My latest commission from Just Game (thanks to Nat for letting me show off the work I do) is a Barbarian figure, 1 1/2″ tall. This one really gave me the chance to flex some modeling muscles in new ways (pun intended), beyond the skills taught in 3D Printing Blueprints.
First of all I had never before had reason to model an exaggerated male figure. My studies as an artist prepared me with anatomical knowledge, but it was a blast getting to put those into 3D. I probably put far more detail than I needed to into this model, particularly in the face, but that’s okay. If someone ever wants to print this on a photo-polymer printer, it’s ready. And I really am impressed at the details that did make it through.
For this model I decided to try the Rigify plug-in in Blender which sets up a bipedal skeleton for you. It’s really cool and I’m going to be experimenting with it more in the future for sure. I made some mistakes along the way, jumped ahead in the tutorial where I should have paid attention, things like that. As a result the pose is a bit stiffer than it could have been.
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| #1, Too skinny. #2, Shield is saggy and cape isn’t pronounced enough. #3, Just right. |
Of course iterative design is the name of the game and I managed to work out what I think is a pretty good little model. Still, there are a few take always from this experience that would fit in a bullet list:
- Design your arms with the palms facing down. If you don’t some poses will twist the arm 180 degrees and it’s just not pretty. You’ll have to do a lot of post-sculpting to clean it up.
- Don’t do a lot of post sculpting. It seems tempting to fix things up after you’ve exported the STL to get them the way you want, but then you’ll realize you have to go back to the base model to re-pose something and you’ll have to choose between losing all your post sculpting or not making the change you want. Just don’t put yourself in that position.
- You never have enough resolution for the detail you want. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put it in, but you should be ready to reign it in before it gets out of hand.
