Digital Armor Building: From Measurements to Pattern in only 6 Programs!

The Idea

Costumes and armor need to fit and often it’s rather difficult to work in a digital space and convert it to meat space. So I’ve been toying with the idea of creating virtual mannequins and using those to create digitally in various programs and then export that to a pattern or file that can be laser cut or 3d printed. I’m also toying with the idea of creating a physical mannequin but more on that later. This process is rough and not for the faint of heart. It needs a bit of refinement but it works so I figured I’d document what I had so far and do a more indepth video tutorial later after I get the kinks ironed out.

The Mannequin

We start with getting the measurements from the client. In this case, We are making shoe covers and leg armor for the character Frankenstein from Fate/Apocrypha. Make Human is an open source software that is rather handy but has its limitations. You really need to play with it to get the right shape. I had to adjust several of the analog sliders to allow me to input the correct measurements into the software. Once completed it will use its magic voodoo to create a human form. You can play with it to get the right look and size you need. This process can sorta be done with the avatar models from Armorsmith but that program exports an STL style triangular model that isn’t ideal in the Fusion environment. You can still sculpt over it but manipulating the form itself is difficult or impossible.

Import and Conversion

Exporting the model from Make Human as a Waveform OBJ file creates a mesh that we can insert into fusion using the Insert dialog box. From there it needs to be converted into a Tspline Quad Mesh. Click create form and use the convert tool to change it to a quad mesh. Click finish and let Fusion chug away at it for a bit and you should have a complete Brep body ready for slicing, combining, and all the other fun things Fusion can do. We chopped the legs off and threw the torso away for this project.

Sculpting in Fusion

Sculpting in Fusion is a can of worms. Tsplines are a blessing and a curse. I’m not going to get too deep into the process here but I hope to in the future. A few tips for those who want to try it. Keep the models as simple as possible. Keeping the faces to a minimum allows you to add just the right amount of detail. Think ahead as well. For this I simply created shells or blankets in the form that I wanted the armor to take. I then used the thicken command to extrude the form by 0.60”. This is the thickness of the Cosplate we will be using to make the final piece. I could then unstitch the bodies and export just the outer shell. For something this thin, the difference is minor but if you are using EVA foam then it compensates for the thickness of the material. We can then export this shell as an STL. We want to make a pattern for this project but if you want to use the process so far to 3D print some armor then this is the off ramp for you… because beyond this point there be demons.

Toss it in the Blender

Ah Blender…. its legend proceeds it. Blender is a power house with a mythical learning curve. I have just scratched the surface of this program but if you wish to take the journey then I recommend starting with Blender Guru. His channel is a wealth of information and helped me get started on this journey.

We are going to use Blender’s UV unwrap features to create the pattern but it is going to take a lot of manual work. Pepakura can do this but the STLs need to be drastically reduced in detail and well Pep is its own problem. I wanted smooth patterns with minimal seams and Pep will never really give you that.

Blender Guru’s tutorial on UV unwrapping is for an older version of blender but it has a lot of good info in it. I did switch to 2.8 in the end because it made more sense. This simple model has 4 seams that should allow us to make the shape. There is also a feature he covers that will allow you to see if the model is being stretched. This is handy for not distorting your textures. However, it shows us the problem areas for our process where the material will not be able to form the shape we need. I couldn’t figure out how to get it turned on in 2.8 but I knew this wasn’t stretched because it is such a basic form. The advantage of Cosplate is that it will stretch a bit if needed. So we could take advantage of that but for foam it will be an issue.

I created the seams that I needed and exported the UV map as a PNG….. Roll initiative because this is the first demon.

Sizing the Pattern

I tossed this into GIMP really quick to prep it for conversion to vector. A PNG file has no size data so we need to size it somehow. I used the DPI settings and scaled it in gimp to match a measurement from Fusion. The easiest way to clean the triangle mess blender gave us was to select all the open space and invert the selection. I then deleted it all and filled it. Shrinking the selection by a few pixels allows you to delete it again and create a clean outline. Superfast and hopefully the right size.

Vectorize the Pattern

Importing the image into inkscape allows us to make a vector from the item. I planned to cut it on the laser but if you wanted to create a paper pattern then you can follow the process I go over in our Fusion to Blueprint tutorial video. We use the trace bitmap tool to create clean vectors. It did create one for each side of the line but you can easily delete one by using the break apart command and deleting one of them. You can kinda verify you dimensions in Inkscape but I used the laser software to do that.

Lasers!

I sent this to the laser software as a DXF and sized it for cutting. This process is unique for most lasers and I will not be covering our exact process for it. Needless to say, you have to have the settings right and know your software and laser to do this. I cut the form from 3mm EVA as a test and hot glued it together. I mainly wanted to test the form before I started on the project in Cosplate. I have also not really worked out the settings for lasering Cosplate on our machine. This prototype is kinda messy but its a proof of concept and I’m excited to see how far we can push this process and hopefully find some better ways to make armor patterns in the future.