Is 3D printed armor the future of cosplay?

3D printing is just lazy.

>>8877968
Making your own 3D model is a lot of work, I agree that 3D printing someone else's design is lazy as fuck though.
3D printing can be useful for certain armor parts, but some things can't be printed.

>>8877967
Mother of god, camels wearing thorns now?

I'd say yes but unless the cost of a 3D printer drastically goes down, it's unlikely.
>>8877970
I agree pretty much except most people who 3D print just load someone else's premade design or modify pepakura

File: dwodwo.png (242KB, 423x620px) Image search: [Google]

242KB, 423x620px

>>8877998
camels have evolved

File: 10ps_bad_print.webm (3MB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 480x360px

>>8877967
With the time it takes to print a single piece, that would've probably taken a month of solid printing for each small part (depending on printer), and that excludes any pieces that got printed wrong (ie webm related)

Also the cost of the filament for all those pices would've cost a bomb. In the same time you could've done it with worbla for half the price.

But yes, it's going to get better, and much easier for cosplaying.

3D printing isn't easy or quick if you do the modelling.

Just sadly not many people actually do that.

>>8878022
AHHHHH

File: openscad_watergun.png (127KB, 1787x865px) Image search: [Google]

127KB, 1787x865px

>>8878050
But modelling is the fun part!

My school has several 3-D printers
From my experience with it, I will say no, it is not going to be the future of cosplay for a while
It takes a very long time to print things, the detail level isn't great except for on very high end models, it doesn't paint well, and filament is expensive. And there's also technical issues such as getting the filament to stick to itself.

>>8877968
It's the only reasonable way for these designs to come out in real life looking half decent.
I've seen enough shitty milled/cast plastic for one lifetime.

No. 3D printing isn't something that everyone is going to have in every household or making all the cosplay from now on. It's main purpose is for rapid prototyping for inventors, replacing simple parts for cheap and making medical prosthetics and other devices for cheap. Now kids who are born without our lost limbs can get cool prosthetics superhero or robot arms for $50-200 instead of $5000 for the old school prosthetics they will grow out of in a few years.

3D modeling is tough shit and a lot of costume pieces are too big for a standard printer and need to be done in parts. Also you can't just tip a game model you have to setup everything to be hollow so you don't waste material or have something take 20 more hours to print than needed.

Also pieces have a vinyl record finish that will usually need several coats of a smoother and paint like most prop armor. You can usually only go raw if you need a matte solid colored armor or something from Big Hero 6 where their armor was 3D printed and had the texture I'm talking about.

As for taking other people's designs the maker community is very sharing to encourage and help each other grow and learn. If someone puts the files for an iron man helmet online you're free to whatever you want with it as long as you give them xredit. Just go to Thingiverse.com and there's a ton of small cosplay items a lot with lots of cool parts and sculptures to make.

>>8878242
This here is really the only real advantage 3D printing has over other prop making techniques

>>8877968
Most people who have this mindset haven't actually made high-quality 3D printed pieces. Like >>8878295 says, 3D modeling is fucking hard. You don't just hit a few buttons and sit back and print. Modeling requires tons of quality references, and larger pieces have to be painstakingly broken down and printed separately. Now once the pieces are printed, they're gonna have that 3D-printed texture on them. If you've seen a printed piece, you know what I'm talking about, it's all those little lines that come from extruding material layer by tiny layer. So you've got to find some way to smooth out the surface. That requires sanding and ABS sludge to get a really smooth surface.
After that, congrats, you've got a bunch of really heavy 3D printed armor pieces. This is why many people take it a step further and cast those pieces in resin, which is a whole other deal. Yeah, some people might just stop the process after the print, but cleaning up and assembling the printed pieces is half the struggle towards a top-tier piece. Long story short, I have a great deal of respect for people who consistently turn out great 3D prints, because it's a huge investment of time and skill. I'd love to see more people take advantage of the new technology afforded them, but the barrier to entry is still fairly high. This isn't something you can pick up in a few hours. Thus, it's not going to make cosplay 'easy'.

>>8878001
There are now several models of 3d printers that are $250-500. I know that's not exactly cheap but when you consider many of us drop hundreds on materials and props for one or 2 costumes the price isn't that bad.

>>8878227
Filament isn't that expensive. I get rolls for about $20 with amazon prime and it works great. and can make a lot of parts. The biggest problem with the cost of filament is the support generated for overhangs. It uses up a lot of filament that just has to be thrown away.

>>8878295
Is right about splitting up models. My helmets have to be split into at least 8 pieces to fit my printer which has the largest build volume of cheep printers below $1000. Each of those pieces takes takes at least 7-8 hours to print. Some models need to be split just because it will be easier to work with in several pieces. I could print my lightsaber in one piece but the electronics were easier to install if I split it and then combined the pieces together.
As for smoothing the print I use Bondo Glazing putty. Its really thing and fills in the gaps and sands down smooth.

>>8878320
The post print work is a huge pain. I literally spent 2 weeks every day for 2-3 hours a day after work and most of the day on the weekends sanding and reappying bondo until my helmet was perfectly smooth.

One of the biggest hurdles with 3d printing is that it is not as easy as many think. Troubleshooting a 3d printer is a huge pain in the ass. Just go to /diy/ and find the thread there. Even super expensive printers are not immune to malfunctions. My university has printers that cost over $20k and from time to time they still fail prints

I'm ranting to long. I'll stop now.

>>8878339
>There are now several models of 3d printers that are $250-500.
>My helmets have to be split into at least 8 pieces to fit my printer which has the largest build volume of cheep printers below $1000

The majority of the cosplay community will not want to break down helmets into 8 pieces. For 3D printing to actually be commonly used, there would have to be a large build volume printer under $1000. Otherwise, people will just stick to worbla, eva, or other methods.

>>8878607
>The majority of the cosplay community will not want to break down helmets into 8 pieces.
sigh, that's just the reality of how thing are made. Best leave the finishing work to those that will do it since it's still a lot of work to custom design a prop/print/assemble/finish etc. Everything manufactured is essentially assembled from smaller parts, especially if it's to be worn, 3D printed props will be no different. If it were to be that easy, mechanical design would be taught alongside english and math.

File: 1455220378870.jpg (12KB, 470x313px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 470x313px

it looks like shit

>>8878339

what software do you use to model? I have access to a ton of printers (our library has one now, randomly) but aren't sure where to start learning.

>>8878339
>It uses up a lot of filament that just has to be thrown away.
I stash my old hips/abs into glass jars. You can turn it into a glue/paste with acetone, even smooth over like bundo over really rough spots, it'll dry hard and you can sand it after.

>>8881799
stash = used printed waste by color into jars I mean.

>>8880992
I've used Sketchup and Autodesk 123D cad software before. They are pretty nice except sketchup has a tendency to break models to the point of not being able to process them for 3d printing. There is a model repair website that you can upload and usually fix them. I'm now using solidworks since I have access to it for work but it is way to expensive for hobbyist to use. I hear blender is nice as well. Like I said my helmet is too complex for me to even attempt to make it. I got it from therpf.com. Also Thingiverse is a nice source of pre-made models.

I also use software called Netfabb to cut the model into pieces that will fit my printer and fix small errors that pop up in the models from the cutting process.

>>8881799
I do the same thing with my ABS. I have a large plastic tote full of scrap prints and support material and have a jar of abs glue I use to bond the parts together. I don't really like to use it as a smoothing agent because it takes a lot of sanding to smooth down (maybe my glue is too pasty?).

>>8877968
As is buying shoes instead of making them from scratch. Who cares.

Printer fag here. To all my modeling and printing Bros I recommend a program called Meshmixer. It's free and super easy to use on this type of work. It creates very minimalistic supports to save filament and shells the pieces for any required thickness.

>>8880992
I've used Rhino for making 3d things to get cut out. It's a really nice program

I see 2-D printing as being a more major/cost/user friendly option. Laser cutting for cosplay makes props and other stuff so easy to do.

What item would people like to see made if it was 3D-printable?

Did a looksee at etsy...masks, guns, swords, hand size trinkets etc..

And no not another iron man mask plx.

>>8883353
I find that people tend to gravitate towards cosplay props. It also helps if the series is very popular or works with the nostalgia gimmick.

Things that I can think of off the top of my head: Linkle's compass, Homura's arm piece, League of legends weapons, character specific crowns would also be good.

Character specific jewelry would be another good thing to look into.

>>8883370
This just reminds me-- Rapunzel's crown would be a really good idea. I got mine for free, but before that, I was stalking ebay for the official Disney one that they did a limited run on and that's expensive. If you can get it looking nice, you could make quite a bit, I bet.

>>8883377
Masks would also sell well. Especially ones like for Princess Mononoke, no face, Legend of Zelda, certain tokyo ghoul ones.

If they look nice enough they can even serve as wall art.

File: 1411865338915.jpg (267KB, 559x640px) Image search: [Google]

267KB, 559x640px

>>8883370
Weapons. Crowns.
>>8883377
This one in the pic?
>>8883383
Nice list. I see many of those masks often at cons, I had assume most were ebay bought, but checking around guess its diy still.

Sounds like a challenging project to take up, and yep if anything it could always end up as wall art.

>>8878607
Large build printers and under $1000 won't happen, if ever unfortunately. The quality of printers in that price range are garbage too (at least 100 microns accuracy). The more accurate and larger the item that can be printed, the more money you will be dropping on it and those types are not really meant for consumer use currently.

>>8877968
My boyfriend has printed some pieces for his cosplay and they look pretty damn cool. He also put lights in there so it wasn't like he just printed something and wore it. He also had to paint his printed stuff and do a ton of sanding work.
3D printing isn't that great out of the machine from what I've seen. You have to do a lot to make it look good.

Also stop trolling.

>>8877968
thast's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. hurdurr gotta make the armor from scratch there's no challenge at all in printing it out even if it results in nicer cosplays because people can focus more on better paint/makeup/hair/props/etc, fuck it gotta make it harder for yourself in every way possible because the most important part of cosplaying is showing off to people how hard you worked on something and inflating your ego

>>8880940
What's wrong with it? I'm not sure what character it is for context but it seems alright like the way it came out she did a good job on making it.

>>8888293
She didn't make it. Somebody else was inspired by her and designed it for her. Than a professional 3d printing company made the armor for them.

www3dersorg/articles/20160209-felicia-day-models-stunning-3d-printed-dream-regalia-armor-by-melissa-ng-in-fantasy-photo-shoot.html