Cosplay and 3D printers: I need advices

[Emmerlaus]

I know nothing about 3D printers except some videos on the internet I saw here and there.

Lets get this straight: I dont know how to sew or make a costume.

But I heard that 3D printers help a lot in making cosplay easier. That got me curious about 3D printers and cosplay in general.

So here's my questions:

1) What kind of texture the material printed can have? Do they break easily? Can it be the constitancy to mimic leather (so souple texture) or only solid object?

2) The prices of the machines varies but how much is the cost to make sure our 3D printers work? How much the threads cost each time etc.

3) Practice makes perfect I know but some costume can be done by just getting a mask printed and clotches biough in a retail shops. Does owning a 3D printers does make cosplay that much cheaper?

4) Is their by any chances classes you would suggest me or wbsites to suggest me before I try to get into cosplay, since I have no idea what Im getting into?

I know Im a noob for asking this and I know one of my friend who did cosplay who told me its a lot of work but she didnt own a 3D printer.

Thank you for having read this far and I hope you can enlight me on the worderful world of cosplay!

[farothel]

I'm no expert by a long run, but I think they can only do plastic for now (or concrete for the very large ones, but that's even less of a help).
Also prices for 3D printeres are such that I think it's cheaper just to buy a costume (which, if I ever get started as a player I would have to do as well).

[Peelee]

You probably don't want to do this. First, you have to buy and learn about 3d printing. Then, you have to create your own designs for the costume you want to print out. So if you aren't already artistically talented, you need to learn a lot of new skills. If you are already talented, you need to learn how to work with CAD if you don't already. Then you need to do a bit of engineering as well, because most personal print beds are going to be less than a square foot, so you need to print it out in segments and attach it. If you want to get someone else's designs, be prepared to do a lot of research and likely pay a good bit for the files; the people who make these things are usually artists, and it's likely a secondary source of income for them (or at the very least a large part of their downtime). Then there's more 3D print knowledge, like finishing the surface and hiding the seams, and costume details like painting, distressing, aging, etc.

What kind of costumes are you interested in? A bit of research to find a costuming group to join would most likely save you time and money, in addition to getting people likely willing to help teach you or flat out help you make them.

[Emmerlaus]

As I thought, I probably don't want to do this hahaha!

I wanted to try out my hand at Bing Bong (Inside out) or a genderbender version of Jalira, Master Polymorphist (Magic the Gathering) once Im more talented. I could have use the last one as a costume for RL roleplay too.

As for Bong Bong... I found a tshirt modeled after his suit I could have pick and I was thinking of printing a helmet-mask to go with it. Sure its not extremely accurate but the design would be there and it would have being cute. I could have bough real clotches and adjust them too if needed I guessed.

The other one though would have needed a lot of work and I was not very hopeful on that one.

But with those comments... I probably should just give up. Or at least considering buying a 3D printer for my cosplaying friend (with the help of some friends and her family of course) so that she can teach me maybe later or help me if I need to

[Iruka]

I'm no expert by a long run, but I think they can only do plastic for now (or concrete for the very large ones, but that's even less of a help).
Also prices for 3D printeres are such that I think it's cheaper just to buy a costume (which, if I ever get started as a player I would have to do as well).

3D printers are available all kinds of materials, but the kind you would get for DIY projects at home indeed work with plastic (or other polymers). You can pay anything between a few hunderd to 10 thousands of dollars. Or build one yourself.

Keep in mind that the building space of affordable printers is usually rather limited, the pieces still need to be polished, painted etc. and you would still need to buy fabrics for the actual clothes.

[Peelee]

As I thought, I probably don't want to do this hahaha!

I wanted to try out my hand at Bing Bong (Inside out) or a genderbender version of Jalira, Master Polymorphist (Magic the Gathering) once Im more talented. I could have use the last one as a costume for RL roleplay too.

As for Bong Bong... I found a tshirt modeled after his suit I could have pick and I was thinking of printing a helmet-mask to go with it. Sure its not extremely accurate but the design would be there and it would have being cute. I could have bough real clotches and adjust them too if needed I guessed.

The other one though would have needed a lot of work and I was not very hopeful on that one.

But with those comments... I probably should just give up. Or at least considering buying a 3D printer for my cosplaying friend (with the help of some friends and her family of course) so that she can teach me maybe later or help me if I need to

Especially when giving advice, I sometimes tend towards the pessimistic. Don't at all give up if that's what you want to do! I just wanted to give you some ideas of the realities of 3D printing costumes. It's still a really cool technique that will absolutely be worth it if you put in the time and money, but having good expectations of the time and money is only a good thing, IMO. My main advice, though, is to try to find costuming groups that are relatively local to you. If you're on the East coast or in a big city, then try googling the name of your city or area with the terms "costuming group" and maybe some other identifiers, like MTG or Inside Out or even just "movie." Worst case scenario, google simply "[your area] costuming group" sans quotes, and try to see if any people would be able to better direct you. If youre on the West coast in a big stat like TX or CA, or in a low-density area, use the state instead in your search terms.

[farothel]

or look on <state> LARP or Live action roleplay. That can also yield groups with people in them who know how to make costumes. the search term Cosplay can work as well.
If you live close to it, on conventions like comic con and gencon there will also be groups having a stand where you can get information (at least they do here in Europe). Maybe better try the small cons first, as the big ones might not have groups but only professionals (as stand prices tend to be higher).

[Emmerlaus]

I think I'll at least will wait to return in shape before I start cosplaying. Im working 60 hours a week all summer but once its over, I'll be working half of that amount until december. I being planned to returning to the gym and train when summer is finally over.

Size matter in cosplay after all... And my lack of sleep and time makes me unable to learn new things right now.

So I was asking merely for the distant future. I'll consider your suggestion once Im more free and in good shape.

Also, their is a roleplay grouop in the city Im going to move in a month. I'll ask them if they have any experience with it or if they just do tabletop lol

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Now tabletop figures, or better yet wargaming mini's (because you can use a lot of identical ones), that's 3D printer territory.

[Emmerlaus]

Now tabletop figures, or better yet wargaming mini's (because you can use a lot of identical ones), that's 3D printer territory.

Aaaah riiiight, Warhammer and the like.

I tried it once, figured I wasnt very good and gave up. I should have tried the Orc army though, its fine if they get scratched and such lol!

I dont think I have the patience to relearn the whole lore for Warhammer though... And I liked Tau, which requiere a lot of skills tro assemble and paint. I didnt keep in touch with the system though.

As for other use of figurines, I cant think of any I want to do... Im not a GM and I figure making minis of my own character would be difficult without a detailled design.

I might look it up, just for fun. But Im not very skillful, not yet anyway.

EDIT: Their is a 3d printing machine in the library of school there the public can use. I'll look it up as well.

[Peelee]

Aaaah riiiight, Warhammer and the like.

I tried it once, figured I wasnt very good and gave up. I should have tried the Orc army though, its fine if they get scratched and such lol!

I dont think I have the patience to relearn the whole lore for Warhammer though... And I liked Tau, which requiere a lot of skills tro assemble and paint. I didnt keep in touch with the system though.

As for other use of figurines, I cant think of any I want to do... Im not a GM and I figure making minis of my own character would be difficult without a detailled design.

I might look it up, just for fun. But Im not very skillful, not yet anyway.

EDIT: Their is a 3d printing machine in the library of school there the public can use. I'll look it up as well.

When you say wasn't very good, do you mean it had a lot of overhangs, or low quality, or just a bad print, or other?

Also, totally check out the library machines! Filament is cheap. Shouldn't run you too much to try some things on them. You could also download Blender (or any other good, free CAD software) and play around with it to see if you like it and would like to try getting good at it.

[Emmerlaus]

I meant building the figure from the boxes Warhammer sell... You know, with a knife, using glue and finally paint them. Puttig glue wasnt a problem but I had a hard time with cutting them and then polishing the work.

[Knaight]

The CAD side is pretty easy - just use Sketchup to make something, then pass it through Blendr to get a usable file type, then go to Cura or something. That said there are skills to learn here, and if you want to learn to use a particular machine to make cosplay better I'd recommend a sewing machine - and I hate sewing.

[Peelee]

if you want to learn to use a particular machine to make cosplay better I'd recommend a sewing machine - and I hate sewing.

Seconded. On both counts.

[Algeh]

The parts of cosplay 3d printers make easier aren't really "enough" for you to create good costumes with just 3d printing skills in most cases. For most cosplay purposes, 3d printing makes it easier to make rigid things about the size of your fist down to about the size of your pinky finger without having to either carve them out of wood or cast them out of metal. This is really helpful if your character has a signature belt buckle, broach, cane/staff/wand fob, or similar. There exist bigger, fancier machines, but not ones in reach for most fans.

You'll probably need other skills to support the rest of the costume.

I took an entire year of sewing classes when I was younger, and it's a really useful skill to have. I can repair my clothes and get more use out of them as well as make costumes. I also have made my own curtains and other such things. I agree with the other posters that if you're going to buy a machine and learn a skillset specifically for cosplay, a sewing machine would be a better option.

In my area, the fan-run SF conventions have a lot of panels about costuming. That might be a good place to learn more. Fabric stores may also have beginner sewing classes.

[Izzarra]

When it comes to rapid prototyping, aka 3D printing it really boils down to money. There are a variety of material options ans surface finishes from plastics and resins to steel and even titanium. Some models are large enough to print an entire helmet. They just get really expensive vary fast.

[Aotrs Commander]

The question has been pretty much answered, but since this is my exact wheel-house (since this is my day job), I might as well do the usual spiel:

A 3D printer is just a tool like any other - you use it for the right jobs. For practical home purposes, that means you are dealing with small objects - though our Replicator 2 has done some toiletries storage boxes for the caravan which is fairly large - so it best sutied for wargames figures and DIY and maybe small props (like broaches or buckles or whatever - though PLA is not hugely strong for the latter purpose). As per usual, to get the most out of it, you need to either CAD skills, know somone who does or be prepared to learn; you can find free software out there (though obviosuly, better software is available - we use TurboCAD and/or Rhino, for various reasons); Belnder or Sketch-up spring to mind.

Commerical 3D printing can come in a variety of materials - 3D printed jewellery is a big thing on Shapeways - but the cost if obviously pretty astronomical for stuff like gold or brass. Even commerical plastic tends to be much more xpensive than your home printer. Commerical printing usually charges by some form of volume component (often by bounding box - i.e. a box which the model would fit inside) and so large scale gets expensive fast. (By-the-by, 28-30/35 whatevr GW is using these days is not really suited to 3D printing commerically outside of the infantry or characters because of this - really, the optimum zone is the one around starships at 144th scale (10/12mm) - even 15mm tends to be scaling up quite fast in cost).

Thus large props are not really cost-effective at a commercial place, and what you can get out of your home printer really depends on the size of the build-plate and stuff like whether the build plate is heated (otherwise even with a biigge build area, you will get contraction in the plastic).

We know you can get very respectible results out of a cheap £200 printer now (such as the Wanho mini); the big trick is decent software. We switched over from Makerbit's own sftware to Simplyfy3D earlier this year and the difference is night and day.

You also treat your 3D printed stuff like you would you kids and your dog - you don't leave locked in the car on a hot day. As the various plastics (PLA, laser-sintered nylon) have fairly low melting points by definition, leave 'em in the car and the will distort.



There is a place called HeroForge, I believe, which allows you to custom-build you own roleplayer figures (simply by adding components, I think) and then you can either buy the file and print it yourself or have it printed by them (via Shapeways). We know this particularly, since t'was my mate who bought one that prompted us to upgrade our software.



I could go on and on about 3D printing for hours (like I say, day-job), but I'll cut this relatively short, but it anyone has any questions, feel free.

[gashford1]

[QUOTE=Emmerlaus;23266907]I know nothing about 3D printers except some videos on the internet I saw here and there.

I recommend you to read this helpful article.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: The best advice is to let dead threads lie.