sculpting shoulder armor (complex curves)

[Anonymous]

hey all. i've been trying to model an armored arm, with the intention of 3d printing it, and i'm finding it difficult to get the shapes i want with good design practices. i've attached my reference photo as well as a couple photos of my process so far.

• to me, it seems easiest to capture the complex curves with t splines and sculpt bodies.
• a quad ball seems similar in shape to the shoulder piece, so i start there. that i slowly pull at the faces, constantly comparing to the side and (sorta kinda) front views i have.
• in trying to match the severe curves of the top ridge, and the angular opening where it meets the arm, i find the geometry gets pinched and inconsistent, especially around the front of the shoulder. 

beyond the wonkiness of my sculpted quadball, i'm also trying to figure out the best way to get the hard angles of the opening, both where it meets the shoulder and where it opens up at the bottom to the arms. i'm thinking that, after i get a sculpted body i like, i could draw a spline along the side view and split the body, then shell the result.

drawing a spline and splitting the body

what would your approach be? i'm not married to a sculpting solution, though it seems the most likely path. i feel like i'm vastly overthinking what should be a relatively simple model.

[chrisplyler]

I know this isn't exactly right. I just free-handed the splines without any reference, and chose two planes at 90-deg from each other for convenience, etc. But you could do better if you put more than five minutes into it than I did. You could do an intermediary plane at 45-deg or whatever. You could match the profiles and the loft rail to your picture, etc.

I just prefer the Model workspace when possible, because I'm not good in the other workspaces.

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

I might have some time later for a screencast, but I would probably do this in the Sculpt workspace.

Here's a render:

Here's the mesh in box mode:

I basically started similar to what I ma doing with this guitar in the YouTube vid.

I pulled faces out flat following the contours and when I had the contour about right, I pulled them out into 3D space.

[chrisplyler]

"Tastes great."

"Less filling."

"Tastes great."

"Less filling."

[Anonymous]

hahah, this is pretty funny, i was actually just watching your guitar modeling video before making this post. this is a really amazing sculpt! i'd love a screencast of it, if you find the time.

in your guitar modeling video, it looks like you work "outside-in". are you still able to do that with something as rounded as this shoulder armor?

[Anonymous]

while this isn't quite what i'm looking for, it is a really good solution. i also like keeping things in the model work space as often as possible, but i find the sculpt workspace lets me more accurately model the organic shapes i tend to need. that said, i do like the cleanliness that lofting gets you.

[chrisplyler]

Not what you're looking for? Is this a little better? Just looking at your pic and then going to Fusion and adjusting by memory, this seems to be a fair approximation, no?

Just have to move a few spline points around to make the adjustments.

Don't let @TrippyLighting  lure you with his fancy-schmancy "sculpting" ideas. He's got a mental instability, having had a bad childhood experience with some geece once. Now he hangs around here, trying to trick unsuspecting Fusion users to the dark side that he lives in.

[TrippyLighting]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

Don't let @TrippyLighting  lure you with his fancy-schmancy "sculpting" ideas. He's got a mental instability, having had a bad childhood experience with some geece once. Now he hangs around here, trying to trick unsuspecting Fusion users to the dark side that he lives in.

Mwwahahahaha!

via GIPHY

[chrisplyler]

"So what do you think, Jackie? We got a case?"

[Anonymous]

lmfao, again, this is really good and really close, but what i like about @TrippyLighting's model is that it includes some subtleties i really like, like that ridge going down the top center, and that curved area right before the bottom lip. i'd be surprised if you can get that kind of organic detail in the model environment.

that said, your screencast is really useful, especially because i've tried and failed many a time to do some kind of lofting solution.

[TrippyLighting]

While I did create the above entirely with Fusion 360 I have to say that I have come to strongly dislike the T-Spline modeling tools. Not because they are dysfunctional. they are very intuitive for people new to mesh modeling , which is their main attraction.

However, I've used Blender,  a Sub-D modeling software for about 15 years and the tools,and workflow there are so much faster and fluid it isn't even close. While I did the above through lunch break and it worked fine, now at night I started a screencast and the clunkiness of the T-Spline tools just got so terribly on my nerves that I had to stop.

So no screencast today.

[Anonymous]

i totally hear you. i've been learning blender in my spare time, but i like to see how far i can push fusion, if only because it's what i'm most comfortable with right now,

in any case, i appreciate your help!

[chrisplyler]

Mine HAS a ridge down the center and a curved area right before the bottom lip. It's organic looking as ****.

Sculpting is for no-good hippies.    It says so right in the Autodesk literature.

[TrippyLighting]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

Sculpting is for no-good hippies.    It says so right in the Autodesk literature.

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You, Chris, need to get out of your comfort zone!

Seriously, there are very few problems you cannot tackle in Fusion 360's modeling environment and the solutions you provide get better and better. Soon you'll get to a point where things might get boring and repetitive.

via GIPHY

[chrisplyler]

I know, I know. I really WANT to learn that hippy crap. I really do.

It's just intimidating. I already know what length/width/height are. I would have to learn what t-spline/brep/mesh are. I've only recently even dipped my toe into the Patch space, and it mildly freaks me out enough.

Plus, the better and better I get in Model space, the less and less stuff seems like it would require the drug-addled hippy methods.