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wulongti graciously sent me a file with a Kreon head...so, of course, I couldn't help but start fabricating some helmets.



Oh, wait...that one on the far left no helmet! It king!

Next to the super-d-formed t-rex is a helmet suitable for Reflector, followed by Air Raid, Slingshot, and Ultra Magnus. Relfector got a little messy, but keep in mind that those lines should pretty much disappear in the printed version. I built in Slingshot's sunnies just to make it a little more interesting. I might put some relief work in the sides of his helmet just so that they aren't plain blanks.

And I just realized there were artsy-fartsy shading tools in SketchUp, so I couldn't resist presenting these helmets in "cel-shaded" style. It's so very 2004.

EDIT: So a test batch of these helmets are up on Shapeways if anyone wants to give them a spin. Just send me a PM. They should fit, in theory...but I can't make any promises.

I'm contemplating releasing a version with built-in faceplates. Thoughts?

Those look Fantastic, But you going to have to stop soon as I'm running out of money.........

Dough-bot wrote:Those look Fantastic, But you going to have to stop soon as I'm running out of money.........

Not to mention they're going to need their own bloody weekly feature!

@Dough-bot: Hey, I can't even afford them myself! I need a rich patron of the arts to buy all of the prototypes and tell me how they turn out...I wonder if there are any NEA grants to support action figure customization...

@Burn: I'd run out of characters eventually and then...gasp...have to start coming up with original designs. Or start making Go-bots...hey...

And some Sunstreaker and Gears haberdashery for you...



I figured out why Gears is so grumpy all the time. He tried rendering a self-portrait using SketchUp.

Man, this one was not really much fun at all.

For instance, you might notice some really sloppy line work on Gears. That happened because SketchUp's "intersection" feature kept fracturing the planes whenever I tried to incorporate a new feature. This reduced me to manually re-inserting a lot of material...and, hence, all of those messy diagonals. There must be a better way to do this, but I couldn't find any useful tutorials. There's still all kinds of mess inside his head...Shapeways is probably not going to like that.

The consolation is that those edges are so small that they probably won't even be visible in the printed product. (Assuming the helmet passes Shapeways' tests.)

I'm not sure which was the worst part of this one...getting the curve of his face, intersecting the curve with the flat plane of this hood, or trying to build those two spokes that sit on top of it.

Of course, much of this could have been averted if I went with the more simple geometric rendition of Gears' face instead of this smooth, round version. But, no, I had to try to get fancy and show off.

I was pretty happy with Sunstreaker, though. He just gave me a little trouble on the inside of his helmet...but, I think I fixed the damage.

Anyway, I'm probably going to take a little breather after the Gears fiasco...

Tresob wrote:@Burn: I'd run out of characters eventually and then...gasp...have to start coming up with original designs. Or start making Go-bots...hey...

Consider yourself formally challenged.

Tresob wrote:And I just realized there were artsy-fartsy shading tools in SketchUp, so I couldn't resist presenting these helmets in "cel-shaded" style. It's so very 2004.

EDIT: So a test batch of these helmets are up on Shapeways if anyone wants to give them a spin. Just send me a PM. They should fit, in theory...but I can't make any promises.

I'm contemplating releasing a version with built-in faceplates. Thoughts?

Nicely done, I thought the one in the middle was Kupp though, to go w/ the vest you're working on. ^__^

Yeah, I use one of the styles when I export any images myself. BTW, for your images I assume you're just taking a screen shot? I recommend instead, setting up your angles and styles and resizing your window to how big you want your image to be. Then go to File>>Export>>2D Image. You'll end up w/ a file that's rendered a bit nicer and you don't have to worry about jumping into another program. Also, no axis lines.

Tresob wrote:I need a rich patron of the arts to buy all of the prototypes and tell me how they turn out...I wonder if there are any NEA grants to support action figure customization...

This would be freaking awesome.... I'd like to apply for that grant myself... lol

Tresob wrote:And some Sunstreaker and Gears haberdashery for you...

[snip]

For instance, you might notice some really sloppy line work on Gears. That happened because SketchUp's "intersection" feature kept fracturing the planes whenever I tried to incorporate a new feature. This reduced me to manually re-inserting a lot of material...and, hence, all of those messy diagonals. There must be a better way to do this, but I couldn't find any useful tutorials. There's still all kinds of mess inside his head...Shapeways is probably not going to like that.

Yeah, that's a major annoyance when sketchup decides to just remove faces when you merge rounded sections together. If you jump into "view hidden geometry" you'll see the lines are still there, you just lack the faces. redrawing an outside edge will bring them back, but sometimes you HAVE to redraw the line. In this case, right click on the line and select "soften" and the line will go away and the "rounded face" will be healed. I really like the Sunstreaker one, and Gears is none too bad either. Sadly I had like NO time to work on stuff... this Christmas week has been pretty busy for me

Two more helmets incoming...

Old-bot:




Fast-bot:

Looks good, I'm looking forward to seeing these printed out

Because Springer deserves better than a recolored generic Autobot head:

wow man, you're really cranking these things out! lol

wulongti wrote:wow man, you're really cranking these things out! lol

And then I tried Hot Rod...

Man, that ovular head shape is really not any fun at all.

Tresob wrote:

wulongti wrote:wow man, you're really cranking these things out! lol

And then I tried Hot Rod...

Man, that ovular head shape is really not any fun at all.

oh... yeah... trying to do more rounded shaped things is truly a pain.. I used the bubble skin plugin to do the visor for Omega. Still have yet to try that other plugin I had sent you... I have a feeling I'm going to need it when it comes time to do the combiner upgrades.

And so, after an arduous battle with the 3D model software, a Rodster cranium...



So there you have it, helmets and chestplates for Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blurr, Springer, and Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime.

Tresob wrote:And so, after an arduous battle with the 3D model software, a Rodster cranium...

So there you have it, helmets and chestplates for Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blurr, Springer, and Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime.

nice, it certainly has that kreon/chibi quality to it. though, right click on those extra lines and select "soften" and the'll be merged into the rounded shape w/ the faces.

wulongti wrote:

Tresob wrote:And so, after an arduous battle with the 3D model software, a Rodster cranium...

So there you have it, helmets and chestplates for Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blurr, Springer, and Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime.

nice, it certainly has that kreon/chibi quality to it. though, right click on those extra lines and select "soften" and the'll be merged into the rounded shape w/ the faces.

Yeah, I got sloppy on account of all that clicking it would take to hide those patch-up lines.

I had a request for a Battlecharger helmet...so this is what I put together:

Kinda reminds me of Metal Head from TMNT.. ^_^

wulongti wrote:Kinda reminds me of Metal Head from TMNT.. ^_^

I can see that. But one franchise at a time!

The angles on this one are very deceptive in 2D as well. For instance, the corner of his brim looks like it is a convex right angle, but it's really concave with a slope.

And in other news...my shipment with my test Ultra Magnus helmet is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out if all this helmet work has paid off. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that my mini-Frenzy actually has a face and not just a splotch.

Time for a little crossover, yes?

Zurg?

wulongti wrote:Zurg?

Uhm...no.

Are there any British TF fans that would like to try?

(Easy to mistake them, though.)

Tresob wrote:

wulongti wrote:Zurg?

Uhm...no.

Are there any British TF fans that would like to try?

(Easy to mistake them, though.)

it's an easy one.

is it a ....."freelance peace-keeping agent"

Dough-bot wrote:

Tresob wrote:

wulongti wrote:Zurg?

Uhm...no.

Are there any British TF fans that would like to try?

(Easy to mistake them, though.)

it's an easy one.

is it a ....."freelance peace-keeping agent"

Bingo!

Throttlebot helmets...


And the animated movie helmets all in one shot...


"Test helmets" came in the mail today sized for 10mm diameter, 11mm diameter, 11.5mm diameter, and 12mm diameter. 10mm was too tight. 12mm was too loose. 11.5mm was okay, but a little wobbly. 11mm seems just right.

I felt a bit like Goldilocks.

So now I've carved out an 11mm cylinder with a 5mm peg at the top from all of the heads and helmets. Individual designs still need testing, but I'm at least confident that a Kreon or Lego head will fit.

Anyone have opinions on the best way to bundle these? It seems the easiest thing would be to sell them individually, but then the customer gets hit with a $1.50 handling fee per helmet (or so I understand). Alternatively, I could add sprue connectors between the helmets, but then the customer gets stuck having to shave them off.

Of course, I could just post individual heads AND bundled heads and let customers decide on their own.

And in other news...I'm planning on testing a squared LEGO torso designed to fit the vests. That would open up customizing options to include LEGO arms and legs.