Inspiration:
This year, I am dressing up as Batman due to the hype of the movie. I purchased a costume to wear to the movies when it came out, and now it is a perfect Halloween costume to wear when the time comes. However, the only problem about the costume is that it has a cheap tie-in belt, which is not very functional. My plan is to design a belt buckle to put on a belt, and use that to replace the cheap one. Since my Batman costume was based on the 80s, then my references will mainly be based on the 80s style. I also combined the batman symbol with the 50s style as well, because I liked how the wings outstretched but curved a little.
Reference Images:
Modeling:
Honestly this model was trickier to make because of the naked edge problem.
I originally made the design hollow, but the analyzed edges did not like the holes,
so I had to make my model solid instead. Also I had to modify the bat buckle design For this model,
because my original design for the buckle’s security would not work.
Instead of belt ridges on the sides of my belt buckle, I made belt loops and put them in the back.
For this model, I made the base with a flattened out cylinder, and a Taurus for the rim.
As for the buckle loops and bat symbol, I made using curves and lines and extruded them out.
To make sure the smaller curves connect to the bat symbol nicely, I used the fillet command and
adjusted the line points to my liking. I also used the mirror tool to make my bat symbol and my
belt loops symmetrical. To make my belt loops the same distance on my model, I used the array
command to duplicate and put in the estimated distance. Finally, I used the extract isocurves
command to redo all my curves and extrude them. The reason why is because I accidentally deleted
all of my curves once extruded.
3D Print/Ghosted Model:
No Naked Edges:
Top:
Front:
Side/Pedestrian:
Materials:
In Keyshot, I played with the different lighting and materials to make the model look dark and dramatic. I mean come on, it's BATMAN; Batman only works in black or dark grey. The lighter tones of grey for the background just did not work because the colors of the model blended in, so I had to make it dark as possible for the colors to pop. I used three lights for this model: Interior lighting for a slight warm glow, a point light in the middle to see the bat symbol more, and point light on the side to add more shape. For the materials on the Bat buckle, I used a metallic purple for the rim, a yellow plastic for the symbol surface, and a golden metallic color for the belt loops. The yellow plastic on the surface reflected just enough to where it's not distracting, while giving that dark tone I wanted. As for the belt loops I did gold because it gives a sharp contrast and beautiful shine for my shots. Originally I was going to use black for the rim and bat, but the color did not reflect off as nicely as it should. Instead, it absorbed the light and made strange reflections, making the model look flat and jagged. The purple on the other hand, reflected the rays of light evenly and gave off different variations of color, giving the model great volume. Overall, I am very satisfied of how this came out; I really hope I can bring that out in my printed model.
If you have noticed, I changed my camera angles for Keyshot because I didn’t think about how it would logically look on a belt. So now the top view shows the rim and belt loops, and the front view shows the bat buckle; Similarly to my original sketches.
3D printing was overall the hardest part of this project, because there were major errors on the way. My original model was sized to 0.01 centimeters instead of 4 inches, so I had to resize it in order for my model to print properly. The first model printed was very crooked, with the proportions side wrong and sticking out all over. It turns out the problem was that the position I put the model in before converting it to stl, which is apparently a big deal. So I had to put the model with the loops positioned down, with a platform and support structure. The belt loops were also modified a little shorter so the buckle will not move up and down as much. The sanding part was also tricky because you had to rub it fast and hard without it slipping out of your grasp. Since there were a lot of support structure for the bat, and X-Acto knife had to be used; I asked my boyfriend to do this part, because he had practiced expertise. The painting part was the easiest for me because I have done a lot of crafting and artwork over the years. This was the final result:
Beginning print
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