I wanted to make this thread on the 405th, but their verification system is broken (if any of you have an account, please tell an admin)

Anyways, I was wondering if it would be possible to 3d print ripped game assets.

I ask this because the geometry of a lot of the models isn't a single closed mesh, and I don't know how it would come out if printed.

Nor do I know of a 3d printing service that allows you to order things you personally did not model.

If anybody cares what I have in mind, I want to print a statue of one of my friends in game spartan. He flipped his care while driving one day. He's okay, but I think he deserves something for being a real life spartan.

If you have the time or are willing to make the effort, you can edit a model so that it becomes a single closed mesh and then you can 3D print that.

Of course, but the the UV's will be messed up, wouldn't they?

I've never actually done any 3d printing before, so I don't know how the topology should be.

Will the print factor in smoothing groups, for example?

blender has a function to rebuild a 3d mesh as closed. i have no clue whether or not it preserves uv coordinates as i rarely use it

Should be good. I'd be interested in this myself, but I wouldn't bother with the 405th. That place died a death a long time ago, it just hasn't realised it yet.

I'll look into things; been working on a 3D printer myself. When I'm settled from moving house, I'll get in touch with you properly.

a 3D printer wouldnt care about UVs because it's not painting textures onto an object. UVs are usless in this matter

I couldn't figure out how to close the models :(

it would be a huge waste of money and time to try printing out assets straight from the game, since their relative low-poly looks would not translate into the real world very well, since we don't have phong shading or normal mapping. it would be much less expensive to buy the figures. if you do not wish to buy the figures, then you would have to recreate everything in a much higher resolution.

case in point.

Edited by master noob on May 22, 2013 at 11:52 PM

Editable poly, the whats it called (that selects holes), select holes, hit cap.
For multiple objects, over in the create object tab, compound objects, boolean, union. Select objects.

Or you could be like me, and then make a model like this:


Put that through a 3D printer, it'll come out nice. you may need to etch in extra detail but eh

So smoothing groups are not read for printing?

a 3d printer prints from vertex to vertex, so since we do not have normals in real life the answer is no.

you have thousands of dollars to spend on a 3d printer?
awesome.
Also textures are a no go unless you do them yourself, im pretty sure. or spend SO much money.\


And btw, you dont put a halo 1 model through a 3d printer, you put this type of model through a 3d printer:

depending on the durability of your print material, u could just use a dremel to smooth edges, and add in details.

The texture for the master chief is actually white, so some modifications must have been done for it to look that way.

Sealing models is pretty simple. You just go into vertecy mode and select all of them, then hit weld. Unless there's floating geometry, then you'd need to select the wall behind it and create faces that connect to each part of it to close all the way around it. I don't think UVW's would matter because it's printing the model, it's creating a mesh. I'd think the textures would have to be painted on afterward.

I believe it's called 'paint', you f***ing tool :P

no guys, i think thats just the 10th anniversary master chief figurine. it was a straight copy of the original model.

Highly doubtful. I know for a fact that McFarlane figurines are either hand- or machine-painted - and usually quite shoddily.

Machines like the one you described -do- exist, but 3D printing isn't viable for mass-production items currently. Usually companies (Like McFarlane) will use one to get the master item, and then cast that item in bulk for assembly on a line.

I'd go more deeply into the subject but it'd take a lot of linking to research - which I can't be fussed to do. The best I can suggest is that the parts of the model would be produced in their constituent colours and glued together that way.

That'd be for the best. You might be able to work out articulation and such, and you'll be able to paint your own schemes a lot more easily than you would having to print out different components in different colours.

If your end goal is to make a life sized assault rifle, i suggest you follow this guy
http://www.youtube.com/dafrontlinetrooper

He shows you how to make quality props and stuff like that for really cheap

maybe you should have done some research.
there's a company that prints out figurines for video games and they use paint on their models. that isn't the actual texture from the game.
you can find those figurines at gamestop, I think they still have 'em in stock.
Edited by master noob on May 30, 2013 at 06:21 PM

u could always use plastidip on the foam. unless of course u meant something much more strong, maybe bondo.

Use the foam to make the base, cast a mould, make a copy with hard plastic (or metal/clay if you have that kind of money)

In that case you might want to consider having the piece milled out via a CNC machine (high-density modelling foam or MDF are the two main materials used, or you could look into Trycut), cast in two halves using a decent grade plastic (SmoothCast seems to be the go-to product for this, although again, some research might yeild better results) so you can fit the internals, and then glue those two halves together. I wouldn't recommend clay as your material, since that can be extremely heavy and brittle, but if you want a metal finish to your weapon there are metal-finish casting dyes available that will make your prop look more realistic (although I've seen some stunning detail be realised through the diligent application of an airbrush and some patience).

Your main questions to be asking are:
- Will my material hold up to the function I intend for it?
- How much money do I have to spend on this project?
- How heavy do I want this project to be?

Again, given that you're going to be using your Assault Rifle for airsoft, you want to ensure it's made out of a high-grade product that won't chip or shatter too easily (unfortunately, chipping is inevitable unless you start looking at having your prop milled out of aluminium) - but that's expensive and will weigh a lot. Plastics are a good compromise on weight and durability, but you're going to have to spend more on silicone for mould-making. Wood is also viable, but again, it can be heavy (although MDF might not be -so- bad if you scratch-build with it).

Honestly, I have a list as long as my arm for methods of prop creation (since prop creation is the main reason I'm even here). Hit me up via PM and I could probably discuss this more in-depth with you, since this seems to be veering off the topic of 3D printing somewhat.
Edited by Rosanna Weyland on May 31, 2013 at 07:37 AM

Mawwwwtynnnnn!
Sorry, had to.
Just use pepakura. It's more of a chore and less of a wallet cleaner

Not for weapons, it isn't.

Trust me on that, I've been at the 'Pepakura for armour' route pretty much since Halo 3 came out. It's fine for open pieces, but you really don't want to be making weapons out of it. You'll end up with warpage, unless you strut the ever-loving poop out of it.
Edited by Rosanna Weyland on May 31, 2013 at 10:49 AM

You DO know there's more to it than printing it out and putting it together right?

I'll choose to assume you're not insulting my intelligence here, and respond with 'yes'. I'm not quite sure what you're even getting at, so I'll explain myself just in case you missed my point the first time around:

Producing your models entirely via 3D printing incurs a high start-up cost and a high running cost. Printing one 'master model' and then casting it out of a much cheaper material incurs far less costs if you're after a production run of something, since you can re-use the mould again and again (infinitely, depending on the material you're using for the mould). Or, you could use your CNC/3D printer to mill/print out your master mould and injection-mould your item (which is, I believe, how McFarlane produce their models).

After that, it really is just a matter of taking the pieces and putting the model together on an assembly line, and then having it painted later on. If you've cast your base in the colours you want (which, again, is how McFarlane produce their models), then it'd be a simple case of painting on the fine detail such as the stickers and visor.

Trust me. I know my stuff.

No.

What I'm saying is that if you WANT to make more, then you're better off making a master and then casting.

Regardless of that, I will refer back to myself: you're making an airsoft weapon, so consider the durability of the materials you're using. Your best bet is to use a 3D printer or CNC machine to make a master copy of your weapon, cast a hollow copy of that master using a more rigid-graded plastic (urethane plastics are probably going to be your best option, a 5mm wall will probably provide you with the strength you need and you can fibreglass for extra strength) to fit your airsoft internals in, assemble and paint. Assuming you create your weapon in a modular fashion and design it so you're able to disassemble it, you shouldn't have any issues with repairs should you need to do so.

In a perfect world you'd use injection moulding with a thermoplastic such as HDPE to make your shell. But for the hobbyist, I would recommend rotocasting with standard urethane resin.

Look, bub. I've already given you pretty much the information you need. But, fine:

Home-application 3D printers can't do undercuts, so you're not getting a hollow piece out of a home 3D printer. Multi-axis CNC machines (5-axis and higher) CAN, but they're prohibitively expensive and not really up for what we're discussing here. Essentially you're after making a shell, like a Nerf gun's body, that you can fix your airsoft components into. For that, you need to rotocast. I'll explain.

Print/mill out your master copy. File down any rough edges, smooth off any imperfections, and then seal the item with some primer (Filler/primer spraypaint is also a good idea to look into). Then, create a silicone mould of your item (no, I'm not going to teach you how to do this, there are hundreds of decent tutorials online if you'd care to do some research).

Once you have your moulds, you can pour in your casting resin and roll/rotate (see where we get rotocasting from now?) it around in the mould to coat every surface, until it's cured. This should take, at the most, twenty minutes for the plastic to set hard, and a few hours for the plastic to set solidly enough to de-mould. Upon de-moulding you should have the hollow components you need to make your weapon's shell.

Useful videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cIl1LPjk74
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvc62l1MiJo

Sorry. Quoted the wrong thing. Anywhore, ive seen pretty good pepakura weapons. After its assembled, a binder is applied so it holds shape under any pressure and can be reinforced during that same process.

You done f***ed up. It was hilarious.

And yes, I've seen some good Pepakura weapons myself. Even made some, but I find that the time and effort required to make sure there isn't any warping or sagging vastly outstrips the gain for ease of assembly and low cost. Hell, you're still going to have to spend a fair amount of money on fibreglass and resin, bondo, sandpaper, paint and accessories - may as well have just made it out of MDF or something if you don't have access to a machine.

Honestly. Pep's good for size testing and mock-ups, but after five or six years of it I've found that there's really no substitute for machine-produced props. That's why I've gotten my own CNC machine and I'll be milling out my stuff on that from now on.

Never a bother. I just get frustrated when people go "uuuuuuuh... I don't understand, explain everything to me again" rather than doing a little research.

I'd -love- to help you out with this project and get on board, though. I have a Battle Rifle kit sat around doing nothing, you can quite happily have that off me if you thought you could make that into an airsoft weapon.

THIS is probably a build worth looking into. It deals with making a Spartan Laser out of aluminium and fibreglass, to work as an airsoft weapon. It's a decent guide into the principles of prop weapons building, but aluminium is expensive and difficult to work with, so I'd suggest taking the principles of this build only.

It's very easy to turn a halo model BACK into a sealed model, just use the "welde" tool on edit poly.

As for 3d printing you can buy a printer for a low as $500 http://portabee3dprinter.com/ but they only can detail down to 0.5 mm.

If you want to get a better one there are a few to choose from, all ranging in about $1000-1500.

And no, there isn't any way the print the texture.

Btw heres some of my work: FN2000 (View in 3D)

Edited by MHstudios on Jun 1, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Edited by MHstudios on Jun 1, 2013 at 11:03 AM