How do you make custom prop pattern/templates?

[PaiganBoi]

I have seen a couple of YouTube vids about making pattern/templates from in game images.
But, I would like to pick the brains from anyone here who has made their own patterns and templates.
How do you go about getting reference images of the prop you want to build? Screen shots while playing? Google? Actual developer artist materials?
Also where did you get the information on the dimensions of said prop?
I have tried looking up measurements on the H3 AR for example and I get nothing of value.
Once you do have your image and at "life size" how do you go about making the pattern? Do you just print and have at it or trace over it in Photoshop?
I have more questions but, I want to see what peoples responses are before I ask.

 

[TurboCharizard]

I have seen a couple of YouTube vids about making pattern/templates from in game images.
But, I would like to pick the brains from anyone here who has made their own patterns and templates.
How do you go about getting reference images of the prop you want to build? Screen shots while playing? Google? Actual developer artist materials?
Also where did you get the information on the dimensions of said prop?
I have tried looking up measurements on the H3 AR for example and I get nothing of value.
Once you do have your image and at "life size" how do you go about making the pattern? Do you just print and have at it or trace over it in Photoshop?
I have more questions but, I want to see what peoples responses are before I ask.

To get reference images there's a few different ways, you can take pictures with your phone at worst case, on PC you can screenshot or on most current gen consoles there's a method of screen capturing and exporting. Google is an awesome option because if the game/movie/show is popular other people may have already found the references you're looking for and possibly even made patterns.

For my BotW costume I was making it at a point where no patterns existed and was making props that nobody would want to replicate anyway so I used the item frames in Link's House to hold the weapons and then took pictures from various angles with the in game camera and exported images with the WiiU Image Share. Using those images I built up a pattern in Sketchup by tracing out the different profiles and combining them into a logical 3D form.

At this point you have something that's effectively just an image that isn't really good for anything. Go back into the game and get a reference with your character holding the item so that it can be used as a reference. Upload that image to Nifegun or do it in another CAD tool that can do measurements. Set the character height as your height, and then apply a scale factor to get the prop image to the right size. For things like Halo props some of the handles and trigger guards don't always scale so well so check those measurements and scale up as needed so that you can actually hold the thing.

 

[Schankerz]

Ive found the Halo Nation fandom wiki site to be an awesome source for weapon measurements, I jut checked the Halo 3 MA5C and they've got a bunch of measurements here if you want to see if they're viable. And for me I've always just gone with drawing out my templates over a few pieces of paper taped together drawing them off of google images, that obviously doesn't work for everyone but if you've got an eye for scale and some ruler/math skills you'll do fine.

 

[PaiganBoi]

Thanks TurboCharizard & Schankerz for the info. Both sites/links will help greatly for my next Halo and non Halo buildsbthat I have planned.