Stephen West Pep Model

The goal for this project was to create a realistic prop that matched as closely as possible to the digital 3D model.  For this reason, I made my model life-size and high detail rather than large and stylized.

The 3D model I originally created at the start of the course, aside from being absurdly high poly, was made from several components that were stuck into each other.  While this was not at all a problem for 3D printing and not much of a problem for a serial sliced 3D model, the multiple pieces that make up the base helmet were unusable for a Pepakura model.  Using boolean functions in Maya proved ineffective for combining the helmet geometry and reducing the geometry in Mudbox distorted the shape of the helmet.

While most pep projects were made to be large sculptures, I have always been interested in creating wearable props and thus modeled the helmet at 13 inches tall, as it is for the character that wears it.

Instead I opted to reduce the helmet poly-count mostly by hand.  The organic snout was reduced using Mudbox, while the spherical portion of the helmet was remade from its original low-poly model.  After days of work, the helmet was reduced to a little over 2,000 polygons and laid out in Pepakura Designer.  Unfortunately, this was far too difficult to assemble and following a meeting with my TA, Chun Yi (Ronald) Wu, I reduced the helmet to 1,305 polygons, not including the visor and goggles.

I unfolded each part of the helmet but only printed and assembled the parts that could be easily affixed to each other.  The extra components will be assembled at a later date.





While the helmet was textured last year, the addition of the dragon snout, reduced topology, and completely new UV map necessitated an updated paint job.  The new texture was achieved by baking the texture from the old model onto the new one, and painting over it in Mudbox to conceal errors from the baking process, and add color for the snout.

Cutting out the pieces proved remarkably tedious.  Assembling the helmet was fairly easy aside from the snout which has long strips folded over on each other in order for the teeth to protrude from the surface.

In order to cover up white seams from paper tabs and tears that occurred during assembly, problems areas were painted with a muddy color consistent with the rest of the helmet.  After touching up the paint on the outside, I painted the inside with multiple layers of Mod Podge in order to strengthen the helmet.  In between layers of Mod Podge, I added stiff cable ties to help the helmet hold its shape around open edges.

A.K. Marder - Final Pepakura

Pepakura Hand_380mm - Atec 6389

To begin, this is not the first cardboard Pepakura I have done for this specific model.  I have created one at a 5ft scale and it's maquette was at a 2.5ft scale.

So for this next round, I will be creating another cardboard PEP sculpture, 380mm tall but I do not intend for that to be the end result.  For previous studies, I have found using the cardboard PEP as a form or base for other applications to be a fantastic resource.

Example:

Using .125in clear acrylic, I will begin experimenting laser cutting the facets created in Pepakura minus the flaps.  Doing this, the perforations will be vector engraving lines that act as score lines.

Final Cardboard Pepakura at 380mm height:

Now that this is built, the intentions of re-creating it in acrylic is not plausible.  There are over a dozen sections of flexion.  Acrylic does not flex.  That being said, my only option if I want to continue the path of working with acrylic, I will have to re-design my entire model to have more precise, flat, poly faces.  

Or.

Don't do acrylic....still up for debate.

The Compromise: I used a different model.

Using this model, it simplified many of the issues the hand model encountered.

The Process: Never having worked with acrylic in this fashion, there was lots of experimenting.  I decided to use the laser cutter to instead of perforate for the mountain and valley lines, I would score the bends with the laser cutter and then use a heating rod to enable a clean bend.

The Assembly:  This took multiple attempts using different types of adhesives.  My first attempt was with Weldon Acrylics #4, it's a chemical that is applied using a syringe and fuses the acrylic.  However, it requires as much contact and surface area as possible...which is not what I could offer.  My second attempt was with Loctite silicone sealer, used for tiles and windows.  It worked nicely but I was too impatient for the drying time and it also has some flex so the bonds were not as strong as I needed for certain areas.  In the end I caved and use hot glue on selected points where I needed the strongest bond and then used the silicone sealer for the rest of the area.

In the end....the acrylic is not as clean and un-mauled as I would prefer but it was somewhat of a successful process.

Not final piece - silicone sealer still drying so I used masking tape to hold things in place