3D Printed Freedom Force Characters

[Ouflah]

Hello! I created an account a while ago and every now and then come here because I'm a huge Freedom Force fan.

I make this topic because I've always thought it'd be interesting to make small 3D printed plastic figurines of the Freedom Force characters and paint them. I was wondering if this has been done before, and if not I am interested in making this happen. Unfortunately I'm not very savvy with FF meshes, and printing a character would require a .obj file of the mesh in his/her pose. Do you think this is achievable?

Thanks!

[spydermann93]

It probably is possible, but as far as I know, it has not been done before. I've thought about it myself before, but never had the time nor the means to do it.

[Cyber Burn]

I've actually thought about doing this with my Avatar, but just haven't had the time or money to pursue it. I think the person to talk to about this would probably be Tomato.

[Tomato]

*IS SUMMONED TO THE THREAD*

I've actually done some minor work with FF models (I attempted to print chess pieces using Ren's DC models, but it didn't pan out because of the work involved) and while it wouldn't be hard per se, there are some things to keep in mind

-The models are SUPER low poly. FF masks this as much as possible, but pretty much all muscle definition comes from the texture. While they wouldn't look awful at a small size (say, 1-2 inch range), anything bigger than that and you either need to do some serious sanding/resculpting, or upres the model manually before printing. What I did when I did my test print was I took the model, and then used C6's skin to create a poor man's bump map, and used a tool to actually bevel the mesh based on that bump map. I'm SURE there's a simpler way of doing things, but I'm not enough of an expert to know it.

-Exporting the model in specific poses without direct access to Max will be a pain no matter how you slice it. Using the in-game ff models makes things easier, since most have existing max files and you can get the poses from there, but if you don't have 3ds Max (and in this case you could theoretically use any version) you either have to A. rely on someone else who does have Max to do it for you (always a tricky thing) or B. you could manually pose the model in nifskope and export it... but I don't know how well that would work without experimenting with it.

-Anytime you're dealing with a model that was not made with 3d printing in mind, it becomes that much harder to keep details straight. Pretty much any printing material you use will have minimum thickness requirements, and you have to be SUPER careful that smaller sections (thumbs, noses, weapons, etc) are thick enough to survive printing. You also have to be wary of any bending joints... FF's joint system is not great, so there's a LOT of warping around shoulders, elbows, pelvis, and knees during some animations, causing them to become paper thin in places during some animations.

[Cyber Burn]

Thanks for jumping in 'Mato, I thought I had remembered you talking about 3rd Printing before. I have to say, I really appreciate the versatility of your hobbies, they've been both interesting, and informative. Again, thank you for sharing your input here, it's definitely appreciated.

[Ouflah]

Wow, thank you so much for all the useful info, Tomato! I did consider the low-polygon count, but that's alright with me. I was thinking of either doing them about army man size anyway, but that all depends on the limitations of the printer.

I didn't think of the problem with printing thumbs, noses, weapons, etc. and that does worry me. I'll need to have a talk with a friend of mine about the specifics of that, and I'll get back to you guys. As for 3ds Max, I do not have it, but I think I'll worry about the .obj files after I've made sure they're actually printable.

[Ouflah]

Alright! I've talked to my friend and he said that if it were done it'd require some support structure and thus a lot of finishing work for the arms and legs. He wasn't really optimistic about it and given that he'd be the one dealing with the 3D printing process, I'm nixing this idea.

However, I experimented with polymer clay the other day and sculpted a decent figure (I've learned some about human proportions from drawing) in a fairly short amount of time, so I figured I could use a means comparable to that.

I plan to experiment with figurine sculpting in my spare time, so if I come up with a result I'm proud of for a Freedom Force character, I will post it on here.

[Ouflah]

Alright here's an update, if I make any more of these I think I'll start a topic in the Artwork section (since it's not 3d Printed).

Spoiler

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

[daglob]

That's cute.

[deanjo2000]

I love this kind of art, you've done very well and I'd love to see more 

[Podmark]

That's really cool!

[abenavides]

Nice job!
I recently got into heroclix (collecting favorite characters rather than actually playing) and was thinking it would be nice to have FF characters at that size.

[spydermann93]

Blast! I keep meaning to comment but seems I never do.

Awesome miniature you have there, Ouflah! Seems like you found a decent alternative

[SickAlice]

Great to see. I'm in a 3d printing class right now and using the AmeComi Duela I did as my first project. My teacher taught me how to print things in parts in order to make pose-able action figures. I'll share some photos when it's further along.

[Ouflah]

Thank you so much everyone! I made Man-Bot, but since they're not actually 3D printed I posted the pictures in the Artwork section.

SickAlice, that's really neat! I'd love to see how they turn out.

[Cybertronian]

That would be awesome. I couldn't do it with my avatar due to it's unusual feature.
Saturn (and his namesake mesh) are based on male_belt_effects with a energy ring made from a compressed shield sphere. This ring proudly revolves across his right shoulder and left hip.