RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pics)

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

If anyone says that the parts are "too small" when they open that file they shall be redirected here lol. I know I couldn't make that thing at the scale you're working in. I would lose my mind. So far it's looking really good. Pepakura parts look so much better without all of the lines and numbers on them. I've never done it that way, but I might give it a shot when I start building again. That will be after I get a Cameo to do the heavy lifting for me lol.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

SirPalesAlot said:

Pepakura parts look so much better without all of the lines and numbers on them.

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This may sound odd, but it's not about how the parts look. (Yes, I know it's all about how the parts look - it's a costume after all.) The reason I don't use Edge IDs or fold lines isn't because of how the parts look without them or being into self-punishment (which I'm not). It's because on smaller parts (which is almost all of them in my case) the edge numbers overlap into a black blob and end up being useless, and the same happens with fold lines when there's a high density in a small area. So I just turn them all off and use the 3D model as my building instructions. Tonight I'm starting on page 6 for gluing parts. Only one more page left and then I can start putting all the subassemblies together.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

Hey all,

Many thanks to RobotChicken for his excellent video - I've been following it today with good results -until-...

I'm wondering if anyone who has tried to has been having troubles with their Silhouette pens? I have a new pack that I tested freehand - they write great, but, when I go to use them in the Cameo, the results have been very hit-or-miss - some of the lines are printing and some are not. It seems that the pen is touching properly on some parts of the page, but not on others. I have tried to 'redraw' the lines by running it again, and the missing spots are in the same places. I also tried to use a different colour and it's still hit-or-miss.

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and know of a solution. I'm sure I've got the settings right according to the video - material type and tip are both set to pen. I've tried different draw speeds and depth settings, but no luck.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

I had the same problem. I saw a post on a craft forum suggesting wiping the card stock with a cloth to remove oils. I tried that too with minimal success. They are kind of a pain.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

azirithdorr said:

Hey all,

Many thanks to RobotChicken for his excellent video - I've been following it today with good results -until-...

I'm wondering if anyone who has tried to has been having troubles with their Silhouette pens? I have a new pack that I tested freehand - they write great, but, when I go to use them in the Cameo, the results have been very hit-or-miss - some of the lines are printing and some are not. It seems that the pen is touching properly on some parts of the page, but not on others. I have tried to 'redraw' the lines by running it again, and the missing spots are in the same places. I also tried to use a different colour and it's still hit-or-miss.

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and know of a solution. I'm sure I've got the settings right according to the video - material type and tip are both set to pen. I've tried different draw speeds and depth settings, but no luck.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

Are you using version 3 or version 2 of Silhouette Studio? There is a known glitch in version 3 causing sketch pens to not work reliably sometimes. You can read about it on multiple sites. I discussed the issue with Silhouette America for several weeks and they, of course, were not able to reproduce the issue. It was extremely frustrating. I recommend using version 2 of Silhouette Studio (legacy download is available on their web site) if you're using sketch pens and this should fix the problem for you. I had the same problem with dropped lines and extra lines (mostly with extra lines) and using version 2 resolved the issue for me. Be sure to not set the depth too high for sketch pens or they will "drag" on the paper causing extra lines between vectors. Hopefully Silhouette America gets this figured out and a fix released.

Note that if you use version 2 for highlighting fold lines then you need to use version 2 for all the steps with that page. If you try switching between version 2 and version 3 with keeping the mat loaded, the blade cuts won't always line up with the highlighting. (I've tried.) You can save your version 3 documents in version 2 format from within Silhouette Studio. (Version 2 cannot directly open version 3 documents, but version 3 can open version 2 documents.)

Another thing you can try that they recommended to me but I wasn't successful with is changing the default Packet Size. Supposedly, if you try sending "too much data" to the cutting machine it can cause issues. I'm not convinced of this because a page that messes up in version 3 works just fine in version 2, same cutting machine, same preferences. If you want to try this approach, go to Advanced Settings in preferences and change the Packet Size to "500 bytes". This limits the size of data packets sent to the machine. Honestly, the best solution I've come up with is to use version 2 of Silhouette Studio if you intend to highlight fold lines. This isn't stated in the video because I'm hopeful the glitch will be resolved at some point in the future and then version 3 is valid for sketch pens use.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

You, sir, are the man with the plan.. and answers.. To answer your question: I'm using V3.

Many thanks to you - I'll give the byte thing a try just for kicks and then switch to V2 of Studio

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

No problem. For my own build I score the fold lines but don't highlight them so I'm able to do all the work in V3. I prefer V3 because of being able to select lines by color under advanced cut mode and a lot of other bug fixes (you can read about them in their software release notes), but I switch to V2 whenever using sketch pens. I seriously considered stating something about the V3 issue in my video, but then if SA ever figures out what people are complaining about from multiple web sites and gets it fixed then my recommendation to use V2 wouldn't be valid anymore.

Edit: Another thing you can try that SA recommended (but again didn't resolve issues I was experiencing) is use the Cardstock setting for the fold lines instead of Silhouette Sketch Pen, but have a sketch pen instead of a ratchet blade loaded in the machine. (Know that I wasted many sheets of cardstock trying to get sketch pens to behave in V3 before resigning to V2 and then they magically work properly.)

I updated the tutorial thread to mention the V3 issue and recommend V2 if highlighting fold lines.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

The forearm pep is still progressing smoothly. Most of the subassemblies are done and I've started adding in the connecting trenches. Three more subassemblies remain, Large Flat Thing With Oval Indent (just started), the second wrist detail area, and the antecubital detail (most difficult part of the forearm). Several edits are being made to the unfolded flaps as I build this, but it shouldn't be too much longer until until the file is ready for uploading.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

The forearm is looking good!

Thanks also, btw, to GeekGuardianDee for the advice.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

Started connecting subassemblies today. In hindsight, I should have assembled the trenches first and then added the forearm faces around them. It would have been easier and faces would have aligned better. Oh well, there's always the left arm.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

I'm. Still new but I would like help with building master chiefs armor for airsoft a.nd if I could get the whole armor than parts of it?

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

Cobra S117 said:

I'm. Still new but I would like help with building master chiefs armor for airsoft a.nd if I could get the whole armor than parts of it?

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SirPalesAlot and I don't have the whole Mk VI armor files done yet. You can get other Master Chief armor files from the 405th File Archive (if they've been added here yet), or from MissingSpartan7's 4shared database (http://www.4shared.com/folder/CCB_6QwQ/405th_Pepakura_Database.html), or from the old Halo Costuming Wiki (http://halocostuming.wikia.com/wiki/Pepakura_File_Index).

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

Just got an email from Tama Software - they've implemented my request for the ability to rotate the 3D model using either keyboard keys (left and right arrow when no parts are selected and the 3D view is active) or constraining the mouse movement (holding the x or y key while rotating with the mouse). Version 3.1.3b is now available for download from their web site. The only thing new in this version is the ability to rotate the 3D view on a single axis. Thought you all might like to know.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

Nice! Congrats on your request being accepted RC - Sounds like you're helping to shape the future of pepakura :>

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

I was curious to know. It looks as though you might have unfolded the the forearm to where the parts would join on the horizontal instead of the vertical. Or is that because some of the model is low depth? I see a lot of mountain folds in your pepped piece.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

The model is definitely not low depth. The parts do join on the vertical, meaning the parts are tall rather than wide. I thought it would be easier and fewer parts to split the edges vertically, but that's turning out to be not quite the case. I had originally planned splitting the model on the horizontals, so I re-unfolded the model that way and ended up reducing the parts count and I think it will be an easier build. I do prefer mountain folds because they work out better with top-side scoring from the Cameo, but valley folds must still exist due to the recesses. I try to have the valley folds on flaps as much as practical for crisper right-angle corners.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

New, game-accurate forearm files ranging from Low Detail to Ultra-High Detail are ready for uploading, but the File Archive is bugging out on me. When staff gets it working properly I'll upload the files. Until then, new shoulder models are being developed and I suppose more folding and gluing can be getting done.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

I'm currently testing out an unreleased beta version of the next release for Pepakura Designer, which implements the remaining features I've requested of Tama Software. Coming in the next version is the ability to group parts in the 2D View, so groups of parts can be aligned and rotated as a single entity (this enables selected parts to maintain their relative positions to each other when rotating and aligning them with other parts or groups). They've also added support for key-repeat when rotating the 3D View using keyboard, and when moving parts in 2D View using keyboard. Lastly, the new X and Y keys for constraining 3D rotating with the mouse to a single axis are now also functional when moving parts in 2D View using the mouse. I'm still in discussion with them on some aspects of the new parts grouping feature, but can tell you that the next Pepakura Designer release is pretty freakin' awesome.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

RobotChicken said:

I'm currently testing out an unreleased beta version of the next release for Pepakura Designer, which implements the remaining features I've requested of Tama Software. Coming in the next version is the ability to group parts in the 2D View, so groups of parts can be aligned and rotated as a single entity (this enables selected parts to maintain their relative positions to each other when rotating and aligning them with other parts or groups). They've also added support for key-repeat when rotating the 3D View using keyboard, and when moving parts in 2D View using keyboard. Lastly, the new X and Y keys for constraining 3D rotating with the mouse to a single axis are now also functional when moving parts in 2D View using the mouse. I'm still in discussion with them on some aspects of the new parts grouping feature, but can tell you that the next Pepakura Designer release is pretty freakin' awesome.

Click to expand...

When you say new release do you mean a Pepakura 4, or just another 3.something release? I did like the new rotation and your new ideas abitu rotating in groups sound so exciting! Im glad to finally not have to rotate thirty parts so they are right next to each other.

Re: RobotChicken's Halo 3 Mk VI Master Chief, Ultra Detail, First Build WIP (many pic

It will be another 3.x release. It is very nice being able to rotate 10 parts as a group instead of individually (and then needing to move them all to retain their relative positions after rotating). When you group parts, the group behaves as one mega-part when moving, aligning, and rotating. I wish I had that functionality two weeks ago when I was unfolding all the different forearm models for the archive. (Still waiting for the archive to be fixed before uploading the files. Did the staff get abducted by aliens or something?) Everything is functional in the developmental Designer 3.x release, but I'm trying to convince them to save group information within the PDO file so groups don't need to be redefined each time a file is opened for more edits. (The current test version does not save group information in the PDO file.)