Weekend Cloud work

Weekend again! I remodelled the cloak to be a seperate part that you can glue onto/over the body after building it. I think it will be much easier that way.

Sometimes I just leave the backside of parts white even if they show, but on this model I think I'll just use the same method on the cloak as I did on the optional Ganon robe: making the (inverted) inside out of regular paper instead of cardstock and then glue the in- and outside together.

That way there's no need to worry about aligning the front- and backside for printing... ;o)

I also did some work on the hip guard and belts, and as you can see I started on the head, but I still have to remodel the hair so it won't be unnecessarily difficult to build. but I've got ideas for that. ;o)

So, the only real question that remains, is: fingers, or just a thumb? ;o)

(compare the hands of my American McGee's Alice with those of my Kim Possible or Final Fantasy models if you have no idea what I'm talking about ;o)

Stay tuned!

Cloud 9

During weeknights, I can't spend nearly as much time as I want (need? ;o) to on Cloud while I'm still in the 3D modeling stage (but I do like playing around a bit with other stuff, like brainstorming about a logo for Nintendo Papercrafts ;o)

I did do *some* work again, though, so here's Cloud update #9: ;o)

I rebuilt Cloud's upper chest and back area. It didn't exist yet, because in the game, it is hidden by his cloak anyway.

For the same reason, the textures of Cloud's torso stopped midway his chest and back as well, but I think I did a pretty good job editing en retexturing them to include the upper parts as well, and so that they don't really stand out from the original ones. ;o)

I also tried out my first idea for the cloak/collar, but I'm not sure if this is the way to go. I think it would be better to make the cloak all in one part, and then glue the cloak in its entirety over Cloud's body/torso.

So that's what I'll be trying out next time: changing the parts I already changed again. One step forwards, one step back. ;o)

Stay tuned!

A few small updates

A few small updates that might otherwise go unnoticed:

On my website, I made the Master model list (just an overview of all the paper models I made, like Nintendo's master game list) clickable, so that you can go directly to the download for the model of your liking.

On my weblog, I added a few new/old links to my papercraft links. Whenever I have the time, I sort through my collection of papercraft favourites (I have a lot of old links that moved or just don't exist anymore...) add a few new ones there, so keep checking back!

I just *had* to fix the leg straps... ;o)

What can I say? ;o) Sometimes I can really be annoyed by a mere detail, but I just wasn't happy with the small straps around Cloud's lower legs.

Earlier, I changed the textures so that I wouldn't have to make the straps as seperate parts anymore (so that the legs would be easier to unfold/build later on) but the straps ended up kinda horizontal at the front.

Texture editing (and making it look okay) is very tedious and requires a lot of changing, checking, changing, checking... and a lot of time because of that.

But I decided even though it's only a small part of the whole paper model, making the straps X-shaped would look so much better, that it would be worth the extra time spent.

And even though I'm a little biased of course, I must say that I like it better already. ;o)

Cloud's missing bodyparts

I started work on the torso, but as you can see, it needs a lot of work.

I already made Cloud some shoulders, and I'm weighing the pros and cons of making the upper chest and back areas as well instead of "hiding" them underneath the red cape like the game did (basically just *not* making them; why would they if you can't see them anyway? ;o)

The head's just there to show the hole, I didn't do any work on it yet. ;o)

The more I look at the legs, I want to fix the straps textures a bit more. They'd look better in more of an X-shape, than kinda horizontal on the front like they are now. So I'll have to do the texture editing over again. ;o)

Stay tuned!

More legs

So it's the same old, same old. Life getting in the way of what you wanted to do... ;o)

At least I finally managed to find some time to remodel the other leg as well. With the texture changed (to include the straps so that I won't have to make them seperate parts) and the shoes and ankle wrinkles changed a bit again, the legs are now at a stage where I'm fairly okay with them (for now ;o)

Testing will reveal if it all works out the way I anticipated, hopefully I'll have some more time to work on Cloud more frequently (one can hope, right...? ;o)

Stay tuned!

Show some leg

Some people were concerned about the amount of simplifying I did on the leg on the last update (it's nice to know you guys really care ;o)

But it was just a first start, and not the final finishing touches: it will probably change a few more times until I'm happy with it. In fact it already did. ;o)

As you can see, I also like the wrinkles and folds. ;o) But I want to work out a simple way to recreate them, because the game model's way would require a lot of awkward folding, which I'd rather like to avoid.

The little straps are part of the "problem": they're a seperate texture now, but I will edit the texture file so that they can be part of the legs themselves, and I don't have to make them seperate parts.

As for the shapes, I'm pretty happy for now. Until a test build tells me it doesn't work the way I imagined... ;o)

Stay tuned!

Cloud back on track

The most time consuming part of making a papercraft model, is trying out how something will look, and then deciding you're not completely happy with it...

I'll probably be at that point during the whole process, I'm always trying to find a better balance between the "looks" of a papercraft model, and how easy it is to assemble.

This usually means getting rid of *a lot* of the details of the game model, and re-making it a lot simpler.

A good texture (and Kingdom Hearts has those ;o) can compensate for a lot of this, but finding just the right balance is probably the most difficult (and definately the most time consuming) part, I think.