How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

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Stou
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How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

I did a piston cartoon for a helmet I painted. Now I'm looking to do this cartoon in 3D to print it. Is it possible with FreeCad? I look around and didn't saw anything about doing characters in FreeCAD. If it's possible, what will be the technique to do it? Any video about that subject?

I saw many characters like Dart Vader on Thigiverse, but only things to print, no FCStd file to see how it is done. I tried some things like revolve but it doesn't work.

Any hint will be appreciated!

The cartoon I want to do in 3D:
Image

From this painting I done:
Image
chrisb
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by chrisb »

This looks fairly well possible with FreeCAD:
- You find several forum topics on the conrod
- The head looks like a sweep of a circle and a tilted ellipse, perhaps two ellipses.
- Nose is a pocket created from an orthogonally placed sketch.
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Stou
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

Yes a regular piston is probably not to complicated to do because it has symetric shapes. But for this design I need a kind of deformed piston. I'm looking more for a technique to design something very irregular, something like Darth Vader or Ironman head.

But I'll look at what you indicated and see if I can do something from there.
chrisb
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by chrisb »

If it's irregular, then Surface workbench or Nurbs might help - haven't heard much recently about Silk. For more you may have a look at Blender.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
Stou
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

Thanks, I'll look at those WB and Blender!
Stou
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

I had a look at Blender. It is very interesting but before learning this 3D design tool, in which I will have to invest a lot of time, I'll go further in FreeCAD.

I also looked at Nurbs and Silk and I'm learning those tools. But for now I had a try with basic FreeCAD tools and got something not too bad for a start. But I will continue to look at Nurbs and Silk to give more shapes to my design.

Image
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fosselius
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by fosselius »

Great work, i just wanted to say that Blender is probably the right tool for this kind of work.
Stou
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

fosselius wrote: Sat Feb 02, 2019 1:46 pm Great work, i just wanted to say that Blender is probably the right tool for this kind of work.
Thanks! I think you're right about Blender. But from what I saw, if I'm not mistaking, the learning curve is bigger than FreeCAD. I will look to learn Blender but in the longer term.
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PrzemoF
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by PrzemoF »

Your model looks really good!
Combine the power of both tools, like I did here [1]

The flat parts, dimensions that have to match some other part - FreeCAD is easier to use. The rest, some finishing hand touches, sculpting and other "artistic" stuff - do it it blender.

[1] http://blog.firszt.eu/index.php?post/20 ... car-holder
Stou
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Re: How to do a character (cartoon) in 3D

Post by Stou »

That's interesting!

So I can use what I already done in FreeCAD and give it more shapes and finish in Blender. I didn't tought about that!

Thanks for the idea PrzemoF!
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