Assistance appreciated

[flyingemt]

Gentlemen,

I have started my maiden voyage after fixing some defective items on my CompuCarve. I have imported several images all of which have been produced in a verticle multiple depth creation. My question is, HOW do I take these images and program the machine for a more 3D production like some of the default patterns ?

I seek the knowledge of the veterans, and be forewarned, I'll probably be asking a lot of questions !!! LMAO!!

P.S. attached is the one I am most concerned with...

[newcarver]

It will all start with a high quality image, jpegs are not that great for enlarging. I tried to enlarge yours with corel draw and it realy threwq the quality of it off.

[flyingemt]

Any suggestions on how to achieve this? All I have to work with are the jpegs.

[Durtdawber]

I ran your logo through some of my "processes" I use on the patterns on my site. I hope it meets your needs.

[flyingemt]

What would be a good software package to convert my jpegs with ? I have 20 plus USAF ones to create and manufacture by Christmas.

[Jeff_Birt]

When importing images into Designer to make patterns, Designer interprets the level of grey as the depth to carve. Try this experiment with any graphics program you have (like PhotoShop, Corel PhotoPaint, Paint.net, etc). Create a new graphic 300x100 pixels. Fill one solid white, one 50% grey and the last solid black. When you import this into Designer (as a pattern) the relationship between grey level and carving depth will become more clear.

Generally speaking Designer takes your image and makes an eight bit gray scale image from it. The color white = 0" depth and black = (your depth setting in Designer). NOTE: when you import into Designer use INVERT as for some unknown reason the import utility inverts it on import (so you have to invert to get the correct relationship back).

Graphics programs like I mentioned above can help clean up JPGs and other images a bit, and if they have the ability to create gradients (blend white into b lack) you can get a beveling effect. I have had the best success using CorelDraw (shop around for the best price) to trace the images and then use the 'Contour' tool to create the bevel effect. Jon Jantz at AllCW.com has made a great set of tutorial videos about using CorelDraw to make patterns.

I might also mention CarveBetter Pattern Editor: http://www.allcw.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=837#836

The image to pattern converter used offers a bit higher resolution than Designer's File->Import Image. Please read the included Users guide for more information.

[STEAM]

I came up with this. It's doesn't have any contour to it but I was able to increase the resolution for a fairly nice pattern. I hope it helps.

[weezimp]

As far as scaling small JPEGs up, you could try Adobe Illustrator, but warning: the learning curve on it is fairly steep. That being said, there is a Live Trace feature. I took your JPEG and tried a few things and came up with a similar result as nu2carvin. I first used Live Trace to "vectorize" the JPEG. It was still a little rough, but could then be resized upwards without pixellating it any more than it started out.

If you're also lucky (or wealthy) enough to have the new version of Photoshop (CS3), there is a nice new way of converting to Black and White via an adjustment layer. The adjustment layer is nice because you can close the file and come back and easily tweak it further later. But the great thing is that while the adjustment controls are active, you can click in the image and drag left or right to lighten or darken the grey level of the color under the cursor. Knowing you are going into CW and the darker the grey the deeper it will carve, it becomes fairly easy to selectively raise and lower areas visually. And you have the numeric feedback of the info panel if you need it, of course.

In the case of your sample logo, there was one thing I personally would have done that I could not do with a simple Black and White conversion: I would want the red lightning bolt to render lighter than the red background it is on so that it appears more raised in the carving. I could not do that with B&W because all reds move together. However, it was a simple matter of selecting it with the Select Color command and lightening it some other way.

Actually, with even more forethought, I could have done that back in Illustrator after Live Trace with the companion Live Paint, which lets you easily paint into resulting trace shapes with the color of your choice.

BTW, as far as being able to bevel things with gradients, for the most part a simple Gaussian Blur will "bevel" the most convoluted shape. Keep in mind the standard carving bit will produce some inherent beveling due to its shape.

And one more useful thing (last one, promise): after a blur, you can tighten the blur up with the Minimize filter, and expand it out more with the Maximize filter.

[flyingemt]

Guys, thanks for the input, it would seem that my brother has all of the software you mentioned, from Adobe CS3 to Corel X3. I'm getting it all for free!!