As for the picture you could run through some photo software to clean up. When you use a vector, you will have to select a bit, in this step you will be asked to select depth of cut.
Lithophane would be best
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I agree with fwharris a lithophane would be your best option. I've done wood carvings of pictures and never had great success. But have had great success with lithos.
thanks for the input I'll see what I can do
Definitely a litho would be the best and easiest way to go! Keep us posted on the results.
Ditto to all the comments.
This type of picture is one of the hardest to convert directly to a pattern.
There is a strong light source creating strong shadows and light areas. The colors of the fur are very varied and asymmetrical. It is low resolution creating a lot pixalization and noise.
Because the software is converting the colors to a gray scale and then assigning a height based on 0 to 1 (light to dark) you get a poor pattern.
I tried enlarging and cleaning the image up a bit but failed miserably on making a usable pattern.
Have you tried to convert it in corel draw?