Questions About Pepakura Modeling

[Shade]

Alright, I'm not ashamed to say I'm fairly new to the world of prop building. In fact if it weren't for my friends Sharkhead7854 & Prince_NEO over on the 405th, I would never have even known about it. Anyhow, I've pepped a few models for myself & others. Namely my own Ironman Helmet, an attempt at the Master Chiefs Helmet (Epic failure:cry), and several pieces of Prince_NEO's ODST Weta Landfall suit (ex. Thigh, Butt Packs, Kneepads, and an attempt of the legs which were never finished). Noticing how they were made, I became interested in modeling, thus the purpose of this post. If those of you more proficient than myself in this field would be so kind as to answer a few of my questions I'd be forever grateful.

1: What types of programs are used to model a piece from the begining, to when its Un-fold ready?

2: Can anyone refer me to a free version of a program used to model 3-d objects, other than Blender because I've heard its a mother ****** to use.

3: Does anyone have the patience to explain to my thick skull how in blazes to work the program I end up using?

4: How do you unfold an object once its been completely modeled?

Sorry for the questions but I'm a fairly inquisitive person & I like to know what's in the water before I dive into it. Is it candy & chocolate, or piranhas and oil? Thanks for any help you guys can give me!

To infinity and... oh whatever.

 

[Paw]

1: What types of programs are used to model a piece from the begining, to when its Un-fold ready?

3D modeling programs.

2: Can anyone refer me to a free version of a program used to model 3-d objects, other than Blender because I've heard its a mother ****** to use.

Blender is extremely easy to use. If someone says otherwise, it's most likely user error causing the problems.

3: Does anyone have the patience to explain to my thick skull how in blazes to work the program I end up using?

How much would you pay?

4: How do you unfold an object once its been completely modeled?

You use Pepakura Designer.

 

[Dung0beetle]

1. Any 3d modeling program will work. I use milkshape 3d because it is probably the simplest out there and it is intended for low-poly game modeling which is perfect for pepakura modeling.

2. Blender, K3d, Art of Illusion, Softimage xsi, Zmodeler, Topmod3d, Google Sketchup (compatable with pepakura), AutoQ3D Community, Anim8or, Seamless3d to name a few. There are tons out there. Some are great, some are not. I have used Blender, Sketchup, and Anim8or and they are good for pepakura, although Sketchup does odd things with the mesh sometimes. Blender is tricky to learn, but only because it doesn't work like mainstream modeling software. If you have no experience at modeling, this won't be an issue. All these programs have help files that show you how to use them. There are also tutorials all over youtube about modeling techniques.

3. Read the help files and google tutorials for the software. Youtube has tons of tutorial videos.

4. In Pepakura designer, just click the "unfold" button. That's not all, you will need to rotate and move the parts around to fit on the page(s) to print. You can also detach parts if they are too big or attach parts to each other to save paper. There are tutorials for unfolding on the 405th forums.

I suggest you try unfolding premade models from free 3d file sites like turbosquid.com (they sell models as well, but search by "lower prices" and the first links will be free). You will learn what types of 3d meshes work better with pepakura. Any mesh with intersected objects will need to be edited before importing into pepakura. Here's an example.

This is bad for pepakura, those faces will be paper, so you won't be able to get them to fit together like in the pic. You will need to make the sphere and cylinder one solid object with no parts intersecting another objects space.

Good luck!