Companion Cube Wip

[AceHigh]

Look! I made a roof!

Soon I will have a hole little village of...of...



No, I'm kidding. Like you have probably figured out by my not so subtle title (not to be confused with a subtitle...), this is the beginning of a companion cube. I have wanted to build one since playing Portal for the first time (woot december -09), and when HaloGodess requested a model of one in another thread, I got the itch in my fingers again. Therefore, I'm making this a side project to my Jorge 052 build. I quickly modelled one and slowly unfolded it (took bloody forever, I might have made it unneccessarily hi def), and have now made the first page of the pep. The whole thing? Oh, well exactly 100 pages! Fortunately, a lot of the pieces are big flat things, so it won't be that harsh I think. Once completed, the cube's going to be about 75 cms wide. It's somewhere in the ballpark of what the game cube (subtle advertising) is like. If someone knows what the actual weight of the cube is, please let me know. I played through the game to get measurments and stuff, but I can't remember being told how much one weighs. If I can't find any weight reference, it's probably going to be about 20 lbs or so. I will most likely weight it by adding some type of filler to the strengthening of the inside.



If other people want to build my cube, the PDO is here: Companion Cube unfolded



I'm gradually progressing in my Blender knowledge, and I used this model to learn a little bit about colouring. I think it turned out pretty good for a first try (albeit a simple project), so this might well cause me to model even more. I haven't quite decided if that's a good or a bad thing yet. Maybe I should build a chicken... Anyways, here's a render of my cube, so you know what it's going to look like. I know it's missing the hearts, but I don't know how (or if it is even possible) to add custom images to a model. Enjoy!

 

[Medrenaline]

hahahahha! omg dude thats so damn awesome! you have so made my day /happyface. Totally making it and taking it with me to london expo this may xDD



But my god dude a 100 pages! xD thats me going to be tanked for a while. nice work man xDD

 

[0235]

awesome when it is done take it to work, or college or whatever you do and see how many people get the joke.

 

[MikyVengeance]

I was thinking of making one as a chair for my gaming room.

for the pink "strings" of lights.

I was going to cut that out, replace with clear plexi glass and get some pink LED's behind it to make it look like it glow's.

and making the base box out of wood and covering it maybe with like resin and bondo :S I have no idea.

 

[Chrissern]

That looks great! I was just looking at another one, but it had alot og open edges



I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this build

 

[DarkBebi]

I'm sorry as this is a noob question but how big is the cube when its completed? 100 pages seems like its going to be huge and isn't there an easier way when you change the paper from A4 to letter that the unfolded objects wont be so messed up? This is going to be my first pep and I don't really want to waist too much paper. Thank you

 

[AceHigh]

hahahahha! omg dude thats so damn awesome! you have so made my day /happyface. Totally making it and taking it with me to london expo this may xDD



But my god dude a 100 pages! xD thats me going to be tanked for a while. nice work man xDD

Glad you like it. But 100 pages isn't as bad as it sounds. It's just 344 parts in total, and they're all pretty big which probably makes it an easy pep. I'm using 250 gsm (150-160 lbs), and that runs me about $13. Might be costly in resin and stuff though, but I'm preparred to take that hit.

awesome when it is done take it to work, or college or whatever you do and see how many people get the joke.

What do you mean "joke"? :lol

I was thinking of making one as a chair for my gaming room.

for the pink "strings" of lights.

I was going to cut that out, replace with clear plexi glass and get some pink LED's behind it to make it look like it glow's.

and making the base box out of wood and covering it maybe with like resin and bondo :S I have no idea.

I have been playing with the idea of adding LED lights too, but I probably won't. I'd be broke from buying batteries having it lit up all the time. :eek

That looks great! I was just looking at another one, but it had alot og open edges



I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this build

This one has zero open edges, promise. Everything will fit together once done, even though adding the last part might be tricky.



And don't worry, I'm still working on Jorge too.

I'm sorry as this is a noob question but how big is the cube when its completed? 100 pages seems like its going to be huge and isn't there an easier way when you change the paper from A4 to letter that the unfolded objects wont be so messed up? This is going to be my first pep and I don't really want to waist too much paper. Thank you

The scale I made it in is 75³ cms, roughly 30³ inches I think. What I know of there isn't any easier way to change A4-Letter or change the scale than to rearrange all the parts. If you want to save yourself from rearranging all the parts, there's actually only 8 completely different pages. What you need to complete the cube is:



12 page nr 1.

24 page nr 13.

8 page nr 14.

8 page nr 17.

16 page nr 53 (note that both half circles will have tabs, just cut one of them off when putting it together)

6 page nr 55.

6 page nr 56.

24 page nr 57.



If you scrap the edge IDs and look at the 3D model how the parts fit together, you'd be fine with that.

 

[Vyronix]

Would make a pretty good stool to sit on

 

[k11yle]

looking good ace!

 

[MikyVengeance]

Haha maybe for the LED's, you can get an AC adapter to charge the battery haha

 

[Camofred]

I want it!!! if there is one thing awesomer than halo, it has to be portal, no exceptions

 

[DarkBebi]

AceHigh, Thank you for the answer. I thought I was going to get ignored there for a second because of the stupid question, I finally found the scaling button and I reduced it to .5 of your scale, I hope you don't mind. My mind is just going crazy over the creativity I can do to the lovely companion cube

 

[AceHigh]

Would make a pretty good stool to sit on

Unless you use a cushion, it would be a pain in the ass. Pun very much intended.

looking good ace!

Thanks!

Haha maybe for the LED's, you can get an AC adapter to charge the battery haha

I might well give the darn thing an electrical cord lol. Damnit, this has given me the idea to build a computer case mod that looks like a Companion Cube. Don't think I'll make it full size if I do, though.

I want it!!! if there is one thing awesomer than halo, it has to be portal, no exceptions

Agreed, I loved Portal. One of the most awesome AI characters of all time. I might even go the whole nine yards and give the cube a soundbox which activates when shaking it, making the cube threaten to stab you. It depends on how much time I want to spend though, as I know nothing about electronics and stuff. Yet.

AceHigh, Thank you for the answer. I thought I was going to get ignored there for a second because of the stupid question, I finally found the scaling button and I reduced it to .5 of your scale, I hope you don't mind. My mind is just going crazy over the creativity I can do to the lovely companion cube

No problem friend. I would be happy to answer any questions about my models. I certainly don't mind you changing the scale, it's probably a pretty sensible thing to do. I'm not sensible though, so mine will be full scale.



I pepped one of the corners today. It's now that I realize just how bloody big this thing will be. Each corner piece takes five A4 pages, so...well...I'll let the picture speak for itself. If you're wondering, that's a 30 cm (12 inches) ruler, in between my corner piece to the left, and the roof (which are the portruding parts in between the corners) from the other day. Quite a lot of the paper residue is from my peps for Jorge, so not all of it is from cubing. I know there's some glue on the table, but it's a cheap crap good table from IKEA, so no worries. It's a coffee table as I do my pepping in front of the TV. Most shows are good enough listening to anyway (what, radio? never heard of it...).

 

[Chrissern]

This just started to get epic! That thing is huge.



I have to agree with you about the pepping in front of the TV, who needs an image?

 

[DarkBebi]

OK, I have looked up tutorial and questions on this but I am still confused.



I am done cutting out all the files and ready to fold it but I am confused on the folding. Yes I know about mountain and valley but in some of the tutorials i see them cutting the folds? If I do cut it, how far along the fold do I have to cut? or do I just fold the whole crease and then glue it together?

 

[AceHigh]

OK, I have looked up tutorial and questions on this but I am still confused.



I am done cutting out all the files and ready to fold it but I am confused on the folding. Yes I know about mountain and valley but in some of the tutorials i see them cutting the folds? If I do cut it, how far along the fold do I have to cut? or do I just fold the whole crease and then glue it together?

I don't think that people are actually cutting the folds. What you do is that across the fold line, you use the blunt side of the knife to make a line in the paper. I think this is the image that got you confused:

Look at the way the knife is turned, the sharp side is pointing upwards. What this does is that when you drag the blunt side across the paper, it tears just the surface of the paper (as opposed to all the way through the paper), making the paper weaker along that line. When you fold across the line, you easily get a very precise fold that follows your cut. Folding papers, especially thick ones, without creasing like this is very difficult to do accurately, and will reflect in your finished pep piece. Not using the crease also makes it more likely that you will wrinkle the paper giving you warpage. Take a look at this thread for a good example: http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24956&view=findpost&p=406448 The two ODST helmets in that thread are made using the same pep file. Guess which one he folded by scoring the paper? Knowing how to score and fold properly really makes a world of difference.



With that said, I actually often do cut of the tabs. I do this in places where I don't want to have a seam, for instance where large flat surfaces have been cut since they didn't fit on one piece of paper. This makes both papers line up, making the seam flat. I'll try to illustrate the difference with a scetch:

In this example, the top picture illustrates two pieces glued together with a tab (highlighted in red) and the bottom one two pieces glued together with a separate piece of paper. Notice in the first example how the right paper rises above the left one, while in the second one, they are parallell. While I don't have that much pepping experience, I would think this does save some time and trouble in the later stages of the build.

 

[MW Immortalking]

Woah 100 Pages, That's alot. At that point I'd go with wood or metal or something.

Good luck, can't wait to see it progress.

 

[DarkBebi]

Thank You so very much with that thread AceHigh. As I am only using regular paper for my first pep on this project I do suspect some warping in the final project but lets hope that its not that bad (no offense to the guy who did his first pep as I might fail worse).

 

[Roadwarrior]

Looking good, just don't make the mistake I did and incinerate yours, *Sobs*"WHHHYYYY!??!?".



TBH, I really did cry somewhat after that level lol.

 

[DarkBebi]

Looking good, just don't make the mistake I did and incinerate yours, *Sobs*"WHHHYYYY!??!?".



TBH, I really did cry somewhat after that level lol.

You know the first time I played that level, I went in there with the companion cube. I figured if it could hold up my own weight and everything else, it should be able to withstand some fire.