There are a few ways to get the in-game model. I generally search for XNALara models on DevianArt. I have also extracted the in game models for PC games that use the Unreal game engine by using the Unreal Engine Viewer.

The image to the left is Garron Paduk from Gears of War: Judgment in the XNALara XPS.

You can use XNALara to look at the character from all angles, and even post them using the controls in the program window.

We'll just use it to export a .obj file of the model.

I use Autodesk 3D Studio Max since I already own the software from back when I did 3D modeling for a living. There are other shareware 3D packages available that will do all we need to do, which is delete everything until we have just the element we want to work on. For instance, just the boot, or just the chest armor.

Once you've got the piece of armor isolated, you can export it as a .obj file.

You'll apply the texture map by going to the top menu dropdown: Settings > Texture Settings...

Choose the Specify Texture Image... button, navigate to the .jpg of the texture map & click Open.

You can now unwrap the model by choosing Others > Unfold from the top menu. The unwrapped model will be a MESS!

You can use the Divide/Connect Face tool (it looks like a zipper) to start sorting out your model into usable pieces.

After a bit of work, you'll have the boot separated into all the useable pieces.

As you can see, there are some issues:

• The leather pad behind the kneepad that I had to make up later.
• The ankle strap is divided into three pieces.
• The heel and kneepad also look like they have some slices cut out of them.

This is where I take the models into Adobe Photoshop to start to break the pieces into what will be the final shapes. In this image, the heel will still need some work to break the two straps apart & get them to the right angle.

Of course, if you don't have Adobe Photoshop, you can always do this part by hand. Just print out the page above & trace over the pieces.

Final Template Pieces

I use Adobe Illustrator to trace all the pieces, scale it to fit me, and print the templates onto 8.5x11 paper.

One of the biggest problems with going from the 3D printout to the 2D pattern pieces is accounting for the areas that are curved in the original model.

You can see one such spot on the bottom inlay for Bermie Mataki's shoulder pauldron. The wedges left from flattening the model make the bottom edge of the inlay too wide. To account for this, Robin narrowed the bottom edge of the pattern slightly when she traced the pattern onto card stock.

Then when was able to add the rounding to the picece by stretching the EVA as she heated/formed the pieces.