converting pictures to good carving patterns in wood

[bamaman315]

What is a good program to use to convert a picture to a good wood carving? Grey scale option.

[Alan Malmstrom]

I would suggest GIMP 2. It has many of the same features as PhotoShop at none of the cost. I have been using it for a few months now and it is now my go to program for making height map raster patterns for my CarveWright. With the program you can draw objects, blend them, tilt them, rotate them, etc. I have been discovering new things about the program like smoothing out patterns, curving them, warping them etc. I have been playing around with making my own keyboard shortcuts for easily accessing the filters and stuff.

Here is the link to thier web site: http://www.gimp.org/

Alan

[DickB]

What is a good program to use to convert a picture to a good wood carving? Grey scale option.

This is a common question for newer users. I'm afraid the answer is that there is no good program or easy technique to convert a picture into a good wood carving, in my opinion. For a good carving, we want to have a realistic 3D effect. Items in the foreground of the picture should protrude in our carving more than items in the background. A picture does not contain this kind of depth information that can be imported directly into the Designer software. The designer software needs a depth map, not a picture, to produce a good carving.

Here's an example. Compare the picture of the fireplug to the depth map of a similar fireplug. The picture, if imported to designer, can produce a carving, but it will not be very nice in my opinion. The depth map, if imported, will produce a nice 3D carving.



Try importing each of these images and see what you think.

I know of no easy, automated way to convert the picture at left into the depth map at right.

[Alan Malmstrom]

AngelBridge.mpcWell said DickB.

With that in mind GIMP 2 is a good program for making these height maps. Some people preffer to use other programs also like Vectirc Aspire and ShaderMap. Corel Draw is also a good one but similar to GIMP or PhotoShop.

The best way to do something like a face in a raster program would be to make layers of images, one after the other, biulding from the bottom outline of the head as the lowest [white] part, to the tip of the nose being the highest [black] object. Kind of like a progression of a face as it would look if it were being submerged in an opaque liquid. Like slices of color getting darker as the slices get smaller. That would probably be the best way to do a detailed contour of a face, but very difficult to do. I have never done that before but I'm thinking about trying it. Even if you managed to do a face like that you would still have to kind of etch the details like the eyes and mouth etc. It wouldn't really be worth doing.

Some images do lend themselves to creating a decent looking height map though. It all depends on the lighting and the abilities of the artist. If you have an image that has good contrast between light and dark areas you might be able to use the [threshold filter] to turn it into a black and white image and kind of etch it into wood and stain the lower regions darker and the higher areas lighter to get a good effect.

Other times you might be able to kind of etch a thin photo image pattern onto created layers of a height map and get a good effect as I have done in the mpc file attached.

AngelBridge.mpc

Alan

This is a common question for newer users. I'm afraid the answer is that there is no good program or easy technique to convert a picture into a good wood carving, in my opinion. For a good carving, we want to have a realistic 3D effect. Items in the foreground of the picture should protrude in our carving more than items in the background. A picture does not contain this kind of depth information that can be imported directly into the Designer software. The designer software needs a depth map, not a picture, to produce a good carving.

[edzbaker]

Bamaman, If you are wanting to put pictures of people on wood, take a look here: http://customcarved.web.officelive.com/PhotoinWOOD.aspx
That is fairly simple, once you get the hang of it.
If that is what you are looking to do, give me a shout and I can share some info on the subject with you.


Ed Baker

[gregsolano]

Bamaman, If you are wanting to put pictures of people on wood, take a look here: http://customcarved.web.officelive.com/PhotoinWOOD.aspx
That is fairly simple, once you get the hang of it.
If that is what you are looking to do, give me a shout and I can share some info on the subject with you.


Ed Baker

A video or a tips and tricks tutorial would sure be great on how you carved those pics in wood. They are amazing! Connie, I don't know who does tips and tricks but this looks like a new issue!

[edzbaker]

I want to thank everyone that has complimented the pictures I have made, on here and in PM's. They have been a Huge HIT, everywhere that I have shown them. I have about fourty orders pending.
I am in the process of puting together some "instructions" on how I make those pictures. Then, I will have to figure out the best way to share with everyone that is interested.



Ed

[mtylerfl]

A video or a tips and tricks tutorial would sure be great on how you carved those pics in wood. They are amazing! Connie, I don't know who does tips and tricks but this looks like a new issue!

Hi Greg,

I'm anxious to read about Ed's techniques, too. I did write a Tips & Tricks in August 2008 that might have some useful ideas for you to try when making photos carveable without too much trouble. Here is the link...

http://www.carvewright.com/downloads...icks_Aug08.pdf

[edzbaker]

Michael, I now have a rough draft written up, with some pictures. Would you be interested in fine tuning it and publishing it ?? If you are too busy I can zip it and post it for anyone interested to download.

Thanks...

Ed

[gregsolano]

Thanks Michael I will be reading it shortly! Looking forward to Eds as well.