1st Build Halo Reach Female build

[Fallen]

Your build is coming along nicely. We all work at our own pace. Work at a pace that's comfortable for you.

My first "real" suit was paused, continued, stopped, competely restarted numerous times over the course of ~3yrs.

Meeting folks will be much easier if I have an excuse wearing armor, im a pretty nervous and awkward person so it would be a good fallback if I get stressed..

was also true, so if I didn't complete the suit by HOD I likely would not have even gone and met so many great people. That said, in order to complete the suit by that time I had to lower the quality of some items, and you know what, I'm still ok with that decision. That suit was, and still is, an iterative process. The first iteration was the minimum viable product. Now I get to iterate on it whenever I feel like updating that one vs. working on another build, and I always have a suit that I can wear to an event without the con crunch.

I'm sure you want to hit T3 on the initial build, but I'm also trying to encourage you to not let it keep you from attending events whether because you don't have it complete or it's not at the quality level you think it should be. You've got this, and I look forward to seeing your build at an event someday. Who knows maybe it'll be at Dragoncon.

 

[KaeSpoon]

I'm sure you want to hit T3 on the initial build, but I'm also trying to encourage you to not let it keep you from attending events whether because you don't have it complete or it's not at the quality level you think it should be. You've got this, and I look forward to seeing your build at an event someday. Who knows maybe it'll be at Dragoncon.

I do enjoy accuracy, but to be honest I don't mind the teir I get anymore, as long as I'm happy with the work I make. Yes I do stress on not making good enough work- not because I am trying to reach a deployment teir, but because I want to end up being happy about the armor I complete. That is something I struggle on but am trying to do better at accepting that im not going to always like everything I make, but I made it and that's impressive enough. If I could change the title of my fourm, I would.

Thank you for the encouraging words as always,

 

[Fallen]

If I could change the title of my fourm, I would.

If you go to edit the first post in your thread you can change the title of it.

 

[KaeSpoon]

Chest size test time! I will not miss having to do this out of cardstock.
Wish I realized I could do this with foam patterns sooner, would of probably gotten so much more done over the last few months! I simplified the pattern as I just needed a test fit and not all the little details, but that also means it got complex in other areas as I distorted the file.

 

[Rock Lobbster]

So.. how's that chest sizing going?

 

[KaeSpoon]

Finished the test chest pattern a few days ago, not sure how I feel about the size but yeah. Flood of photos because I'd love input and thoughts!

Red shirt photos are more accurately placed, black shirt photos are ones I took at 1am extremely sleep deprived.

Unfortunately I will have to remake the belt, I learned a lot from my past attempt and it is no longer the size I need. I am reworking its pattern along with the thigh pattern that I will build with paper first to make sure its sized properly.

Things have been pretty rough lately on this build, a lot hasn't really been going smooth which is a bit frustrating. I don't want this project to keep stalling but it seems like I still have so much left to work out before I can actually start building the armor out of foam. x_x

Have a good weekend 405th

 

[tahu505]

Finished the test chest pattern a few days ago, not sure how I feel about the size but yeah. Flood of photos because I'd love input and thoughts!

Red shirt photos are more accurately placed, black shirt photos are ones I took at 1am extremely sleep deprived.
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Unfortunately I will have to remake the belt, I learned a lot from my past attempt and it is no longer the size I need. I am reworking its pattern along with the thigh pattern that I will build with paper first to make sure its sized properly.

Things have been pretty rough lately on this build, a lot hasn't really been going smooth which is a bit frustrating. I don't want this project to keep stalling but it seems like I still have so much left to work out before I can actually start building the armor out of foam. x_x

Have a good weekend 405th

Looks good to me so far! The Reach chest in general is kinda bulky and a bit tricky. That was the one piece where I really needed to use the free form deformation scaling in armorsmith. Once you start getting the arm pieces though it definitely helps it all come together

 

[S225]

Scaling and proportions look on point! Especially with the helmet.

 

[CrimsonViper97]

All your time planning seems to be yielding good results!

 

[KaeSpoon]

Small late night update time.
I have run into a problem that I was struggling with months ago if you all recall... The darn thighs. As you all know- no matter what I do I cannot get the armory file thighs to fit unless they are heavily oversized. Trying to figure out the thighs has been the most stressful thing in this entire build and something that has stalled this project the most, and though in the photos with the chest shows that I do indeed thigh on- the original file itself is no longer existing and I don't know what size it was. The test itself isn't even a pattern I could follow, just a basic shape of the thigh ripped from the Reach female model (Nor am I very happy with how it looks)

For the past two days (20+ hours in blender) I have been trying to 3dify the ripped thigh, but during the middle of that project I realized that there isn't even an easy solution to modify the shape to fit my thigh as Armorsmith is unreliable in that department.

The pleasure I've had to look at for 20 hours.

I am still brainstorming on what I could do to get something to work without the thigh itself being huge in some way, until then I won't be able to size anything on the legs nor be able to start actually making things out of foam until I can figure out some kind of solution. The most obvious solution I could do is to make my own pattern in person, but I am not very experienced in that department at all and not sure what steps to take.

If any of you have thoughts on what I could do to try and deal with this issue, I'm all ears.
Until then, have a good week

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Are you OK with slightly distorting the proportions of the thighs to fit? If so, what you could do is export the Armorsmith avatar to .obj, open it in Blender and align the thigh model as best as possible to your thigh. Then in sculpting mode, use the "grab" tool with a reasonably sized radius to drag parts of the model to better fit your leg. An alternative is to use "Proportional Editing" in edit mode. As I said, some parts may become slightly disproportionate, but you can make it fit a lot more snug.

 

[CosplayInClutch]

You're kit has been making really good progress, and in the end all those hours in blender are going to be worth it

 

[KaeSpoon]

Are you OK with slightly distorting the proportions of the thighs to fit? If so, what you could do is export the Armorsmith avatar to .obj, open it in Blender and align the thigh model as best as possible to your thigh. Then in sculpting mode, use the "grab" tool with a reasonably sized radius to drag parts of the model to better fit your leg. An alternative is to use "Proportional Editing" in edit mode. As I said, some parts may become slightly disproportionate, but you can make it fit a lot more snug.

One step ahead of you, that's one of the things I have been trying to accomplish the last two days. Unfortunately, the hips on the Armorsmith model are not very accurate (for females at least) so it's extremely hard to judge where the widest part and the thinnest part of my leg is as it only takes one measurement (biggest width of your thigh, aka the hips that aren't in the correct spot either) so you're not really able to size anything accurately unless you want to make something bulbus and huge on purpose. TLRD: Armorsmith does very little to account for hips vs the rest of your upper leg, and therefore fitting something on to that area on a 3d program is like trying to size something blindfolded.

I did work on trying to adjust the test thigh I have in person to fit me better (as it was a rip that was not modified to fit in the slightest) but it has its own problems that is also difficult to deal with, currently I'm stalled on what to do to it as well. Its times like this I really wish I was a dude, I'd have a much easier time making actual progress.

Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate it.

 

[S225]

One step ahead of you, that's one of the things I have been trying to accomplish the last two days. Unfortunately, the hips on the Armorsmith model are not very accurate (for females at least) so it's extremely hard to judge where the widest part and the thinnest part of my leg is as it only takes one measurement (biggest width of your thigh, aka the hips that aren't in the correct spot either) so you're not really able to size anything accurately unless you want to make something bulbus and huge on purpose. TLRD: Armorsmith does very little to account for hips vs the rest of your upper leg, and therefore fitting something on to that area on a 3d program is like trying to size something blindfolded.

I did work on trying to adjust the test thigh I have in person to fit me better (as it was a rip that was not modified to fit in the slightest) but it has its own problems that is also difficult to deal with, currently I'm stalled on what to do to it as well. Its times like this I really wish I was a dude, I'd have a much easier time making actual progress.

Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate it.

I had the same issue with my old set of foam thighs. Ended up adding material on the outside of the hip to let the part out. Not too proud of these but they fit at the time.
Doing this on the inside of the thigh with the layered bits might hide any alterations better. Same issue when 3D printing the part too. I had to widen the model on the X and Y axis a decent amount but the hips still look proportional to everything else.


Just had this idea after typing,

Maybe trying to make those three layered bits separate from the rest? Add material if needed to let the armor out near the inside closest to the knee so it fits and freehand the layered area after. I think I remember seeing someone do this with the MKIIV files and thought it was a good idea.

 

[Dire]

Could do what WandererTJ did and made the "soft parts" of the thigh in upholstery foam, makes it nice and squishy as long you you spray the foam with some super 77 then use some rubber spray like leak seal

 

[KaeSpoon]

After more days of trying to work on thighs I have a somewhat breakthrough. I was able to modify the thigh to fit on my Armorsmith shape, I'm not entirely happy with how the shape looks in general- in fact I am honestly extremely worried about it, but at least it fits...? Details still need to be added but most likely I will do the side details freehand in person.

I am also reworking my belt pattern but unfortunately working on these two 3d projects have been pretty stressful, I'm hoping to finish those up soon so I don't have to delay this build even more. Overall I have been doing my best to chill out and not worry about my progress because I still have health issues that slow me down, but at the same time I feel like this project has some urgency to it.

Real talk though... HOW IS IT ALMOST FEBUARY? The concept of time freaks me out sometimes! Hope you have a good rest of your Tuesday

 

[Argent]

I've never been able to get a nice thigh piece from a template, but I usually just go freehand anyway so take that for what it's worth. Real human thighs are pretty squishy and variable, and Reach's models have insanely long, wide-set, and thin legs, so I would honestly expect a bit of tweaking even with an accurate template. Especially if you want to avoid pinching off any nearby arteries or nerves while walking.

This was the Kat suit that LegacyFX created for the live action Reach ad, and you can see that even they ended up fudging the thighs. The whole section is a much softer material than the rest to accommodate movement; you can see it flexing like crazy in different photos from Pax. Supposedly Legacy commissions cost close to 6 figures, so this isn't just a "you" problem.

 

[KaeSpoon]

I've never been able to get a nice thigh piece from a template, but I usually just go freehand anyway so take that for what it's worth. Real human thighs are pretty squishy and variable, and Reach's models have insanely long, wide-set, and thin legs, so I would honestly expect a bit of tweaking even with an accurate template. Especially if you want to avoid pinching off any nearby arteries or nerves while walking.

This was the Kat suit that LegacyFX created for the live action Reach ad, and you can see that even they ended up fudging the thighs. The whole section is a much softer material than the rest to accommodate movement; you can see it flexing like crazy in different photos from Pax. Supposedly Legacy commissions cost close to 6 figures, so this isn't just a "you" problem.

Oh, you mean that GORGEOUS Armor foam build I look at and worship RELIGIOUSLY? I only hoard and reference... Every photo I can find (thanks to IslandHopper being a reference photo finder god.) I wish I could grab that thigh and belt pattern they used or even get to look at them, would be so helpful. I understand the thighs arnt going to be game accurate shaped, but I am worried about how vastly different I could probably shape them to be. If I knew how to make my own patterns in person I would definitely do that approach over 3d modeling as the only direct reference I have to my upper leg is a shoddy 1 measurement guess from Armorsmith. I have to live with blindly shaping the thigh, then testing it in person- and if I have to fix a good portion of the shape I have to return to the 3d program, alter it... The cycle continues,

though... What Id give for Legacy Effects to make me a spartan build or even get to see one of their builds in person! Truly incredible and the Deliver Hope suits are my prime inspiration as there are not that many close accurate female Reach Spartan builds out there..

 

[Argent]

Yeah, you gotta assume that there's some closet somewhere at 343 or Legacy with a bunch of dusty Spartans in it. The behind the scenes YouTube video shows an IRL elite suit as well, which I would really like to get a better look at.

Well, this is not a tempting testimonial for armorsmith. Sounds like it just automates all the failures that I'm quite good at making on my own.

 

[Rock Lobbster]

After more days of trying to work on thighs I have a somewhat breakthrough. I was able to modify the thigh to fit on my Armorsmith shape, I'm not entirely happy with how the shape looks in general- in fact I am honestly extremely worried about it, but at least it fits...? Details still need to be added but most likely I will do the side details freehand in person.



I am also reworking my belt pattern but unfortunately working on these two 3d projects have been pretty stressful, I'm hoping to finish those up soon so I don't have to delay this build even more. Overall I have been doing my best to chill out and not worry about my progress because I still have health issues that slow me down, but at the same time I feel like this project has some urgency to it.

Real talk though... HOW IS IT ALMOST FEBUARY? The concept of time freaks me out sometimes! Hope you have a good rest of your Tuesday

IT FITS