grichter opened this issue on Jun 26, 2014 · 13 posts
grichter posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 12:06 PM
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
Gary
"Those who lose themselves in a passion lose less than those who lose their passion"
wimvdb posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 12:40 PM
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
heddheld posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 1:05 PM
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
mrsparky posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 1:13 PM
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.
grichter posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 2:25 PM
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
Gary
"Those who lose themselves in a passion lose less than those who lose their passion"
grichter posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 7:13 PM
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".
Gary
"Those who lose themselves in a passion lose less than those who lose their passion"
DarkEdge posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 8:38 PM
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.
grichter posted Thu, 26 June 2014 at 9:59 PM
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.
Gary
"Those who lose themselves in a passion lose less than those who lose their passion"
infinity10 posted Fri, 27 June 2014 at 4:15 AM
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.
Eternal Hobbyist
Chaosophia posted Fri, 27 June 2014 at 6:48 PM
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.
seachnasaigh posted Fri, 27 June 2014 at 7:07 PM
My tips for Elefont:
Poser 12, in feet.
OSes: Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64
Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5
Helos posted Sun, 29 June 2014 at 6:46 AM
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
estherau posted Sun, 29 June 2014 at 7:00 PM
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
I aim to update it about once a month. Oh, and it's free!