Hey everyone Ive taken a online modeling course so I know the basics and I want to model things for 3d printing. However, this project has really got me stumped, I'm trying to make a Tobi's mask from Naruto Shippuden (just google Tobi mask) and I just dont know how to go about it. please help me with this project P.S I am using blender.

Hi! You posted in the Community forum. Were you looking for a particular software program? If so, I'll move this to that forum so someone can help!

Okay- I'll move this over to the blender forum. Thanks!

Hello Llama_Sama

First welcome to the Blender forum. I did some searching for a specific tutorial and could not find one exactly for a Tobi's mask but did find one that might give you starting point for modeling mask in general that might help till some of our other members might chime in with more help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUsiWE8LXo

Hi, Llama_Sama. I did a search for "Tobi Mask", as you suggested, but the results are showing two distinctly different masks under very similar names. Exactly which one were you most interested in creating; because one would require a very different modeling strategy from the other.

LuxXeon posted at 9:00AM Thu, 03 September 2015 - #4226116

Hi, Llama_Sama. I did a search for "Tobi Mask", as you suggested, but the results are showing two distinctly different masks under very similar names. Exactly which one were you most interested in creating; because one would require a very different modeling strategy from the other. Im trying to make the orange one that only has one hole in the right side. sorry forgot to mention :P

Lobo3433 posted at 9:02AM Thu, 03 September 2015 - #4226098

Hello Llama_Sama

First welcome to the Blender forum. I did some searching for a specific tutorial and could not find one exactly for a Tobi's mask but did find one that might give you starting point for modeling mask in general that might help till some of our other members might chime in with more help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUsiWE8LXo

Thanks a bunch!

Llama_Sama,

The only way that I can see to do this type of shape is by using LOTS of extruding and vertices adjustment. I would suggest that you load your reference image into Blender and then add a plane. Scale it to fit within one of the crescent sections and then extrude edges and move vertices to follow the crescent shape. Once the first crescent is done select the edges and extrude again to do the next section, etc. Once the basic model is blocked out select all the faces that fall within the grooves of the mask and extrude down. Create an extra edge loop for each of the crescent parts and drag up. Add a solidify modifier and subdivision surface modifier. Using proportional editing select some of the central vertices and drag up to give the mask a concave shape.

I quickly had a try at making this shape before replying and I should have taken some screenshots as I did to help with the explanation so if my explanation above is to confusing I'll try to put something together to make it easier to understand. I don't have the time to do a full on tutorial but hopefully I can help you out. Keep in mind though that if you are wanting to 3D print this then there can be no overlap in any of the faces, and there are numerous points with this shape that the potential for overlap is high.

Actually, there's a model I released recently which contains a shape very similar to this. This shape is an approximation of a Cyclide, with a twist along the surface. This can be done fairly simply using an addon for Blender that allows you to create a Cyclide, and twist the edgeloops on the surface. Then, all you'd need to do is edit the shape slightly, to conform to the contours of a mask. In the end, it would only be about 15 minutes, once you know the procedure and technique involved.

How quickly do you need this? I could do a tutorial for you, but I wouldn't be able to get it done until after this weekend.

Actually, I didn't see keppel's post about doing a tutorial first, so I'll let him help you here.

@LuxXeon - I would be interested in seeing your method as the way I did it was very much the "brute force" way of a face by face construction.

LuxXeon posted at 5:08PM Fri, 04 September 2015 - #4226462

Actually, there's a model I released recently which contains a shape very similar to this. This shape is an approximation of a Cyclide, with a twist along the surface. This can be done fairly simply using an addon for Blender that allows you to create a Cyclide, and twist the edgeloops on the surface. Then, all you'd need to do is edit the shape slightly, to conform to the contours of a mask. In the end, it would only be about 15 minutes, once you know the procedure and technique involved.

How quickly do you need this? I could do a tutorial for you, but I wouldn't be able to get it done until after this weekend.

Lux, are you talking about those earrings you made last time? As soon as I saw this mask, I immediately thought about those earrings of yours I downloaded. I noticed that if I cut the twisted part of the earring in half along the bias, and kind of just move the hole around, using the Grab brush in Blender's Sculpt mode, I have something that almost resembles that mask already! LOL.

Personally, I'd like to see BOTH keppel and Luxxeon do a tutorial on this! Sometimes when you see two different styles used to create something specific, it can inspire ideas of yet another way to do it, based on certain things from both of the previous methods!

Here is a tutorial on how I made the Tobi Mask. It doesn't contain any modeling revelations but it may be of some help. As with most tasks in Blender there is more than one way to do something so take what you can from it and hopefully others in this thread can give some tips on what steps can be improved on for the benefit of all. Tutorial is in PDF format.

Modeling the Tobi Mask

keppel posted at 11:02AM Mon, 07 September 2015 - #4226754

Here is a tutorial on how I made the Tobi Mask. It doesn't contain any modeling revelations but it may be of some help. As with most tasks in Blender there is more than one way to do something so take what you can from it and hopefully others in this thread can give some tips on what steps can be improved on for the benefit of all. Tutorial is in PDF format.

Modeling the Tobi Mask

THANK YOU SO MUCH! this has been really helpful and I hope it helps others too.

Great job, Keppel!

keppel posted at 5:55PM Fri, 11 September 2015 - #4226528

@LuxXeon - I would be interested in seeing your method as the way I did it was very much the "brute force" way of a face by face construction.

Your procedure was perfectly fine, and in fact, the strategy I was going to recommend would not be much more efficient. There's only a few minor alternative techniques I would suggest at certain parts of the tutorial; like using solidify to create a manifold object at the end, rather than bridging faces. The reason being, you'd have better control over the thickness of the object, and potentially save on printing material and cost. Otherwise, good tutorial!

@LuxXeon - I did try using the solidify modifier first but I found because of the whirl points terminating in points that the solidify modifier created a situation where the difference between a manifold object and an object with intersecting faces was extremely small and because Llama_Sama mentioned 3D printing the object I elected to go with manually creating the inner surface, otherwise the masks thickness would be to small.

In an earlier post you mentioned an addon for Blender that could create the cyclide shape. I would be interested in knowing what addon you were referring to?

Keppel, is there any way I can have a look at your blend file? There's various ways to fix crossed edges caused by the Solidify modifier. In fact, I've dealt with a similar situation in my last tutorial, and discovered an easy fix to correcting that problem in most situations. I'd be interested to see if it works on your model.

The math function addon can be used to create a Cyclide in Blender, by inputting the formula directly, and then saving it as a preset. However, any torus primitive can be transformed into a cyclide, with some proportional modeling, or the application of some modifiers. The issue with that approach, in retrospect, is that it may not result in an accurate representation of the edge flow necessary for the mask, and extensive manual editing would be required. The result, after all, would be no more efficient than your approach. However, I do have a notion that this could be an excellent candidate for Bsurfaces, and spline modeling. I don't have time to try it, but I do suspect it may be a quick and easy strategy.

@LuxXeon - Here is a link to the blend file at the page six stage of the tutorial. It is at this stage that adding the solidify modifier would make the most sense as the model is planar. Whether you extrude the "grooves" down or the "whirls" up this extrusion works best if it is confined to the top faces only. In the end though I found that the same type of editing and bridging would still need to be done beyond this sixth stage.

Tobi Mask Blend

keppel posted at 6:37PM Sat, 12 September 2015 - #4227876

@LuxXeon - Here is a link to the blend file at the page six stage of the tutorial. It is at this stage that adding the solidify modifier would make the most sense as the model is planar. Whether you extrude the "grooves" down or the "whirls" up this extrusion works best if it is confined to the top faces only. In the end though I found that the same type of editing and bridging would still need to be done beyond this sixth stage.

Tobi Mask Blend

Thanks for the file, keppel. Now that I see the topology, I understand what you're saying. However, with some minor adjustments to the edge flow, and vertex position, I was able to create thickness using the Solidify modifier without crossed edges. Then, I simply beveled the edges at the top of the mask, the applied a 25 degree bend to the object in both the X and Y directions, separately. The resulting Blend file is attached to my post. This technique did not come without issues, however. The application of subdivision at the end is showing some artifacts due to topology poles in certain locations on the mesh. Also, I thought that the Solidify modifier could be used to create a thinner wall structure to the object, which would save printing cost, but the thickness seems about the same as your result.

Tobi Mask Blend File 2

It's a fun object to model. I would be interested to explore a different modeling technique for this object, like using Bsurfaces to generate the topology, but I just don't have time right now to try it.