Photos to Deep Relief Carvings

[spalted]

I have spent more time than I care to admit reading the forums here trying to learn how to create carvings from photos.

I have found some information but I would like to learn more.

I am not thinking of lithos or vector outlines (if thats the correct term?) Rather deep relief carvings. Deep being a relative term as I understand the cutting depth limitations.

I understand that it has a steep learning curve and it is more in depth than can be described here. However if anyone could get me pointed in the right direction it would be very much appreciated.

I currently only have open source programs, Gimp, Blender, and Inkscape. I am under the assumption that Gimp is capable of doing what I want. I am not against buying software, but at this point I do not know what to buy.

I think I would need to convert a photo to greyscale, create a heightmap or bumpmap and export it as .png file to import into designer. Sound simple enough, but I know the manual editing to get high quality is were the trick is at.

My main questions:

Am I on the right track?
Any suggestions for more indepth learning materials?
Suggestions for search terms? I tried heightmaps and bump maps
Other software or plugin suggestions?


I think this is more of an art than a science, but I really want to learn how to do this. Anything I can do to shorten the learning curve will be very helpful.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[jpaluck]

You can not truly get 2.5d/3d carving from a picture because a photograph only contains x and y info in the form of pixels. Meaning the is no z axis information in a photograph. The program you are using blender - a 3d modelling program will make a true 2.5d deep releif carving.

There are several programs out there that will do this and various ways to get into designer like a depth map or the stl importer.

Some programs are zbrush,3d max, moi3d, ac 3d, silo and the list goes on. Some programs are pricey some are cheap or free.

If you search blender here some one put a tutorial on how to get the height map with Blender.

[spalted]

Thanks Jhon,

I had been focusing on the Gimp route because I was attempting to adjust the shading to reflect depths, but I will explore the Blender option some more.

I realize that photos are lacking z axis info. But I have seen some very amazingly detailed relief carvings that I am sure were created from photos. I was hoping I could learn how to do it without spending ten thousand dollars plus a collage degree. Maybe I'm overly optimistic.

[jpaluck]

Yeah the carvings your looking at were probably made from a photo as a reference. In most 3d packages you can use an image as a reference on whats called an image plane and model from there.

I had zero 3d experience when I got my machine and I wanted to do exactly what you want to do with carving patterns. My suggestion would be put the time into learning the 3d modelling process...in the end it's faster and more precise and actually way easier and way less time consuming than going the shading route and you can acheive so much more. The upfront learning curve is the challenge though.

Good Luck

[bjbethke]

I have spent more time than I care to admit reading the forums here trying to learn how to create carvings from photos.

I have found some information but I would like to learn more.

I am not thinking of lithos or vector outlines (if thats the correct term?) Rather deep relief carvings. Deep being a relative term as I understand the cutting depth limitations.

I understand that it has a steep learning curve and it is more in depth than can be described here. However if anyone could get me pointed in the right direction it would be very much appreciated.

I currently only have open source programs, Gimp, Blender, and Inkscape. I am under the assumption that Gimp is capable of doing what I want. I am not against buying software, but at this point I do not know what to buy.

I think I would need to convert a photo to greyscale, create a heightmap or bumpmap and export it as .png file to import into designer. Sound simple enough, but I know the manual editing to get high quality is were the trick is at.

My main questions:

Am I on the right track?
Any suggestions for more indepth learning materials?
Suggestions for search terms? I tried heightmaps and bump maps
Other software or plugin suggestions?


I think this is more of an art than a science, but I really want to learn how to do this. Anything I can do to shorten the learning curve will be very helpful.

Thanks in advance for your help.
I use Photoshop when I make patterns from photos. (Photoshop CS4). I work with photos that are at least 300 DPI, I first remove the background, then use the Dodge, Burn and the Layers functions to try to make the image look like it would look like as if I made it with the CW scanner probe. White carves on the top and Black on the bottom of the board.

Too much light or dark colors in an image you start with, makes it very hard to make a good pattern. It takes a lot of time to get things right... Start with a well balance image.

This is an image of my Great Grand Daughter.

[cnsranch]

This is an image of my Great Grand Daughter.

She's a real doll, BJ - who's the little girl holding her?

[PCW]

This is an image of my Great Grand Daughter.

Good Job BJ

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Can't really see the depth in your avatar but the pictures really shows how nice the finished project turned out.

[bjbethke]

She's a real doll, BJ - who's the little girl holding her?
This was her when she was the doll.

PCW, not all images turn out that good.