Calladar's Foam Carter Build

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OK i am working on the templates for the reach boots i made.. i am having troubles with translating my drawings to digital and maintain the scale. when i went to college it was all done on a drafting table and with a big sheet of paper and drafting tools.. yes i am old.. don't judge. not to mention my cad software is SO old that it will not run on my computer. so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

Trace them on to a sheet of graph paper and then use guides in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and plot the points you measure on your templates to add points for lines. If you have curves, you can break them down into line segments of whatever resolution you want. If you really need to curves, you could use them to create splines.

You could also just scan them and then use an Auto Trace in Illustrator. I think Inkscape also has it.
 
Trace them on to a sheet of graph paper and then use guides in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and plot the points you measure on your templates to add points for lines. If you have curves, you can break them down into line segments of whatever resolution you want. If you really need to curves, you could use them to create splines.

You could also just scan them and then use an Auto Trace in Illustrator. I think Inkscape also has it.

ummm yea?!?!?! lost the heck out of me.. lol.. went right over my head.. been playing with it.. can draw them out scan them in then lost after that.. makes a nice picture though. think i just need to find a good 2d program that i can draw with that has a cad style scale system in it that i can maintain scale. going to look at adobe illustrator and see what it can do.
 
Well, see Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape are vector based illustration software programs. You can draw lines and then scale them and they stay the same thickness but grow or shrink and maintain proper proportions. They have rulers which you can click and drag away from and then will draw a guide you can snap to.

So, if your had your template on a grid, you can set an arbitrary 0,0(upper left or lower left would be normal starting places), this is where you start all your measurements from. Then you just plot points on the curves/lines of your templates and measure with a ruler from 0,0 to the point. So for the first point on your first line, say it is at 1 inch down and 2 inches to the right on the graph paper. In whatever program you choose, you put two guides down, one at 1 inch on the vertical axis and one at 2 inches on the horizontal axis. You measure again for the next point(or just do them all and write the values next to the point, then start putting them in). Now you have two sets of intersecting guides in the software and you can draw a line between them. Whenever there are too many guides and you start losing which intersection you are one, just delete the guides and start over.

If your are still confused, let me know and I will try to put together some kind of set of images or a video.
 
OK i am working on the templates for the reach boots i made.. i am having troubles with translating my drawings to digital and maintain the scale. when i went to college it was all done on a drafting table and with a big sheet of paper and drafting tools.. yes i am old.. don't judge. not to mention my cad software is SO old that it will not run on my computer. so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

I feel your pain. I'm scratch building my MKVI boots out of foam now and I was going to create templates to share. But, I still do thing the old fashioned way myself and can't really translate my drawings to pep. If I come up with a solution I'll be sure to share it with you. Best of luck man.
 
Well, see Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape are vector based illustration software programs. You can draw lines and then scale them and they stay the same thickness but grow or shrink and maintain proper proportions. They have rulers which you can click and drag away from and then will draw a guide you can snap to.

So, if your had your template on a grid, you can set an arbitrary 0,0(upper left or lower left would be normal starting places), this is where you start all your measurements from. Then you just plot points on the curves/lines of your templates and measure with a ruler from 0,0 to the point. So for the first point on your first line, say it is at 1 inch down and 2 inches to the right on the graph paper. In whatever program you choose, you put two guides down, one at 1 inch on the vertical axis and one at 2 inches on the horizontal axis. You measure again for the next point(or just do them all and write the values next to the point, then start putting them in). Now you have two sets of intersecting guides in the software and you can draw a line between them. Whenever there are too many guides and you start losing which intersection you are one, just delete the guides and start over.

If your are still confused, let me know and I will try to put together some kind of set of images or a video.

wow just looked at Adobe Illustrator and ha.. how bout no... little more than i am willing to spend. downloading inkscape now to see how it is.. if i could get drafix-cad to run i would be golden. that is what i used in college and i know how to use it.. but alas... it is a little outdated.. lol.. working on it to see what i can get going.
 
That's going to be some serious work ahead of you. Do you have a CRAFT ROBO printer? If not, I highly suggest getting one. For the amount of work you put out, it would cut down a TON of time cutting and scoring. I got one for my birthday last month and already it has been completely worth it. Took 30 minutes to completely cut and score a Stormtrooper helmet with 24 pages and 150 parts. You could completely justify it with the number of suits you are attempting. Keep up the amazing work!
 
That's going to be some serious work ahead of you. Do you have a CRAFT ROBO printer? If not, I highly suggest getting one. For the amount of work you put out, it would cut down a TON of time cutting and scoring. I got one for my birthday last month and already it has been completely worth it. Took 30 minutes to completely cut and score a Stormtrooper helmet with 24 pages and 150 parts. You could completely justify it with the number of suits you are attempting. Keep up the amazing work!

oh yea, i have one.. have had it for about 2 years.. love it.. does cut down on time and work.. the thing is alot of my next project is going to be scratch build so not much to put the craft robo to work on.. now the helmet is sure enough going through the craft robo..
 
i found the 405th about a month ago and ive been looking around finding awesome suits and im currently trying to build the Jun helmet (hes my favorite) but your thread has truly inspired me to not only finish my helm but also to make a whole armor set and was wondering (since your sons Jun armor looked awesome) if there was any tutorials will you be doing on how to build with foam and such and what tools and such you used to build the jun armor. i would love to know and once again you truly are the coolest person EVER!!!!
 
i found the 405th about a month ago and ive been looking around finding awesome suits and im currently trying to build the Jun helmet (hes my favorite) but your thread has truly inspired me to not only finish my helm but also to make a whole armor set and was wondering (since your sons Jun armor looked awesome) if there was any tutorials will you be doing on how to build with foam and such and what tools and such you used to build the jun armor. i would love to know and once again you truly are the coolest person EVER!!!!

Thanks and i am working on a tut on how I have done the kits and how I did the grunt head. It is alot harder than I thought it would be... The issue I have is I am not photogenic and when I have done a video i went back to edit it and realize I left something important out.. Also i am the type that when i work on something i have to actively concentrate to stop and take pics or document.. Would really make a bad researcher.. Lol May just do a typed one with pics and a few little videos without my ugly mug talkin.. Lol
 
anything would help. im completely new to the whole armor making and building scene(no one in family has any artistic/sculpting/building/ or engineering experience at all) soo im pretty much starting from scratch on everything so im trying to read up on everything i can. also for your sons jun helm which pep file did he use im currently using jicos and its my 5th time making it since i cant get the size right the first 4 times and when i finally thought i got a good size and was on my way to complete it the details on the helm were to small and difficult to fold and the helm came out wrong. im honestly thinking of starting a different helm from a difference character that isnt so detailed since im new and everything.
 
ok need some help..spent most of the day working on how i did the boot and wanted to make something that was common use and easy to understand so i was thinking pep since we all use it would be the way to go.. so i downloaded blender... yea learning curve was intense to learn in one day.. so was looking around and tried sketch up.. worked like a champ and i was able to get a 3d render of how i did it in a way that was easy to understand would be easy to unfold in pep..

one problem.. can't get it to import into anything.. was thinking i could import it into blender and convert it to something that could be imported into pep designer and can't figure it out..

any suggestions? or is there another 3d software similar to how sketch up works out there that is free or reasonably priced that will work?

please help a 3d tard!!
 
ok jumped the gun a little found a video on youtube that showed me how to do it.. sooo i am in business and being late i opened the file and have a little of fixin to do to the 3d model and will do that in the morning and there should be a pep file of how i did the reach boots up some time late tomorrow.

update: ok had some open edges that just didn't want to play with me right.. going to print it out (it aint pretty) and then make a boot from it tomorrow and document how it goes and then post it tomorrow night once i have tested it to make sure it is all good.
 
Also i am the type that when i work on something i have to actively concentrate to stop and take pics or document..

Ha! I kinew there were more people out there like me when it comes to working on projects... maybe you can explain it to my fiance the next time she chews me out for working through the day (I work graves) on a project... Great suits, and a great example of what a little patience can do. I saw how spot on your Carter turned out and was inspired to take on another project. Seeing what you did this year, I know your next batch of costumes will be every bit as awesome as your Carter, Kat, Grunt and your son's Jun.
 
Thanks for all the inspiring responses. Had this done for our Christmas cards this year and was not sure where to throw it up on here I figured I would throw it up on the original thread...

Merry Christmas 405th

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