3D print perfect mark V (5) B Reach helmet.

[Carpathia]

Am I the only one thinking this kinda takes the art out of it?

Lockon13


If you're the type of person that thinks you can put together a pep file, / harden it, / sand it a little, / & then paint it, and think you have a finished piece in your hands that you're happy with, than the answer for you would be YES. And many people do just that. 3D printing takes the pep stage out of the game and many of the inaccuracies associated with it. However it brings a new set of challenges to the table as well. I still have well over 150 hours of hand sculpting into this in order to get the details the way I wanted them along with removing all the unwanted visuals associated with the 3D printer. The 3D printer is another tool that can help you build better. My finishing processes are the same with a pep-ed piece as with a 3d printed base. I guess it all comes down to what level of finshed quailty it is that you personally find to be "good enough".

I think he's talking more about using the 3D printer to add in all the detail rather than adding in all the detail by hand. It's all give and take. Yeah, you get a pretty high level of detail right off the printer when 3D printing, but there's still a lot of preparation and finish work involved with 3D printing, especially if your printing area is smaller than the model to be printed (ie. you have to digitally break down the model in to logical pieces to be able to assemble them later on). That falls in the same line with preparing a pep for print; you have to logically break the model down into parts that fit onto a sheet of paper in order to easily assemble them later on. The difference is the type and quality of material.

Obviously there was a lot of dedicated work involved to transform this...

into this...

Just like there was a lot of dedicated work to turn this...

into this...

If you ask me, it can be argued that Pepakura itself takes some of the art out of the craft, since it gives you a base shape to start with, and sometimes a very detailed base shape.

 

[Katsu]

To me, a big part of the disenchantment with 3d printers is the way they get misconstrued by people. From watching the news or whatever, you see these perfect prints coming from time-lapse videos, and it makes people think these are production machines where you hit go and it pops out a finished helmet in a few minutes. The tech has come a long ways in the past two years, but it still involves a LOT of hours to get good prints to come out, and even then the original will never be wear-grade, especially when printed in PLA. I love 3d printers, and use them for my craft. It may LOOK like a lot of the art is taken out of the craft, and it is sort of true, but 3d printing is tackling armor creation more from an engineer's point of view than an artist's since you are spending more time in 3ds max or whatever, and figuring out how to best break apart and position pieces in order for them to print in a structurally sound manner. A lot of work goes into what is essentially just a mold casting plug, and it can be worth the effort, but the machines are still a long ways from just popping out full armor (which WOULD be inhuman and without any effort/art), for now we still have a LOT of manual work going into preparing and cleaning prints!

The print and the casts look good, it disheartens me from reviving my mk5b a bit! Great work to both the engineers and the artists alike on this site.

 

[Serin]

Am I the only one thinking this kinda takes the art out of it?

That's like comparing the advent of the canvas to cave wall drawings then claiming that cave walls are better... Art is art and no matter what medium it uses, it still requires talent and skill.