granger soft toy

[zaishaza]

i was chatting on irc and the idea of a granger "plushy" was mentioned. i figured i could load the md3 model used in the game into blender and break it down with pattern developement (normally used with sheet metal). i've done this to the abdomen as a little demo. here's what i did....

• imported the md3 model into blender
• removed the shape keys
• did some minor tweaks to the mesh
• broke the abdomen down into strips of triangles that could be flattened
• welded them back together along the top of the abdomen
• flattened the abdomen with a unfolder script

in the image below you can see the abdomen before and after the flattening process. i've colour coded the strips of triangles to make it clear what is happening. the flattened mesh is now ready to be be used as a template for marking out the fabric.

[mooseberry]

Looks very cool! There was some discussion a while back about making trem plushies, but this looks like it's getting somewhere. Do you have any plans for continuing on the process?

[Taiyo.uk]

I'd buy a plushie granger. I'd buy the whole set actually...

[zaishaza]

mooseberry- i might do. it's an interesting exercise.

[khalsa]

I'll look for the version of the pattern dev I got done on the granger when I get some time.

When I was looking into it ages ago, unfortunetly the economics of the whole deal didn't really add up enough to meet the goals I was looking for (adding considerable funds to the trem coffers mainly).

Good luck to ya anyways!


Khalsa

[Syntac]

I would definitely buy a plush granger.

[Steely Ann]

Huh.  Thought this thread seemed familiar.

Pic relevant.

[mooseberry]

Huh. Thought this thread seemed familiar.

There was some discussion a while back about making trem plushies, but this looks like it's getting somewhere.

>.>

[zaishaza]

the mesh needed massive simplification if it was going to be workable as a soft toy, so i've spent some time reducing the polys. the fact it's a lot lower poly than the original isn't a major issue because once the toy is stuffed it'll become more rounded, gaining back some smoothness. here's what it's looking like now...

...and here's the blend file if you want to take a closer look.
granger-0006.blend

[fingered banana]

nice. are you a good tailor?

[Lava Croft]

Use some pepakura program to get a ready-to-fold-and-glue print, so we can all create our very own paper Granger!

[zaishaza]

fingered banana - nope. i've done this stuff with metal, but not cloth.

Lava Croft - yeah, i was thinking about making a paper version. shouldn't be too hard.

[mooseberry]

Yeah, pepakura granger would be pretty sweet.

[fingered banana]

No need for pepakura. If you define the edge seams right unwrap will be conformal (blender)

[zaishaza]

that pepakura thing looks pretty cool.

i've been trying to get my head around how to get the legs to attach to the body (for the cloth based toy). the front ones attach to matching holes in the body, which is ok because they are fairly big legs, but having matching holes for the two pairs of smaller legs is looking fiddly. i'm considering making the smaller legs as self contained objects which are stuffed and sewn up separately, then sewn onto the body afterwards. here's a shot of the legs as seperate models and the main body without corresponding holes.

the eyes shouldn't be too much of a problem, standard soft toy ones would do for that. the horns/bones on the side of the face are a bit more complicated, they could either be cloth based, wood or plastic. any suggestions?
granger-0007.blend

[mooseberry]

Very nice work! I would try to keep it all cloth if I were you. Front claw things should be cloth if at all possible.

[fingered banana]

It looks nice. You can also detach front legs and head

[Superpie]

If anyone can provide a textured .obj or .3ds file, I have pepakura installed and can make a paper cutout...

[fingered banana]

Blender has obj exporter

[Nux]

It looks nice. You can also detach front legs and head

Not a good idea. Sewing the seperate parts would create a hinge-like seam which works well for the smaller legs (which are meant to move up and down), but would make the head and front legs too flimsy, like the granger was ill or dead.

[zaishaza]

i've modified the legs so that they touch at the bottom of the body. this will be far easier to attach than trying to get the legs attached to corresponding holes. the little legs will flop up and down a bit, but that shouldn't be major problem.

[Taiyo.uk]

Since fabric patterns for soft toys have smooth curves, could using a large number of polys (subsurf?) be better? I'm not sure how suitable such a low resolution mesh with all those sharp edges would be for turning into a cutting pattern for making a real object.

[zaishaza]

good point taiyo, i'm not really sure about this stuff because i'm not used to working with fabric. perhaps i should make a subsurf model instead, very tempting.

[mooseberry]

Subsurf (I'm used to calling it subdivide.) can be useful for the overall shape, but my thought is that when you cut it down into layers for tailoring that it will make it much more complected than necessary to get a good shape. (I'm not exactly sure how to express this, but if you can understand cutting down a rounded object to make a flat layer is difficult, somewhat like trying to get the shape of the earth onto a flat surface, it doesn't fit perfectly.)

[Bissig]

You are talking about "projection":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

[Nux]

A map projection is any method used in cartography to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of the earth or other body on a plane.

It's actually closer to a 'Net', though cloth can be stretched, inflated etc.

[+ OPTIMUS +]

in the case that our universe is vielded on the back of an universe-wide granger, i like that, but i still prefer the turtle dude.

[Nux]

That turtle is fine, but the turtle under that turtle is *much* better.

But if you do manage to make a map out of the granger I'll be impressed all the same.

I recommend you try making the soft toy first. A much simpler task if you ask me.

Hell, if we're going to take the simple route, why don't we just staple old soft toys together until it resembles a granger?



O.o

ok.. bad idea.

[Taiyo.uk]

TMNG? 

[fingered banana]

How to mod your plushy turtle into a granger.