Agents!
The SHD Spotlight series continues, highlighting the most passionate fans of The Division franchise and giving them a chance to speak on their creative achievements!
Introduction
Daniel Vasquez who goes by "DogsPaw" is the creator of the recently featured 3D printed Eagle Bearer from The Division 2. It wowed us and the community so much we had to get more details on its design and the man behind the creation!
Daniel is currently 25 and living in the port of Acapulco, though he originates from Mexico City. He's put more than 1000 hours into the game to date under the Ubi tag "Mantequila".
"I've been following The Division franchise since the first title; I was quite hooked with its mechanics and story and I've been playing The Division 2 since the closed beta."
Q: What inspired you to create a 3D-printed replica of the Eagle Bearer?
A: For a long time, the Eagle Bearer has been one of my favorite weapons and its design seemed spectacular to me, it looked like an imposing design with the eagle attacking towards the barrel, I wondered how that weapon would look in real life and that's when I started the project.
The project from start to finish, took me approximately 30 days, most of the time was in prototyping to verify tolerances and measurements. There were parts that I had to print several times.
Q: What steps did you take to reach a finalized version of the Eagle Bearer?
A: First, I looked for references and comparisons, after some research, I concluded that the perfect base weapon for the Eagle Bearer would be a DDMK18 rifle, but doing some more research, I realized that this rifle shares a lot of similarities with an AR15 type rifle, of which I had previously worked with a prototype, so I took the two base receivers, and started the rest from there, taking as a base the measurements and tolerances of the AR15. Combining them with the visual aspect of the Eagle Bearer, for reference, I used the in-game inspect weapon option and took several screenshots from different angles. For the eagle, I didn't want to complicate too much, and I made a vector drawing in SVG format to be able to extrude it and give it a suitable thickness, I printed it flat and with the help of a heat gun, I gave it the shape of a semi-circle.
Q: That sounds challenging, did you encounter any issues during the creation process you needed to overcome?
A: The main challenge was always the tolerances, mainly for the parts that are assembled by means of thread, such as the barrels, the handguard, the stock and the muzzle of the barrel, several of these parts I had to redesign or reprint them, always documenting where they failed. each time or what would be the best printing position. Tolerance issues also must be calibrated outside the 3D model, in the printing parameters and playing with certain values to achieve the desired result. The piece that was most difficult for me to make was the stock, I don't know much about weapons, and I didn't find much reference about the stock that the DDMK18 rifle has or what its mechanism is like for deploying it, so I had to calculate it by eye, taking once again, references to the size of the Eagle Bearer in the game.
Q: Impressive! Are there any other The Division 2 projects you've done or plan to work on?
A; Yes, I've done a few more projects about The Division 2. The list includes:
Sticky Bomb (TD2)
Chameleon
St. Elmo's Engine
And in process, the SMG Backfire.
Currently I do it as a hobby, about two years ago it was my main source of income, but now I only do it for pleasure, for myself or my friends and family, sometimes I accept commissions, depending on the project. In fact, not long ago I tried to contact you, expressing my interest in giving you the Eagle Bearer recreation, I would be honored to do so.
Q: The honor would be ours, is there anything else you'd like to let the community know?
A: Ubisoft titles have given me literally thousands of hours of fun, they have accompanied me throughout my life. Rayman Classic (PS1) is the first game I played in my life. I appreciate the space and time dedicated and show my appreciation and admiration for the development team and the community, in which I have been able to build great friendships.
And remember, Agents
They got Alex!
Thank you so much for letting us showcase your work and for taking the time to answer these questions for us and the community!
If you're just as passionate and have fan creations or cosplays to show off, share them on social media and don't forget to use #agenthighlights you just might be our next SHD spotlight!
//The Division 2 Community Team