I marked the topic OT as I assume it is a modeller question more then a poser question, even if in the end it will be added to a Poser scene.

Never had the need to do this before even with the 26 letter Alphabet, but I need to take some chinese charaters (Several words) and extrude them between 10 to 20 percent of there height (give them thickness) and save as an object file and import into Poser. Tried to use a displacment map and the edges aren't very sharpe.

If you have ever done something like this, how did you do it?

Have C4D R11 but haven't used it in a long long time and need to upgrade since it no longer works in OSX 10.9.3 and taking a hard look at Zbrush right now also.

Thanks for any suggestions that can point me in a direction to explore.

Gary

If you have a recent version of Photoshop you can do it with its 3D function.

Just type the characters and press the 3D button., It will create a 3D version of the words and then you can export it as obj

There are probably many other wys of doing this, but this is what I did

if you have the right font  you could try this

http://www.armanisoft.ch/elefont/Elefont.html

been a while since I used it but sure its easy to use

These have the ability to convert .TTF to mesh... Blender - free Font to Mesh Express Converter sold @ Content Paradise Carrara - free on some old 3dworld cover discs Another free option is a demo of vue or an older version, any one that allows terrain's to be exported. In that fire up the terrain editor and you can use images to create a mesh thats kinda like a displacement map. It's pretty rough and ready, needs a lot of clean up but it does work.

Cool beans. Thanks for all the replies and giving me. various, pardon the pun, paths to explore.

FMEC is in clearance here, but both Daz and CP has it for less money after doing a goggle seacrh. Might give that a go and or mess with PS (my version is CS4)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/font-to-mesh-express-converter/66569

As a follow up while everybody else at work was watching futbol today :laugh:

my own copy of PS is CS4 extended and you need CS5 extended at least to do extruded text (art department has CS5, home computer and work computer only CS4). Was able to do a test in CS5 while they were goofing off vs CS4 following a tut and was able to get the OBJ file exported of the word "Test".

Just understand sometimes when you are converting text to a workable obj file (ie; no n-gons) your mesh becomes somewhat a jumbled mess of edges. Sometimes this cluster-fuck of edges causes artifacting...sometimes not.

Just giving you a heads-up of what you might expect.

The font to mesh express works extremely well in doing a single test and see no issues with the edges so far. Just need to figure out the scaling is all.

What I do in windows is: I make sure I have Chinese IME enabled.  I type the characters in Chinese. I copy the text into clipboard (control-C).  I open free Sketchup 8 or Sketchup Make (32-bit software). I use the create text option. I use Control-V to insert the Chinese text.  I use the extrude function to pull up the text into a 3D item. Save as SKP. Use free Shade 3D for Unity (32-bit software). I import the sketchup file. I export as OBJ. Import into Poser. Save as PP2. Done.

 

Wings3d can do it to, but the less than normal fonts haven't resulted in well. Ya might try it though, it might use your font and make it well.

     My tips for Elefont:

•   Flowery cursive fonts (Hurricane, for example) always always fail to extrude properly.
• Some fonts will have "icicle" outliers when extruded.  Try a different bevel option, or no bevel at all, and then do the bevel in a modeler.
• Most extrusions will have disconnected vertices at kerning landmarks.  Find these stray vertices in a modeler and delete them.

> Quote - If you have a recent version of Photoshop you can do it with its 3D function. > > Just type the characters and press the 3D button., It will create a 3D version of the words and then you can export it as obj > > There are probably many other wys of doing this, but this is what I did

Yes, this is (for me) a very nice and easy way. 

I've brought the Chinese Sign in PS CS6, went to the 3D function (it was extruded very large, but no matter) and exported it as an OBJ. 

Next I've loaded the OBJ in Poser (PP2014) and reduced the depth to 20%. Then have given the sign a new colour in the Material Room. Voilà! 

Henning 

I've got PS6 so if you write what you want and send me the photoshop file I could have a go for you of converting it into 3D. I haven't done it before though.

my email is esther@pacefiction.com