Hi all,

My parents will have their 25th wedding anniversary later this year and I want to make them a present.

I plan on making a 3D heart out of sheet metal and decorate it with roses (also out of sheet metal), and have it nicely coated (silvery hopefully). However, I am unable to figure out the shape of sheet metal that I need to get the heart in the right shape in 3D. I am not too familiar with 3D modeling, but what I think I need is an UV-unwrap of a 3D heart shape. If I'm not mistaken the UV-unwrap lays out the polygons on a 2D surface, right? Once I know how the 3D shape is laid out in a 2D surface I can better figure out how to work the metal to get it into shape.

If anyone can provide me with a picture of a UV-unwrap of a 3D heart, and a shaded front/side/top view of it, I'd be forever grateful.

To give you an idea of what kind of shape I'm looking for: http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/iconic-heart-3ds-free/389728

I hope you can help me with this.

If you're making it out of sheet metal you'd be seriously further ahead to make a heart box. Then it could be used to keep something in, as well as being much easier to make from a flat piece of metal.
My link

A UV-unwrap isn't quite what you need, because the sizes of a triangle in UV-space will usually be distorted compared to their original size -- if you cut out the 2D UV triangles and tried to assemble them back into a 3D shape, it wouldn't quite fit together properly (in most cases).

However, there does seem to be some cool software designed specifically for this (well, designed for paper, but metal is just like really tough paper ) -- try searching for "papercraft from 3D models" and you should find some tools like:
http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/
http://www.papercraf.../upc/index.aspx
http://waybe.weebly.com/

IIRC, there was also a GDNet member making their own papercraft tool.

Thank you both for your feedback. I downloaded papercraft (nice tool, may use it more often), and found out that it could not make much sense of it. At least, it came up with something very unexpected. Using papercraft I took a closer look at the shape (having a 3D representation helps, I couldn't for the life imagine it in my head) and I understand your point sunandshadow. You can't make it without either seriously contracting/stretching the material, or having creases in the final result. I'm sure there are ways to do it (blacksmithing style) but I don't have any experience with that, let alone the tools.

So I'll have to think of something else. I saw some hearts made of wire. Perhaps I can come up with something nice incorporating that.

Thanks again

Yeah it wouldn't be too hard to do with a wire mesh - you could use a cone for the base and two hemispheres for the top. Also if you have a craft store like Micheal's nearby they would have have something velevant - floral foam or other kind of foam or a hollow hard-paper blank intended for gluing silk flowers or seashells onto. They almost always have something heart-shaped. (Still think the sheet metal heart box is cooler though, lol.) Or, if you can make the sheet metal flowers, you could put them in a vase and put a 2d metal heart on or around the base with glue or a ribbon.

I was more thinking about a wire frame like this. But instead of bending and twisting, weld or solder it (I do have the tools and experience to do that). And because I intend to make a slightly bigger one than in that picture, make the wireframe more fine (more wires). Kind of like the picture/wireframe you posted.

I hadn't yet considered the wire mesh/net though. I'll think about it. It seems like a material that is easy enough to work with.

Thanks a lot by the way for the pictures of the heart. The wireframe is nice and I think it may serve as a good basis for the design.