Forum: 3D Modeling

Subject: Using Photo References for creating meshes?

panko opened this issue on Nov 03, 2003 ยท 17 posts

panko posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 5:04 PM

First of all Id like to appeal to your indulgence for Im a hopelessly fresh newcomer to the mesh modeling world but I have an adequate experiences with Poser. Here is my question: Id like to produce a cutout mesh of a parachutists badge following the exact contours of the original photograph which I would like to use as a texture for my prop. Now I know that there are a number of programs out there allowing you to either extrude from pics or to use the pic as reference, trace your outline on the scene area and then extrude. I used Raydream for doing freehand extrusions but Ive no idea if it allows you to bring in a photo as a reference and besides its not exactly the user friendliest app I ever worked with. Is there any application out there (preferably freeware) suitable for my purposes? Ive already downloaded Wings, Amapi and 3D Canvas (the latter crashing every time I load the Extrude Tool!!!) and Im experimenting like hell! Also any techniques for the sort of thing Im trying to do?

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

cryptojoe posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 5:16 PM

Try Rhinoceros.

It is extremely intuitive. You do a background bitmap, trace the outside. extrude the curves. Viola! Surface.

The Rhino Demo Program, which is available through Renderosity, will allow you 25 model saves before the save feature is disabled.

Other than that, it remains a fully functional program.

Yank My Doodle, It's a Dandy!

panko posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 5:52 PM

Thank you cryptojoe, I might give it a try... Could you post a link to the demo though, for I can't find it anywhere around here --only the commercial product...

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

cryptojoe posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 6:48 PM

Goto: http://www.rhino3d.com/

Follow the link to Try Rhino, you will find the download there.

Remember: You only get 25 saves until the save your workcapability is disabled. So, unless you really must save leave Rhino run and keep your computer on. It will take just a bit to get used to it. There is a new user at Rhino forum here, she copleted a whole duck using the tutorials included in Rhino Help FIles/b> found in the program and getting pointers over at thr Rhino forum.

If you have any troubles, go to the Rhino forum here and I or someone else will answer your questions.

Yank My Doodle, It's a Dandy!

panko posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 7:17 PM

Thanks again for your advise cryptojoe. I'm already downloading the demo and I'll try not to save until I feel confident enough or rich enough to buy the product...:)

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

nomuse posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 10:44 PM

As it happens, Carrara is very similar to its ancestor Ray Dream, and in version 3 allows background images in the vertex modeller (I tried that out recently, making a weapon from screenshots from Barbarella). A cute way of making a bas-relief object like a badge is to paint a height map then use a terrain modeller to convert that to a mesh. You can do this with lots of different aps -- even Bryce. (Did this once for the Crysanthemum on a Japanese cop-car for a long-ago image). Isn't very efficient with polys, tho! (Wanders away humming "Silver wings, upon his chest....")

cryptojoe posted Mon, 03 November 2003 at 11:06 PM

Rhino has a Heightfield from Bitmap command/tool. Also, there is a freebe plug-in called Geofrac but I'm not sure if it runs in V-3? You can do some spectacular imaging using that and import into rhino, then create a NURBS surface using the drape command. Pull a few points and then texture map, and render.

Yank My Doodle, It's a Dandy!

quinlor posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 1:22 PM

If you havw Wings3d and a grafics program that can create Adobe Illustrator files, you can do that: Create a path around the conture of the Bitmap in the garafics program (for example Photoshop, save the path as *.AI. Import the AI File into Wings3d. Wings will create a mesh from that. Stefan

panko posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 4:20 PM

Thank you Stefan! This is exactly what I've been looking for!!!! But as I'm fairly new to Wings3D also could you elaborate a little bit on the procedure to follow after I import the *.AI file? And thanks to the rest of you also guys for pointing me in the right direction. Cryptojoe, you are absolutely right about Rhino. I started with the tutorials and I like it a lot!

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

BazC posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 4:36 PM

Hi Panko, there's really nothing to importing an .ai file into Wings, if you click in the box next to .ai import in the import menu you can set the number of edge bisections, you'll probably need it quite high to keep the detail in the badge. This is only a guess but try 20 to begin with and adjust the number until you get the result you want. After you've clicked import Wings automaticaly creates the mesh though you may want to tidy it up a bit once it's been created. I think you need to save the .ai as version 7 or earlier, most apps will give you a choice :o) - Baz

panko posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 4:58 PM

Baz, I tried it and a strange thing happened. As I was importing the *.AI (20 bisections) the program froze and an editor log window opened behind (called erlang). Guessing that this was a kind of debuger I loaded the log file it had created that reads as follows: Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.2.3.3 [threads:0] Eshell V5.2.3.3 (abort with ^G) 1> Trying: [{buffer_size,32},{depth_size,32},{stencil_size,8},{accum_size,16}] Actual: RGBA: 8 8 8 8 Depth: 24 Stencil: 8 Accum: 16 16 16 16 Abnormal termination What is that it went wrong? I exported the *.AI path from Photoshop (v. 7.0)....

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

swishy posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 5:28 PM

Wings is written in Erlang and the Erlang window needs to be open. If you close Erlang then Wings will close. That will probably be why you got the abnormal termination in the log rather than an invalid *.AI file. The first time I used Wings I didn't know what Erlang was and closed it down immediately. Hope you get up and running with your project. :)

panko posted Tue, 04 November 2003 at 5:56 PM

Aha!... Now it makes sense!... In the meantime, using the above described technique I got some very good results --Wings did the thing (praise Goddess Erlang... LOL) and here is the first rendering of the prop, complete with texture, in Poser. Again thanks guys!

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy

BazC posted Wed, 05 November 2003 at 3:40 AM

Looks great!

nomuse posted Wed, 05 November 2003 at 11:05 AM

Wings for wings, eh? Could you do me a favor and tell me whose jump wings these are? They look familiar but all I know is they aren't American. Might be British. "Fighting soldiers from the sky Fearless men who jump and die Men who mean just what they say The brave men of the Green Beret" -- Barry Sadler :)

nomuse posted Wed, 05 November 2003 at 11:11 AM

Oops. Thirty seconds on Google and I had my answer. Those are French, and in fact are HALO wings. http://www.dropzonepress.com/symbols/wings/f.htm Ain't heraldry fun?

panko posted Wed, 05 November 2003 at 4:22 PM

You are right nomuse, these are French Elite Free Fall wings. They are similar to the standard wings issued to the former Regiments des Parachutistes Coloniaux and the 1st and 2nd Regiments Etrangers des Parachutistes (Foreign Legion). :)

"That's another fine mess you got me in to!" -- Oliver Hardy