There must be an easier way!

[JuicyCarp]

Good evening! A week ago when I introduced myself to this forum, I said one of the challenges of being me is that my ambition sometimes goes far beyond my ability! This might be one of those times! I am taking my first crack at creating a pattern, and I think I may have chosen a rather complicated one to begin with! I would like to carve a CID badge, but I dont want the final product to look like a router traced some lines on some wood. I have been working with several different images of the badge to see how each behaves when placed in the pattern editor and I am running into some challenges, i think in part due to how shiny it is.

1. My biggest frustration for the last couple hours has been the head and legs of the eagle. When you look at the badge you can see that they are raised more than the area surrounding them. Is there a way to select these elements to raise? Inverting doesnt work, and i thought the magic wand could do it, but i find the magic wand just highlights the whole darn thing!

2. The feathers! when imported into the editor they are either raised outlines, or carved outlines, and I dont like either! I would like to make them carve as they are on the badge. I worked with the blur tool and the paint brush, but it seems incredibly time consuming for the produced results.

I am open to any tips you may have. I am not by any means asking anyone to make this pattern for me, part of the fun of this machine has been learning how to do things! The tutorials and manual are pretty vague. So if you have a spare moment or two and dont mind taking a look at the image and giving me some pointers, that would be awesome!

[JuicyCarp]

Oh yeah, and I also tried another work around for a really clean looking badge by perusing the pattern depot and forum for all the elements of the badge as seperate patterns that I could just add together and have a clean carving, but I could not find the eagle or a banner in that shape, otherwise that may have been an option.

[DickB]

You have indeed chosen a complicated image to begin with.

My first advice is to think like Designer and what it does with images. When Designer uses an image, it is interpreted as a height map. It does not know color, only shades of grey. White will be high, black low, or vice versa (you can easily invert). Take a look here ate the example I gave a while ago: http://forum.carvewright.com/showthr...977#post189977 See the difference between a photo and a height map?

Your badge is a photo, not a height map. You cannot get good results by carving it directly.

Now take your badge image, import it into a paint program, convert it to black and white, and take a look. Interpret your image as a height map. Do you see the sharp contrast - white and black - in the detail of the feathers? That is why it will carve as you have described, if you try to use the image as is.

To make a good pattern, you must transform the image into a height map. For the image you have chosen, it is not easy, it is time consuming, to derive a good pattern from it.

At your stage, if you want to carve this, I would suggest that you ask someone more experienced to make a pattern for you. But to learn, I would advise that you start with a simpler beginning image, such as a simple logo. You would benefit from using a simpler image that you can more easily convert by painting areas with shades of grey and then observing the results. BTW I myself am not accomplished enough to do a good job of making a pattern out of the image that you have chosen. I can do simpler items, but not that one at my experience and skill level.

There are actually a number of tutorials on this subject, although they are not so easy to find. We could benefit from an index of some kind.

[JuicyCarp]

Dickb,

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I think you are right. At the moment its a bit out of my league! I have yet another course of action (determination is almost a fault of mine!). This whole project stems from a CID badge carved from mohogany that hangs on the wall of our polygrapher at the office. He is an older, retired Agent who still works for the Agency, and he picked up the badge in Honduras, and everyone has always tried to buy it from him, EVERYONE wants it! So he talked to me today and let me barrow it from his wall to see if using the scan probe I could recreate it, and he could use it as gifts for other agents. So thats going to be this weekends project, build a sled, scan his badge, and see what happens. But i seen an oppertunity to learn here, but I guess its best to learn to walk before running!

[DickB]

That sounds like a good approach.

Another recommendation for a pattern beginner (like myself!) is to start with clip art. It is easier for beginners to paint and manipulate clip art into fairly decent height maps. For example, this one: http://aaavectorgraphics.com/index.p...ducts_id=57745

[dehrlich]

Easiest way to do it is try and find something like the image I have attached. The pattern software works much easier with stuff like this. Put it in a photo program like Paint.net, add about 2 percent of Gassian Blur, save as a png file, then import that. Works for me every time.

BTW, I was with the CID in Ft lewis in late 90's. Stressful job.

[lawrence]

One more thing- make sure to cover the tip of the probe with one of the gluetips or your polygrapher's carving will be covered in scratches -

Good luck!

Lawrence

[JuicyCarp]

Its always fun running into former CID agents! its a small world!

[eelamb]

Lawrence beat me to it, cover that probe or the gentleman that loaned it o you will not be happy with the scratches the probe leaves as it touches the surface.
Glue tips work great and get the at hobby lobby.

[badbert]

Give us good clear sharp focused pictures of the carving. And we can try from that. But a scan might be better... I don't know, I have no experience with the scanner.