Vcarving help needed

[dray]

Hiya.. I am trying to somehow make some vcarved cartoon pictures for a game room.

Heres the catch. I need to somehow convert 3d game characters to line drawings so that they can be v-carved. Does anyone know a way to convert color pictures to line drawings so that they may be V-Carved?

28537.jpg

I can convert these files from 3ds to just about any file but having a real hard time making them cutable.

Thanx guys

[henrik_o]

A normal computerized trace routine will probably not work satisfyingly on a bitmap as per the above; in the usual fashion of realtime renders there's not nearly enough definition.

You need to import the 3D file into a package capable of outline/'toon' rendering, but the file also needs to be compatible enough with the internal engine of that package to actually produce a clean outline rather than a million connected vertices. If that can be done, an output render that can be manually cleaned up with a reasonable amount of effort should produce a clean trace. There might be a ton of cleanup in the actual toolpathing stage depending on how good the trace is.

Honestly, unless I could get a good original file, I wouldn't bother with the all-digital path: print out the pic(s), trace by hand on a lightboard, scan the manual trace, then either trace by computer or just trace manually in a CAD package.

[dray]

I knew it wasnt going to be an easy task.

The software I need must make a line at each converging color in order to get the correct v-cut.

Any cad program that you can suggest?

[henrik_o]

To illustrate the above;


28539.jpg
This is a raytrace render of on the one hand a native file, and on the other hand (the results are 1:1, i.e identical, so I won't post two pictures) that file saved as 3DS then re-imported and rendered. These renders are not usable for trace->toolpathing since there's very little definition in them, though they are far more defined than the avatar in the opening post.


28540.jpg

This is an outline render of the re-imported 3DS file. This render is not usable for tracing since all polygons are included in the outline: a common result of rendering files not native to the package in question.


28541.jpg

Finally, a render in outline mode using the native file. This render is, obviously, very usable. It should trace well in any common computerized tracing package, and if that is not available it is very easy to trace manually.

Again, if you can't achieve the result in pic 3, the fastest method unless we're talking about a lot of images would likely be to pen trace on a lightboard then scan.

[henrik_o]

quote:The software I need must make a line at each converging color in order to get the correct v-cut.
Send me a test file and I will look at it.

I assume the renders are from a game engine RT renderer, but if I were you I would ask the person supplying the files which package was originally used for the design and if he/she can provide an outline render from that package, or at the very least a native file.

[ryan_slaback]

Danny,
Not sure if it helps you or not, but I was able to create this vector conversion with Vector Magic.
28548.jpg

[dray]

Heya Ryan, Vetor magic was the first thing I tried, but unfortunately the resolution is very poor