3D Printed Samus Varia Suit - FINISHED! (Pics on pg.14)

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Small update: I just finished the chest armor model!

94lPL53.jpg

This should fit me perfectly based on the quick pepakura I did of it. In order for it to be printed it will need to be broken down into six pieces like so:

wrQSOz9.jpg

However, when finished it will still only be in two pieces since my head won't fit through the neck hole. The middle and the front will be glued together and the seam fixed with bondo, while the back will attach to the front pieces with some sort of sliding clip system that I have yet to nail down. Basically all it needs to do is stay rigid, clip in place, and be easily detachable by my helper.

Previously I had already completed the models for the arm cannon and shoulders, but I haven't posted about them yet simply because I just haven't sat down and taken screenshots. Soon(tm)!
 
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Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Small update: I just finished the polish on the chest armor model!

http://i.imgur.com/94lPL53.jpg

This should fit me perfectly based on my quick pepakura I did of it. In order for it to be printed it will need to be broken down into three pieces like so:

http://i.imgur.com/wrQSOz9.jpg

However, when finished it will still only be in two pieces since my head won't fit through the neck hole. The middle and the front will be glued together and the seam fixed with bondo, while the back will attach to the front pieces with some sort of sliding clip system that I have yet to nail down. Basically all it needs to do is stay rigid, clip in place, and be easily detachable by my helper.

Previously I had already completed the models for the arm cannon and shoulders, but I haven't posted about them yet simply because I just haven't sat down and taken screenshots. Soon(tm)!

Wow that model looks great! What modeling suite are you using, and could you show us a wireframe? Have you done any 3D modeling before this or are you just preternaturally talented at it? haha
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Wow that model looks great! What modeling suite are you using, and could you show us a wireframe? Have you done any 3D modeling before this or are you just preternaturally talented at it? haha
Thanks!

I'm using Maya to model it and then I take it into Zbrush to smooth it. I do it this way because Maya isn't exactly the best at smoothing hard surface things since Maya's tools for that are crap. So all I do is select all the hard edges, crease them with the crease tool, then send it on over to Zbrush via GoZ and subdivide it several times (I know most of that won't make much sense for the uninitiated).

Oh, and just a note: in order to model the interior (to add thickness) I had to move each individual vertex to use the least amount of printing materials possible. It's a ton of work! Just the interior of the chest took me probably a good 8 hours or more. Yeah. As a result though, the entire thing is exactly the same thickness everywhere. I have yet to hear of a program that has an extrusion algorithm that's this precise, so I just do it myself.

It's a good thing I find this stuff fun.

Here's the wireframe before smoothing:

ojVixCZ.jpg

After smoothing it's a few million polys.

And yeah, I have quite a bit of modeling experience. I'm a professional game artist. ;)
 
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Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

This looks great. I've been following the project for a few days now and can't wait to see it completed. Hopefully you are able to finish it in time for PAX. If so, I'll look for you there! Keep up the fantastic work!
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

I love your progress so far! I've always wanted to make a Varia Suit but I did not have any way of making it. I am glad that you decided to share the pepakura files for the armor.

I will have to make it someday but as of now I'll be following this thread and of course, your blog. :)
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Talaaya,
On your adding thickness for 3d printing, Blender 2.5 and up has a solidify modifier that allows you to add thickness to your model uniformly to the interior or exterior. I was (like you) doing this manually for a while before I found this function, I know how much of a pain it is to add thickness the long way. The solidify modifier will let you give the walls thickness down to something crazy like 1/10,000 of a Blender unit, it worked perfectly for me to prep for 3d printing. Might be worth seeing if that will work for you, importing into Blender, adding the modifier, and then exporting back to wherever you want to work from. Great work so far, subscribed :thumbsup
 
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Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Hello there.

You are a girl and this is a Metroid Samus Aran build, both interests of mine.:wacko

This is so awesome looking and I haven't even seen anything painted.
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

This is amazingly fantastic! I can't wait to see the whole thing completed, and how to manage the paint job. That helmet is a work of art and your modelling skills are crazy! Keep up the good work :D.
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Great job Talaaya! I saw your thread in passing before but enjoyed going through it all. Good luck on your deadline for this year, I hope you can accomplish your goals. I especially like how you meticulously went for a super smooth surface. :) Inspiring! :)
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Talaaya, Wow awesome work this is really cool although beyond my wallet's capacity 3D printin' is able to show incredible details that are very crisp great job keep up th' great work:cool
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Great work on this.
Made me want to pull out the old Super Metroid this weekend.
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Sorry about the lack of updates! Fear not, I am actually still working on this costume, and very hard at that, which is why I haven't taken the time to update. My sister is doing a costume too: Eir Stegalkin from Guild Wars 2. For more than a month we have been doing nothing else in our free time but work on our costumes. Speaking of which, I modeled Eir's wolf broach and had it 3d printed for my sister:

qBqHrT4.jpg

She has since colored it silver with rub n' buff and it looks amazing.

Anyway, I've done so much work that I don't have time to make a huge post right now, but here's some pics of some stuff I've been working on!

Two quarters of the shoulder before gluing:
LGefrEL.jpg

All glued together, but not sanded or bondo'd yet:
GxpzhGB.jpg

I left out the center holes when I modeled it. Originally it was an accident but I'm really glad I did it! Having to line up that center seam with all those little prongs that would inevitably have been warped during the curing process would have been a nightmare! A friend of mine (not the 3d printer guy) has a ton of tools, including a band saw, which worked perfectly. I was too much of a weenie to watch the very risky cutting process (it could have chipped, cracked, broken, or any number of horrifying things) so I had him do it. :p

The top picture is after the cuts, glued together. The bottom picture is after I filed down the really rough cuts.
UCBmBxz.jpg


I've also been working on the shins. I started with a couple peps to get the size right and to use as a guide for making the final pieces, for which I used 5mm foam.
[Edit] I'm using foam for the legs, torso, and upper arms for ease of movement and comfort. 3D printing the legs would make them heavy and they'd knock together, potentially damaging each other. I'm confident in my ability to make the quality of my foam on par with the 3D prints.
vDramqX.jpg
The silver leg the pep is displayed on is a duct tape mannequin my sister and I made. We wrapped me in saran wrap and then in duct tape. Being covered in plastic and stiff duct tape for 2 hours and having scissors slid along your skin to get the thing off is no fun.
The worst part was she accidentally cut the tender skin on the back of my knee...

Samus disapproves of my sister's cutting skills.
nuv7o1Z.jpg


Here's the pieces of the shin unassembled. To make them exactly right I laid fabric pattern-making paper over the pepakura and drew the different parts, then cut the pattern out and traced it onto the foam.
YZxQh7G.jpg

Gluing in progress:
6RlAHiz.jpg

Complete!
HBnEucN.jpg

I used the bottoms of plastic containers for the round things around the circle lights. The orb that goes in the center will be sliced off ends of these clear christmas ornaments people use to make their own ornaments. I have them in several different sizes and they're perfect! I'm unsure of what to use to cover the strips and circles where the lights will be. I want it to be lime green so when the lights are off it doesn't look weird, and it needs to flex a bit so it can conform to unusual shapes and the flexing of the foam. If anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!
 
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Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

What are you going to use to cover your foam? I am also making a Samus suit and am leaning towards stretch vinyl or latex sheeting, but have worked with neither before so I'm putting some feelers out there to see what other people are doing.
 
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

What are you going to use to cover your foam? I am also making a Samus suit and am leaning towards stretch vinyl or latex sheeting, but have worked with neither before so I'm putting some feelers out there to see what other people are doing.

I plan on painting them with automotive paint which apparently works quite well. I would have thought it'd crack and be brittle but this video shows otherwise:

 
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Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

That's how I did my son's Iron Man suit, it does end up looking pretty good but I saw some pictures of another Samus suit and a Mega Man suit covered in stretch vinyl and they looked really cool. Now I'm not sure which way I'll go about it. When I did the Iron Man suit, I also covered the pieces in casting resin (Smooth On 300) prior to priming and painting which helped give it a shinier, less foamy look.
 
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