Soft Parts high res Halo 5 undersuit files Pepakura/3d printing

[Dirtsen]

Hey guys,
I have been a Halo Fan from the very start and I always wanted to make the costume... I've been building props for a few years now and have done a lot of stuff for customers. I've paused all that to make my own project come to life: The Master Chief.

I wanted to model the suit myself and had finished the Helmet already but then I stumbled across TheCarterbuilder12... and his files are just awesome. So I went ahead and printed that one.
But no matter how awesome your armor is... it just isn't complete without a good undersuit. I wanted to make a good one.

As we all have seen, the undersuit consists of various parts. Some hard parts combined with texture (hexagon) and smooth surfaces in various templates.


Okay, this is a video game and the material does of course not behave like it would in real life. but how would one get as close as possible to that look?

I've had some ideas that I already checked out. Here are some thoughts:
1. The whole base suit reminded me of a wetsuit! Awesome, that's it! I'll get one... done. Of course it is possible to get really hot in those... best buy a very thin one. It'll be fine... I ran around the apartment with it for a while, even outside where it was cooler. but that's not going to happen. Very uncomfortable and hot. The risk of collapsing was too high.... not very Spartan-like.
2. A custom-printed morphsuit! Ordered it... it fits... but it's very thin and not very warm when worn outside. Plus, the whole thing looks kind of cheap... better add some detail with some textil-liner to add the Hexagon-structure and outline the hard parts of the suit. That was better but still not great. Also, the suit design changed from Halo 4 to Halo 5 and the morphsuit was the Halo 4 design. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! Damn perfectionism.

So i tried this out and while I was still in the development-stage that was fine. I came up with this:

1. Find a suitable undersuit that is thicker than a morphsuit but fits just as well.
2. The hard(er) parts of the undersuit will be 3d modeled and printed, later cast and attached to a base suit.
- problem: Should the parts be vacuumformed, cast in rubber or in hard plastic... what would be best... how do I attach them to the undersuit... etc.
I worked together with theCarterbuilder12 for the various hard parts. Here is a quick screenshot.


3. For the smooth surfaces that look like those from a wet suit there will be templates plotted out of stretch-material and attached to the base suit with a textile-press. I've got a plotter and a machine for that and some experience working with textiles.
4. The hexagon pattern will be 3d printed and attached to the undersuit individually. Test have already been done and it works like a charm:


I'd like to hear the input of you guys on how to tackle this project.

Here is the link for the 3d printable files. There are 2 versions:

Normal Human Body Version

Spartan Body Version

The files are a little low poly for 3d printing as they are. To smooth them, you can use the subdivide modifier in any 3d modeling program. I use Blender, and the files look fine when I subdivide them 2 times.

Attention: You may use them for personal use only! No casting or selling them!

I will offer casted parts and/or vacuum formed parts in the future for those who don't have a printer of their own!

Share pictures of your prints or report any issues you have with the files.

Looking forward to hear from you guys!

 

[kaween]

Well, the temperature issue is really easy to solve. I wear a sports compression suit underneath the morph suit or whatever you've got on top. These suits keep me warm enough when cold, and cool enough when warm. They're also super smooth, making putting on the 'top" suit even easier than before.
I've been using this setup for some time and it always served me well.

I like the idea of the printed&attached hexes. What kind of glue do you use to attach them ?

Vacuum formed parts attaching to undersuit : well the big advantage of the vacuum parts would be total lack of weight. As such, I'm pretty sure you could get away with using Rivet/Buttons. In fact, I know people using this to attach vacuum formed parts on their undersuits. They strengthen the undersuit by using one or several layers of fabric as "washer" for the rivet. I fear you can't just use this trick using 3D printed or rubber-like details as their mass will probably start to deform and tear at the very thin morphsuit/undersuit. Considering how the underarmour must maintain flexibility, I don't think hard printed parts are that well suited (haha), and maybe TPU/Flex printed parts are a better choice.

Problem with permenantly attaching stuff to a suit .... how do you clean it afterwards without kinda disassembling the undersuit to a serious extend ?

So maybe some kind of harnes would be needed I guess, which could be a problem in terms of keeping a realistic look. Or a harness UNDERNEATH the topsuit, using neodymiums to keep the printed parts in place ? Should work, but again sounds cumbersome to put on/off.

Just to point out : I've been told by serveral people that the official Halo Armor (+5000USD) used by Microsoft on promotions and cons doesn't even begin to try and solve "small problems like this", and it's nearly impossible to stay in that armour for more than one hour at a time.

 

[Reclaimara]

I don't really see why resources for undersuit are any issue. 343i even shared them. Here is the whole thing.

It looks nice, creative what you're doing. Personally though I'm not fan them being hard 3d material that is supposed to be soft material. On the photo where you flexed the undersuit, it doesn't look good to me, but it's your project. Good luck.

And kaween is right, that 5000+USD armor is just for promotion - it's very very uncomfortable and impossible to last too long in it. The armor used in the Halo 5 commercials - even more expensive and stunts who wore them couldn't be in them for longer than 15-20 minutes...

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

I just threw some money at Brian over at BMP props for under suit parts. Although his is casted with Dragonskin which I think it is sold by Smooth-on products. He uses a Lycra backing to sew it to the morph suit, Under Armor shirt. But, like you mentioned how would you clean the shirt, or whatever you use without messing up the attached under suit parts. I'm gonna try and contact Spacemeat, to find out how he keeps things clean.

 

[Dirtsen]

Guys! Thank you already for the input!

kaween : I used a drop of hot glue to attach the hexagon tiles to the shirt. It works extremely well and allows the fabric to still behave like it is supposed to. I tried to pry a tile off but even with a lot of force it wouldn't come off. So that works really well.

as for printing in flexible filament if that's what you mean... I prefer not to do so. It takes a long time to print with that material and post processing is nearly impossible.

CommanderPalmer : Yes, when flexed, the hexagon tiles are not stretched the same way in every area. I do like how it looks though. But I'll try something else as well. Thank you for the reference picture!

SavedbyGraceG12 : I know Dragonskin. If I am not mistaken that stuff can be dyed as well. backing it with cloth when it is still tacky inside the mold could be a good idea. Maybe attaching some rivets to the cloth before putting it in the mold would be a good idea. That way they can be attached and taken off of the undersuit before cleaning. ... Or we just never clean the undersuit and stink up the whole place ... Who knows how Spartans are supposed to smell...

I think I will experiment with 2 possibilities. I'll print a few pieces and vacuum form them. I'll also print a negative mold to try out the rubber casted undersuit parts. I will keep you up to date and keep those ideas coming.

 

[Dirtsen]

By the way, since I am using the files Carterbuilder12 made, a part of the chest is missing. Pictures say more than a thousand words... so here goes:

I'm talking about the black part in the middle. The screenshot is from the in-game model. I thought about separating it and making a high res model for 3d-printing. But then again, it looks like best way to go about this is to make it out of foam and adding the details by hand. So I made a Pepakura file and added the textures to make it easier to put the details in by hand.

Here is a LINK to the file

Attention: The scale of this Pep file is at 90% of the original files from Carterbuilder12. So depending on the scale you use, you need to scale it accordingly.

Screenshots of the Undersuit parts are coming soon.

 

[Dirtsen]

As promised... a better look at the undersuit pieces. Keep in mind that they are low poly at the moment and just shaded smoothly. I'll need to subdivide them to make them print ready. This way they could be used to make pepakura templates.

Upper back center piece:


Calf piece:


Crotch area (3 separate pieces):


Elbow:


Knee part:


Shoulder top:


Hip parts:


Spine area:


Thigh back part:

 

[Dirtsen]

I edited the title as you may have noticed. I am looking for people to help unfold the files for Pepakura. Message me if you want to help.

 

[mblackwell1002]

Can I get the Pep files? I need the peps rather than the 3D prints, so can you PM them or post a link via OneDrive? please don't do 4shared, every time I do that there's a scam page that pops up; so I have to close my browser. SBGg12 might be interested as well.
I would be happy to help unfold

 

[Dirtsen]

Can I get the Pep files? I need the peps rather than the 3D prints, so can you PM them or post a link via OneDrive? please don't do 4shared, every time I do that there's a scam page that pops up; so I have to close my browser. SBGg12 might be interested as well.

I'll set up the pep files tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll message you!

 

[YerryBatista]

Thank you for this thread, it will save me a lot of time.

I will use a mix from CommanderPalmer and You, why? because she's my hero

started yesterday with the sewing but I need to build the other parts, can you please provide a link to download them?

We are also filming everything, our plans is to make tutorials for the Spanish community, where the interest is HUGE but kowledge short because the language barrier.

Thank You.

- edited dam corrector

 

[mkshane81]

Those look amazing, as does your hex pattern idea on the undersuit! Definitely watching this. Thanks for sharing your work!

-Matt

 

[Dirtsen]

Hey guys, thanks for your support! Unfortunately, the files are not as easy to convert to Pepakura. I'm working on it. Stay tuned!

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

Dirtsen
In terms with fixing them to be ready for Pepakura. What are your plans? Retopology, or just lowering the poly count? I could give a second opinion. If it's just a high poly count shouldn't be too much of a problem. If the files were converted to STL then it's s real problem. I know that Carter normally adds an extra wall to the models. Kinda like an STL file, just not with the honey comb in between the walls. Not saying that's what it looks like in the 3d modeling program, but that's usually what it looks like within the walls of a 3d printed model.

 

[SI3RRA 117]

That's awesome youve got these modeled. I've always thought these under suit pieces would look cool printed in that ninja flex filament. (Yet another thing I can't do with my printer ). But the pep files would nice to have too to make them into some foam templates.

 

[YerryBatista]

Hey guys, thanks for your support! Unfortunately, the files are not as easy to convert to Pepakura. I'm working on it. Stay tuned!

I Can help you with that, I use most of the programs.

 

[Dirtsen]

The problem is, that they are already prepped for printing and have a wall thickness and a pretty high polycount. So I have got to lower the polycount and remove the wall thickness.

 

[Dirtsen]

Okay, I removed the wall thickness. Now I've got to reduce the polycount without loosing too much detail. Who is able to /can help with that? I use Blender and it doesn't handle this task very well.

 

[SI3RRA 117]

Don't know if this helps but I remember seeing something about mesh mixer have a face or poly reduction tool. Sorry don't remeber the source or exactly what the tool was called

 

[SavedbyGraceG12]

Dirtsen

I agree with using Mesh mixer, but I don't see it being any different from using Blender's decimator modifier. I don't think it's so much the programs that we use. It's whether are not you have a good enough graphics card that can handle the amount of polys.