been looking into the program armorsmith for the scaling and other business of an armor im about to start making, but from reviews im looking at it sounds like armorsmith is very buggy and/or not functional whatsoever. does anyone have any information on the program and should i buy it or not? i don't wanna waste 40 bucks on a program that won't even work.
Hey there, s197. SgtSaint and JTF4 have sent you great resources to look at and review.
I have spent hundreds of hours in the program, and although I cannot explain all the quirks that go on in the program, I can share my experience.
In the past, most costume builders had to guess what size may fit them with basic measurements and test builds; this led to a lot of trial and error when making costumes. Armorsmith is an incredibly useful tool because you can see the model compared to your avatar (or a 3D scan) and get a mostly accurate perspective on what may fit. Although the program is not perfect, it streamlines the process of sizing your armor.
I believe the program is worth the price, but I do have a few gripes with the software.
- The avatar is not incredibly accurate, so I often have to measure myself at certain areas (like the width of my torso and the size of my foot). These issues may be due to being a female and having varying proportions. We are all unique and shaped individually, so there is no wonder the avatar is not "one size fits all." Eventually I got a 3D scan of myself, and the program has been far more useful.
- Prone to crashing If you have a low-end rig, make sure to save.
- If you are using Pepakura/foam files and altering their scale, the program will break the templates, and you will have to re-unfold the model inside or outside the program after exporting. The unfolding tool in Armorsmith is janky, and I try to avoid it whenever possible.
If you want to make armor using foam or Pepakura, this is the method I use to get accurate templates IF they are broken in Armorsmith:
1) Import the .pdo or .stl into Armorsmith.
2) Attach and size the model to your body (feel free to use non-uniform or free-form deformation so the model can fit your body properly).
3) Once you are happy with the sizing, double-check to see if the unfold is broken in the "patterns" tab. If it is, click on your model > file > export > model > name and save the model in file explorer.
4) Open Pepakura Designer (this is a separate program from Armorsmith; I believe you need the full version to unfold files). Find the website
HERE) and go to file > open > select model from your file explorer. Be sure that the overall dimensions of the model are similar to the ones in Armorsmith before doing anything else.
5) Unfold your pattern, and there you go!
This method is tedious, but it has been the only way I have been able to work around Armorsmith's limitations.
The good news is even if you delete a 3D model out of your downloads or anywhere else you imported the model from, Armorsmith stores the file you imported separately so the 3D object never gets lost. This perk has helped me out more times than I can count. That being said, try not to delete the master file if you can help it.
Armorsmith tutorials can be found in the
Tutorial Section.
If you are interested in working with a 3D scan in Armorsmith, you can find a tutorial
HERE. I highly recommend it.
I hope you found this useful, good luck!
