Full transcript
0:00Hey guys, my name is Jason Hamilton. I'm
0:01the Nerdy Noveist. And on this channel,
0:03we talk about all of the different ways
0:05that technology can improve the way we
0:07write. And in this video, I've got kind
0:08of a fun one. We're talking about how I
0:10made this little figurine here of one of
0:13my characters from my Roots of Creation
0:14series. We're going to build something
0:15just like this for a different
0:17character. And I'm going to show you the
0:18entire process that I went through to
0:19create this. By the way, I am not an
0:21artist. This was my best attempt at
0:23painting this thing. Uh which I think I
0:26did okay for my first attempt. But, uh,
0:28regardless, if you are a minifigure
0:31affectionado, uh, you're going to be
0:32able to really enjoy this video. So, as
0:35far as what you'll need for this video,
0:37this one does require a 3D printer. Most
0:40people, if you don't have a 3D printer,
0:42you can access one through there's
0:44usually some like local tech shops or
0:45something like that where you can get
0:47somebody to print something for you. Um,
0:49and that's relatively inexpensive to do.
0:51But, I did just get a recent uh 3D
0:53printer myself just to play around with,
0:55mostly as a hobby for myself. And as
0:58part of that, I created this thing. And
0:59I really enjoyed the whole process. So,
1:01I'm going to show you how I did it. All
1:02right. So, the character that we're
1:04going to do together is this character
1:05of mine. Uh, and her name is Alice.
1:08She's one of the most important
1:10characters in my entire universe. She's
1:12sort of a timetraveling superhero. Uh,
1:15who, if you've ever seen the movie The
1:16Adjustment Bureau, where you have people
1:18actually going through and tweaking the
1:20timeline, that's kind of what she does.
1:22This is a concept art that I
1:23commissioned a while ago. So, this is
1:24not an AI art thing or anything like
1:27that. Uh, but it is a little bit rough.
1:29And I did take what it gave me and put
1:31it through Gemini, uh, Gemini's Nano
1:34Banana model. And, uh, got this one.
1:37This is probably the most perfect look
1:39at this character that I've ever seen.
1:41It's exactly how I picture her, and it's
1:44really like really well done, Gemini. I
1:46was so happy when I got this. And here's
1:48a here's a look at her with some glowing
1:50eyes. Here's another look at her that I
1:53got out of Gemini. Uh, and then here's a
1:56close-up look at her face. Again,
1:57absolutely perfect imagining of this
2:00particular character. So, I would like
2:02to actually make a figure out of this.
2:04I'll probably make one that's about the
2:06same height as this one, but I think
2:08because this character is so pivotal to
2:10my world, I might make a bigger one,
2:11like maybe 12 in or something like that.
2:13Um, so we're going to start by taking
2:15all of these assets that I have of her,
2:17and we're going to put them into
2:19NanoBanana to create a version of the
2:22character that looks like a figure like
2:24this. All right, so let's start there.
2:26So, I'm going to be using Nanobanana
2:28inside of Higsfield.ai,
2:30which because of the plan I'm on, I
2:31actually get unlimited Nanobanana usage,
2:34which is nice. Uh you can also use just
2:36Nana Banana inside of Gemini if you have
2:39a subscription to that or through open
2:41router which costs a couple of cents per
2:43generation. But I'm just going to use
2:44this. You you definitely don't have to
2:46use Higsfield to do this. And I'm going
2:49to start by essentially importing all of
2:51those images that I have so far. uh the
2:55concept art for this character and say I
2:57want to
2:59imagine this character as a tabletop
3:05gaming mini figure. Could you create a
3:10version of this character
3:13complete with a base plate
3:18that looks like a highly detailed 3D
3:22model? And this is important here. I
3:25always add the background should be
3:29completely white and the camera should
3:32be facing the figure head on. And if
3:36there's any other specific details about
3:38the pose you want the character to be
3:40in, I would add that as well. also would
3:42say something like have her be posed
3:46with
3:47both arms facing down and her cape
3:53hanging naturally behind her. Something
3:57like that. And from here, we can just go
4:00ahead and I'll select unlimited here so
4:03I can so I'm not using up any of my
4:05credits. and we'll maybe give it a batch
4:08of four so I can see a couple of
4:10different options.
4:14We'll go ahead and see what that does.
4:16Oh, I already made a mistake. Uh, first
4:19of all, I want this to be square. So,
4:22let's try that again.
4:25Okay, so I have a couple of options
4:26here. This one is probably my favorite
4:28of this batch. Um, even though it's not
4:30in color, I don't need it to be in color
4:32because when I 3D print it, it's not
4:33going to be colored. I'm going to have
4:35to add all of that detail myself. Um,
4:37but I think actually because I called it
4:39a tabletop mini figure, it's giving me
4:42these sort of thick versions of the
4:45character. And other than this one, I
4:48would like to try maybe something that
4:50is a little more detailed and can give
4:52me that would just look a little bit
4:53better in a larger size. So, I'm going
4:56to try this again.
5:05Okay, now it's actually looking a little
5:07too detailed. And I like this one the
5:09most, except it gave me what is actually
5:12obviously the Avengers logo here. Uh,
5:14which is not the same logo that she has
5:16on her suit. And I like this one. Okay.
5:19But again, I'm not sure this would
5:22really work as a 3D model. So, actually,
5:24I'm just going to go back to this one. I
5:26think this one is probably the best.
5:28It's simple enough that I'm pretty sure
5:30it'll print well. And yeah, I think I
5:33think this is good. So, I'm gonna go
5:34ahead and um we're gonna download this
5:38one.
5:41I'm going to call it analyst front
5:43because now one of the great things
5:45about Nano Banana is that it can really
5:47hold the context of an image and modify
5:50it in just the right ways. Because what
5:52we want to do now is get a side version
5:55from the left and the right side and
5:56then from the back. And so what we're
5:58going to do now is I'm going to in here
6:01in Higsfield I can just say reference
6:04um bring in that reference there u just
6:07that image. So, I can delete all of
6:09these other images and be like, "Please
6:12give me a left side angle of this 3D
6:18model.
6:22I'll go ahead and generate that. And
6:25while that's going, I will say, please
6:27give me a right side angle of this
6:29model." And now we'll say
6:33backfacing
6:35angle of this 3D model. and we'll see
6:38what those look like. All right. And
6:41here we go. We have now the back side of
6:44it. Uh which look these both look pretty
6:46much identical. So I'm just going to
6:49choose one of those and download it. Now
6:51we on the the left side. So first of
6:54all, it doesn't always get the right
6:56side right. U but this one does look
6:59about right for that side. Uh, and then
7:03these two look more or less they're
7:06almost the same. There's some slight
7:08differences. Uh, I'm going to select
7:10this one. I think it looks a little
7:11better. U, but on the whole, these look
7:14pretty much identical. Like they're
7:16partly they're part of the same
7:18identical model. So, we can definitely
7:21use those. All right. And so, that's
7:23step number one is we get all of these
7:25different angles. Step number two is
7:26actually create a 3D model from this.
7:29And the reason I didn't go directly to
7:31an AI 3D model generator is because
7:33first of all, they're not that great
7:35currently. They can't really take
7:36reference images like the ones I had to
7:38make sure that the model looks like my
7:40character. And if it gets it wrong and I
7:42try to regenerate or or I just want to
7:45tweak one thing, it doesn't actually
7:47work. It what it does is it just
7:49regenerates the model completely and you
7:51end up with something completely
7:52different. So, for that reason, uh
7:55that's why we started here in Nano
7:56Banana to give us all of the different
7:57angles of this character. So, now the
8:00next step is I'm going to go to this
8:01tool called Heidum 3D.AI.
8:04I don't necessar I haven't done the
8:06research to know if this is the best one
8:07out there. It's the one that I saw
8:09demonstrated from another YouTuber that
8:12did a process like this. And they do
8:14give you I think like one free 3D model
8:16a month. Uh so, you can try this out for
8:19yourself without having to pay. I did
8:20pay a little extra so I could get a
8:22couple extra models. U but I really only
8:24probably will keep it for a month or two
8:26to play around with some of these model
8:28ideas. So once you're in item 3D, you
8:32can go to the where it says multi- view
8:33to 3D and upload your front view, your
8:36back view, your left view, and your
8:37right view. So let's go ahead and do
8:39that. Now I just drag and drop
8:41everything over. And then down here
8:44where it says generate type, you want to
8:47select geometry. Um because you don't
8:49need the texture here. And in in this
8:51case, the texture is actually just a
8:52solid gray. We don't need that. Uh we
8:55just want the geometry. So we're going
8:57to go ahead and generate that. And then
9:00this step will take a little while while
9:02it goes through and actually creates the
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9:36All right, back to the video. Okay, so
9:39after having gone back and forth with
9:41this a little bit, I found that these 3D
9:43model generators are not infallible. In
9:45fact, for some reason, even though for
9:47this model that I made here, uh the
9:50first attempt at that pretty much nailed
9:52everything. Like I thought they got the
9:53detail on this perfectly and I was able
9:56to print it out no problem. Uh, but for
9:58some reason for this particular model
9:59that we're trying to do here, it just
10:01isn't getting it. Uh, specifically for
10:05text and things like that. First of all,
10:07it it I don't know what it's doing with
10:08her face here. Like there there is
10:10something very very wrong about that.
10:12Uh, but second of all, the symbol here
10:14on her chest is not at all the symbol I
10:17wanted it to be. And after having tried
10:19this many, many, many, many times, I've
10:21found that it's just not getting this
10:23right. It never even gets pretty close
10:26at all. So, the solution here would be
10:28to uh essentially send it to a 3D
10:30modeler to tweak it up or if you happen
10:33to know a few 3D model skills yourself,
10:36I'm sure it would not be that difficult
10:38to get the right symbol there. Um
10:40although I you might have to spend some
10:42time getting your face right. I did try
10:44out another 3D model generator just to
10:47see if it if I could get that to work.
10:49And that one was called Meshy. And I do
10:51think it actually got like her
10:52proportions and the face a lot better.
10:54but it also struggled with that symbol
10:56uh the superhero symbol on her chest.
10:58This is the one that I ended up going
10:59with because it's the closest to what I
11:01was looking for and it's just a circle
11:04uh there on her chest. And so I I figure
11:06I could just paint in the correct symbol
11:08for that. So I am going to print this
11:10out and see how it goes. Uh but I might
11:12actually reach out to a modeler because
11:14there are some other issues here that
11:16might cause issues in the print. like
11:18there's a fairly large gap between the
11:20upper back and the cape itself. So,
11:24we'll just see how this this goes. Um,
11:26but I'm going to go ahead and get this
11:29one set up to 3D print. And certainly
11:32for characters, characters are
11:33definitely more complicated. So, you're
11:35probably more likely to run into issues
11:36like that. You just got to keep working
11:38with it until you get something that you
11:39like. Um, for other things like actual
11:42objects and things like that, I'm sure
11:44it's actually much much easier. I
11:45noticed the base plate. It absolutely
11:47nailed and pretty much all of them got
11:49the base plate right here because it was
11:51a little bit more geometrical. So,
11:52instead, we're going to go here to this
11:55model uh right here. This is Bamboo
11:57Studio, which I use to print out my
12:00models. As you can see here, I've
12:03already uploaded the character in here.
12:05And for you nerds out there for 3D
12:07printing, I'm printing this in basic PLA
12:10um white. And uh basically turning up
12:14the quality on the printer as high as
12:16it'll go. And that will mean that it
12:18prints longer, but the there will be
12:20fewer layer lines. Um when I go to see
12:24what it's going to look like with
12:25supports, let's see. Let's enable those.
12:29Okay, now that I've added supports, it's
12:31clear there's lots of little issues. uh
12:34that it's preparing for. Lots of
12:36overhangs and things. Uh so that might
12:38complicate the print a little bit, but
12:40overall I think it's doable. We'll just
12:42have to see. There's no supports that I
12:46can see on the inside of the cape, which
12:48is good. Um so I think this is going to
12:50be doable. I am now going to get this
12:52started on my 3D printer, and it'll take
12:54about 8 hours to print this little
12:56thing. Uh because I'm printing it at a
12:58high quality, uh it'll take longer. So
13:01uh stay tuned. I will probably put some
13:04images on the channel. Go ahead and
13:06subscribe if you want to see those. But
13:08this is essentially the process of
13:09actually taking something that is, you
13:11know, abstract in your books and
13:14actually producing a tangible object
13:16that you can actually hold in your hand.
13:19I think this has um great implications
13:22for the future. Obviously, a little a
13:24little work needs to happen with these
13:263D model generators to make them a
13:27little bit more have a little bit more
13:30attention to detail. But, you know, as
13:32is said a lot in this industry, this is
13:34the worst it's ever going to be. It's
13:36only going to get better from here. So,
13:37let's um go ahead and subscribe so you
13:39can see what this looks like later.