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Post by Aestelon on Mar 24, 2009 6:19:38 GMT -9
I've seen plenty of cool fantasy-themed dice towers, but never seen a sci-fi/industrial one I was satisfied with, so I decided to have a go myself. It's a pretty simple affair for the most part; there's a shallow funnel in the top to control the drop of the dice, and a steeper, tapered slope to direct the dice out the front into the tray. The barrier round the top helps prevent any stray dice from bouncing away if you drop them a little too far. I pretty much just need to texture it now. Since printing this out, I've added another layer of texture to the outer walls and the tray base, using a toned down 'nops' fill in GIMP. But the sides of the tower are still just too plain, and I'm having a real block trying to think what would look good, but still fairly generic. Any ideas? Andy
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Post by Floyd on Mar 24, 2009 7:24:22 GMT -9
I love dice towers! I made a few for Heroscape.
The funnel you've built at the top is particularly nice. Can't wait to see it with the final textures.
What might be cool to add is a small triangular ramp (maybe to the side of th tray) for easy scooping up of large amounts of polyhedrals after they've been rolled?
~F
You should post some plans for us helpless card stock & paper craft addicts to build.
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Post by Aestelon on Mar 24, 2009 10:39:52 GMT -9
Tell you what - here's a copy of the untextured model, as is, to have a play with. I may make a couple of tweaks to improve the build, like adding a couple of tabs to the back of the funnel, and I like your sloped side idea. You can probably work out how to fit it together, it's not too complicated. But as a note, the 'left' and 'right' faces are indicated as you look at the front of the tower. Once I've textured it properly and made sure it builds as I want it, I'll do a proper instruction sheet with it, but if you have any problems, I'll see if I can explain better. Oh, and a little tip. Probably best to fit the tower to the base before attaching the container wall. I didn't for this one, and it doesn't attach properly at one side.
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Post by stevelortz on Mar 24, 2009 14:45:46 GMT -9
I pretty much just need to texture it now. Since printing this out, I've added another layer of texture to the outer walls and the tray base, using a toned down 'nops' fill in GIMP. But the sides of the tower are still just too plain, and I'm having a real block trying to think what would look good, but still fairly generic. Any ideas? Andy It seems that you might take some inspiration from the Finger and Toe models pictured in the Hybrid Conversion thread. Something like that aught to look good. Have fun! Steve
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Post by stevelortz on Mar 24, 2009 14:57:15 GMT -9
In view of your interest in dice towers, you might be interested in a tabletop periscope that could be made from cardstock and a couple of 2"X3" mirrors from hobby lobby. There are some plans here: www.zeitcom.com/majgen/25persc.htmlHave fun! Steve
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Post by Aestelon on Mar 24, 2009 16:01:35 GMT -9
Ah, that old classic. I saw the sci-fi version of that first over on TG, which was very cool. I must admit, it's tempting, although I'm not sure where I'd get the mirrors from offhand (we don't have Hobby Lobby over here).
And blinding thought on the texturing - I have no idea why I didn't think of using the Sci-Blocks as inspiration! Actually, it's mostly because I only got the Sci-Blocks a couple of days ago and hadn't made the connection yet, but even so... That could well work!
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Post by Aestelon on Mar 25, 2009 15:57:33 GMT -9
I've slightly altered the linework for the tower. Nothing major, I've just rearranged the front and sides of the tower into a single component, added tabs to the back of the upper chute (so it can fixed to the rear wall as well as the sides), and added the slope Floyd suggested to the container wall - you just attach the wall as before, but now you fold that inside and stick the tab down to the base. I haven't test-built this version yet (since there's so little done to it); I'm saving that for after I've textured it, which I'm partway through now. Yeah, I like to live dangerously.
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Mar 25, 2009 19:29:34 GMT -9
LOL!
Aestalon... you're AWESOME!
onemonkeybeau
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Post by Aestelon on Mar 26, 2009 16:42:52 GMT -9
Heh. Glad I can amuse.
Andy
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Post by Aestelon on Mar 26, 2009 19:27:12 GMT -9
I think I've nearly finished re-texturing the tower now; hopefully tomorrow, once I get a new magenta cartridge, I can print it off and do a test build.
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Post by Aestelon on Apr 1, 2009 3:48:12 GMT -9
Right. Hopefully, I've finished texturing the dice tower. It seems to look pretty decent on screen so far - time for a test print.
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Apr 1, 2009 6:17:08 GMT -9
Cool!
Looking forward to what you've got!
onemonkeybeau
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Post by Aestelon on Apr 1, 2009 7:27:14 GMT -9
If I've got time to snap pictures later I'll post 'em ASAP, but my mum's crashing at ours tonight, so I need to make sure the spare room's suitable (which may take a while ). I've built it up, and it seems to work fine, although I may have to alter the punch-grate barrier wall and top hoarding. It's okay at a distance, but if you look at it too closely the tight pattern may mess with your eyes! For the record, that one's basically the 'recessed' pattern fill from GIMP. I'm also going to need to alter the top hoardings because somehow I've managed to copy three short hoardings and one long one (there should be two of each; short ones for the sides and long ones for the front and back). That's a pretty easy fix, though. Floyd's sloped side definitely helps you to scoop the dice out of the bottom, so big thanks to him for that idea.
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Post by Aestelon on Apr 1, 2009 9:34:32 GMT -9
Turns out I had a few minutes to snap a couple of pics after all, so here's one to be going on with. I'm sure it could be textured better by someone else (I do decent people, but I tend to suck a bit at terrain), so once I've patched both this textured version and the linework so they've got the two long barriers, I'll post them up so someone else can have a go at doing a better job of it.
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Post by squirmydad on Apr 1, 2009 13:42:58 GMT -9
After seeing this ,I thought to my self," hey self, wouldn't it be cool to make a dice tower like this, only out of girders, so you could see the whole insides of the tower!"
This would make for an interesting design challenge, but would look very cool.
If I find free time, I'll texture up a version of this. JIM
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Post by old squirmydad on Apr 1, 2009 15:30:25 GMT -9
After seeing this ,I thought to my self," hey self, wouldn't it be cool to make a dice tower like this, only out of girders, so you could see the whole insides of the tower!" This would make for an interesting design challenge, but would look very cool. If I find free time, I'll texture up a version of this. JIM Cover the interior of the girders with clear acetate for added strength and so that the dice don't come flying out.
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Post by Aestelon on Apr 2, 2009 7:13:42 GMT -9
After seeing this ,I thought to my self," hey self, wouldn't it be cool to make a dice tower like this, only out of girders, so you could see the whole insides of the tower!" This would make for an interesting design challenge, but would look very cool. If I find free time, I'll texture up a version of this. JIM Cover the interior of the girders with clear acetate for added strength and so that the dice don't come flying out. That's actually one of the reasons I designed it with solid walls. I was inspired to do it by one of Claudio's towers - while it looked great, I found it entirely useless, as dice would bounce out the sides or off the top, and if they made it to the bottom would just sit under the platform where you couldn't see them. With this tower, the walls keep the dice in all the way down, and the lower chute makes sure they all come out into the tray where you can see them. I'll have a go at redoing the lines now, Jim - the ones currently showing don't quite work properly. I'll make the appropriate fixes and post them ASAP.
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Post by Aestelon on Apr 2, 2009 10:26:38 GMT -9
Right. Mods made, this should work a lot better. As a basic set of directions: All lines can be scored from the front, except for the two marked on each chute, which need to be scored from the back. The three main walls of the tower fold round, and it seems to be easiest to attach the two chute pieces to the front wall first. When attaching the lower chute, line the short edge of the trapezium up with the bottom of the door, then attach the adjacent tabs to the front wall accordingly, making sure the top edges fall just inside the edges of the adjacent walls. The walls will then fold round and attach to the other tabs. Close the wall with the two tabs last, they're designed to fit round the lower chute once it's glued to the other walls. Once the tower's attached to the base, you can attach the retainer wall to the front and fold the slope over, gluing that to the base as well. The four tower barriers glue individually to the top of the tower, the short sides on the front and back, and the longer ones at the sides. The barrier corner trims can then be glued on to cover the gaps in the corners. I want to get round to making something resembling an actual instruction sheet soon, but I don't have time at the mo. But hopefully those directions make some kind of sense.
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