Armor mobility

[Mothman]

How do yall deal with mobility in the legs? I made mk4 Armor from Halo wars/Infinite, granted i scaled wrong, however I did reprint one lower leg anda smaller scale and I still am having mobility issues. AS much as I love the Mk4, im leaning more to make the mk7 lower legs for the better mobility in the knees and ankle. Any and all help will be appreciated.

 

[SgtSaint]

Sorry its not a magical answer where just one thing makes it all better - but mostly that's solved by proper sizing/scaling.
Of course bad model design plays a factor. "Game accurate" is often not "real world wearable" and something I have to walk clients through often when it comes to making their armor. Its fairly common for first-time armorers to lean in to covering every cm² of their body rather than leave the joints open so they can bend the knee and elbow etc. Real life isn't a game where armor parts can magically fold into each other.

People new to printing armor often aren't experienced at scaling and distorting armor to match their body. That's why I continually suggest starting with a less technical armor that has looser tolerances. And work towards tighter fitting armor as you gain skill.

SgtSaint's FAQ post

So I tend to post this response to the common or Frequently asked questions when people ask on the various social media channels. I copy/paste it to Facebook, or the Discord server and some folks urged me to post it here and just link it in the future. Ok, here goes. These are my tips and how...

www.405th.com

On a personal note: I've always looked at the MK-IV and thought:

How the heck is someone supposed to move in that? The chest is so overly wide there's no way to actually bring both arms up into a typical shooter's stance.

If you are scaling uniformly that will be a big part of the problem. If you aren't using an accurate avatar and software to make your fitting match your body that's another big factor. (IE: Are you using Armorsmith?)
And you have to strap in a way that parts don't slide down. If the thigh is high for the first hour, then as you sweat and walk it slides down, its going to lock up the knee

In generally I'd suggest defining "mobility issues" as a bullet-point list and attack each issue individually.

• Elbow won't go straight
• Knee won't let me walk up/down stairs
• Waist doesn't let me sit

 

[Mothman]

Sorry its not a magical answer where just one thing makes it all better - but mostly that's solved by proper sizing/scaling.
Of course bad model design plays a factor. "Game accurate" is often not "real world wearable" and something I have to walk clients through often when it comes to making their armor. Its fairly common for first-time armorers to lean in to covering every cm² of their body rather than leave the joints open so they can bend the knee and elbow etc. Real life isn't a game where armor parts can magically fold into each other.

People new to printing armor often aren't experienced at scaling and distorting armor to match their body. That's why I continually suggest starting with a less technical armor that has looser tolerances. And work towards tighter fitting armor as you gain skill.

SgtSaint's FAQ post

So I tend to post this response to the common or Frequently asked questions when people ask on the various social media channels. I copy/paste it to Facebook, or the Discord server and some folks urged me to post it here and just link it in the future. Ok, here goes. These are my tips and how...

www.405th.com

On a personal note: I've always looked at the MK-IV and thought:


If you are scaling uniformly that will be a big part of the problem. If you aren't using an accurate avatar and software to make your fitting match your body that's another big factor. (IE: Are you using Armorsmith?)
And you have to strap in a way that parts don't slide down. If the thigh is high for the first hour, then as you sweat and walk it slides down, its going to lock up the knee
View attachment 367891


In generally I'd suggest defining "mobility issues" as a bullet-point list and attack each issue individually.

• Elbow won't go straight
• Knee won't let me walk up/down stairs
• Waist doesn't let me sit

Thanks for the input, I didn't think about not uniform scale, but your right game accurate is not the same as irl, the mk 4 suffers from that big time. The file i got are from Galactic armory.

 

[rickrtickr]

So this might not be entirely what you are looking for, but here are my 2 cents.

Look into "hybridizing" your build.

What I mean by that is mixed materials. Use the 3d print as the majority of the build, but in areas that otherwise conflict with mobility, cut back and add a foam layer. The foam can squish and bend in ways that can be comfortable, and still look solid like the 3d prints.

I know that I use a majority of Foam in my construction and freehand foam at that. But I think this could help with this particular issue for you!