a layered pdf Isave png files of the layer options and build the layered pdf in InDesign. 7) I use Acrobat to build the final pdf booklet. 8) If I went the eps file to Photoshop route then I come back at this point and trace the layout file in Robomaster to create my cutting files. And then I print it, build it, and play with it! Easy.
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Post by Brave Adventures on Jan 5, 2013 6:57:21 GMT -9
Thanks for the detailed answer. I'll need to check out Vectorworks 12 and Metasequoia. I made a model of a Japanese house last month in Google Sketchup, but I had a little trouble making it look the way I wanted it to and I didn't know how to use Pepakura properly. I managed to get it to unfold the model, but the result was a little strange, so I ended up remaking it manually in Illustrator and skipping the 3D modelling step. I'd like to learn the 3D modelling method of creating paper craft models though because it seems easier to create more intricate models that way, compared to drawing it flat in Illustrator. Anyway, thanks again!
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Post by Christopher Roe on Jan 5, 2013 10:21:36 GMT -9
The thing everyone has to remember about Pepakura and Ultimate Papercraft 3D is that there's no such thing as a magic "unfold the model properly" button. The software is very good at one thing and one thing only: math. What it is not good at is building paper models. Because of that, it has no idea of what the best unfolding is, all it can do is flatten a 3D model into a 2D net. It's up to the person (who knows how to actually build a paper model and therefore is a better judge of where to put glue flaps and place the seams) to take that starting net and clean it up into something that looks good and goes together properly. Think of that first unfolding as dumping a box of Legos on your desk, you still need to pick out the blocks and stick them together.
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Post by Brave Adventures on Jan 5, 2013 15:28:57 GMT -9
Yes, the problem I had was that I didn't know how to make changes to what pepakura thought it should look like. It's a problem of ignorance and inexperience on my part, not any problem with the software. That and I think there are better 3D modeling programs out there for this kind of thing than Google Sketch up, so I was curious what other people used.
Ryan
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Post by old squirmydad on Jan 5, 2013 16:04:04 GMT -9
Yes, the problem I had was that I didn't know how to make changes to what pepakura thought it should look like. It's a problem of ignorance and inexperience on my part, not any problem with the software. That and I think there are better 3D modeling programs out there for this kind of thing than Google Sketch up, so I was curious what other people used. Ryan Actually I think Google Sketchup has two different unfolding programs that work with it, one free and one not, iirc. One of the reasons that I go through Metasequoia is that it preps things nicely for Pepakura and makes my layout work in Pepakura much easier.
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Post by Christopher Roe on Jan 5, 2013 23:18:13 GMT -9
Ryan: Didn't the built-in help get you up to speed with Pepakura? Squirmydad: Yep, I checked out the SketchUp unfolding plugins a while back. Here's a link to my findings: www.ebbles.com/2012/01/sketchup/I've also used 3D Canvas Pro, Carrara, and Hexagon in the past, but I keep going back to Metasequoia for low-poly modeling because of its speed and stability. I've started using Silo at one of my other jobs and it's really been growing on me more as time goes by. I'm looking at another huge change in my papercraft workflow for 2013-2014, even bigger than the last major one that happened in 2006. I should probably post about that on Chez Ebbles later today.
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