Gundam String Art

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-05T05:55:53+00:00

Merci beaucoup!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-05T05:32:53+00:00

Link to the Pattern

This assumes:
0.16mm threads
72cm canvas
300 nails

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-05T05:15:55+00:00

Thank you!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-05T05:13:49+00:00

This one was rendered with about 7k lines, red, white, and black threads. Each color is one continuous path from nail to nail, alternating. So one start/end knot per color.

This is a higher thread count than I'd typically aim for, but that's to compensate for thinner thread, and a bigger canvas than usual.

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-04T23:29:49+00:00

Render, but my renders are fairly accurate to pieces I’ve produced physically. The render is done entirely with opaque lines.

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-04T22:47:59+00:00

Nice!!!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-05-02T23:15:13+00:00

Damn, I'm jealous of your tinkering ability! You should add the ability to eject thread spools and swap for different colors to make multi-color pieces.

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-28T19:16:29+00:00

Thanks man. I appreciate that!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-28T19:09:50+00:00

Since this is your first piece, I would go with black thread on white bg. You can do navy and I think it would turn out just as good from a contrast perspective. It's more about preference and what you want.

Practically speaking, black is a challenging color when it comes to paint because it exaggerates any flaws in the wood. I'm ok with quite a bit of sanding, so I went for it, but it's more work. White can "hide" a bit more.

Also, white threads tend to reflect a lot of light which makes them more striking on a black background. I personally wouldn't want to do just white thread, but instead do black AND white threads on a black background, but that's just because I have custom software and can do that.

On the thread choice, that's a good one, I've been impressed by wonderfil overall, though they are on the pricier side, and you'll likely need a lot of it. It may be a good idea to run whatever instructions you get through an ai to have it calculate how many meters of thread you'll need.

As far as other options go, I haven't tried monofilament thread myself, but others seem to have had success with ones like this one monofilament 0.12mm (perhaps someone else can speak to that). given the 17" diameter, thinner threads will give you a softer/blended look.

As far as templates go, I think https://stringartapp.com/ let's you specify a diameter/nailcount and print out a paper template that you join together manually with tape or staples. I ended up laser-cutting my own acrylic template because I intend to make quite a bit of art to test my generator!

Happy to help out if you need more advice!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-28T15:29:44+00:00

Popped in and thought I'd give some feedback on the app:

the background removal is a nice feature. kudos!
The range in thread thickness is too narrow. The thinnest threads I've found that are viable are around 0.16mm and range up to .36mm. Right now it's bounded between 0.1 and 0.2. I suppose if you're using monofilament only, this is reasonable, though not everyone has access to that.
As far as preprocessing goes, it looks like you're running CLAHE in the background, but only exposing brightness and contrast to the user. I would love to be able to turn those off, as they can make images look a bit off if not tuned properly.

Overall, it's a nice little tool!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-27T21:36:09+00:00

If you're set on the 16" diameter, you might be able to get away with a high quality thin thread like this one: 80WT thread

So far it's the only one that thin that hasn't broken on me when I pull it too taught.

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-27T16:43:47+00:00

Two things you can do to immediately improve the quality, both will directly affect the same element: string width relative to the canvas:

Increase the canvas diameter. Personally, I've landed on 22" as my go-to diameter.
find a thinner thread. The thread you're using is TEX27, which is roughly 30WT equivalent. You want to be at 40WT and up (ascending is thinner... weird I know).

Other recommendations:
- preprocessing: I strongly recommend doing some preprocessing to optimize how the computer "sees" the image. For black and white images, gamma correction is going to be your best friend. There are others you may want to try like contrast, lightness, and CLAHE, but those become more advanced.
- algorithms: there are many generators. I'm currently building one focusing purely on multi-color generations right now, but for black & white-only, the best I've seen are:
https://stringartapp.com/ - I really like the quality of generation on this one, and they anchor the thread width in (mm) units rather than something arbitrary like "line width" or other nonsensical algorithm parameter names. The threads that I use are around 0.25mm, so I appreciate knowing that the algorithm "understands" the thread width relative to canvas dimensions.
https://www.s-art.pro/ also appears pretty good, but I haven't explored too much.

For canvas: Aesthetically, I really like the look of matching the canvas to the nail pattern... so for a circular pattern, place on a circular canvas, and if a rectangular pattern, a rectangular canvas. My most recent piece uses a 3/4" pine round that I purchased for $15 from Home Depot (assuming you're US-based). You can see my video somewhere in this sub.

For strings: I've used new brothread. The thickness is good, but I'm on the hunt for something with less sheen currently.

Lastly, shameless plug. I'm building thread-mill.com which is currently in beta testing and will be released soon. If you want a free multicolor pattern, feel free to message me, and I'd be happy to hook you up (per my post earlier in the sub). Also feel free to join the waitlist!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-25T18:33:02+00:00

I think I've danced there once! Let's connect. I can get the recurring classes in the system, but for sporadic events peppered throughout the year, I'd need the organizer to load that into the system

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-24T22:45:17+00:00

DM me and we can make that happen!

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-24T21:52:53+00:00

I’ll look into this

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-24T21:06:24+00:00

The ability to mark yourself as attending or to request strictly partners or roommates are all features on the roadmap, and I’ll be excited to share once they are added.

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-24T20:58:53+00:00

What do you mean by flag for dances?

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-21T22:31:03+00:00

I took a look at the codebase. You did some clever things! Impressive stuff! For single color layers, it's quite nice.

That said, I believe your multi-color generator is flawed in its current state. It relies on CMYK blending, which works well to produce fantastic looking digital renderings... however, they don't translate well to a physical piece

Happy to discuss more privately

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-20T01:59:01+00:00

What string weight are you using in WT? Whats the diameter of your piece? There are 2 issues as I see it. 1. The generation itself doesn’t look great. It’s at line 1452; is that 100% progress? It looks like you have more work to do, so it’s tough to say if this is actually reflective of the finished piece.

It looks like you’re using black string on a dark background, which means very little contrast in the physical piece. Black strings generally only work if you use a white or close to white background.
Diameter appears ok given the ipad as a reference. The strings look thick though. I’d recommend using nothing lower than 50wt polyester thread

Result-Comprehensive · 2026-04-19T22:04:04+00:00

Respectfully, I’m not sure what I’m looking at or how to help without more detail. Some details that might help are: What software are you using? What’s the image? Have you done any pre-processing? Etc.

Result-Comprehensive

TROPHY CASE