[freefall]

Hey all,

Well I've been trying to figure this out for a bit but I'm sure that one of you would know the answer instead of it taking days for me to figure it out by myself

Anyway I'm trying to create a relief from a bitmap, this bitmap in this case.

What I'm trying to do is variating the width of the creases based on the width of the lines on the picture. Then, I want the black areas to be lowest and the white ones on top.

When I tried this in ArtCAM the result was that the height difference was very simplistic, there was just a part that was on top, and something that was lowest and hardly anything in between (It needs to be sloping). I want to achieve a result similar to this . As you can see the edges are sloping which would help conceive the impression of a painting more if looked at from far away.

So just to be clear, the idea is to carve this out of a material and, without paint, be able to see it from a bit away. More examples here and here.

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks!

[twistedfuse]

Freefall,

Not 100% sure what you mean. I take it you want to do something similar to Photo V Carve with v grooving a photo. Havent done this in artcam, but i would say that an idea(if i am reading this all right) would be to use the bitmap-vector tracing and then after it has outlined the black lines, create close vectors with them by using the appropriate buttons. Once the black lines are traced and closed, you could use a V-Carve toolpath to create varying depth cuts using a v-bit. This is the only way i could see it working. If you use this method i would limit the depth or at least use a v bit that is wider than the widest part of the toolpath (check this by using the centreline button in the toolpath screen and it will show).

Anyway, hope that i got what yo meant and have helped you out.

Daniel.
P.S Where did you get that picture anyway?

[freefall]

Thanks Daniel

I'm pretty sure you got what I was trying to say. I'll experiment with your technique today or tomorrow and keep you updated on the progress.

I got the pictures (I have around 100 of them) from my uncle who works at an engraving/signage company. I'm helping him out and since I'm pretty good with computers and software (I have a lot of 3ds max/maya experience) he asked me if I could figure out how these kind of things were made. I managed to figure out the photoshop part to end up with that car picture I posted and now it's the next step

(If you want to know how I made that car picture I'll post a quick tutorial)

Thanks again!

Vincent

[twistedfuse]

Vincent,

You read my mind. Dont need to rush with it tho,im sure your busy. Ive seen the photo carves by vectric and relaly like them but cant see the money in buying the product yet since i have artcam. If there was a simple way to do the same in artcam there would be no need to buy photocarve.

If your good with software coding im sure there would be a simple algorithm to do what you are doing with the pictures with the click of a button.

Daniel
P.S Post a photo of the completed car engrave when done. Would love to see the result.

[High Seas]

Thanks Daniel

(If you want to know how I made that car picture I'll post a quick tutorial)

WOW Thats cool -- Would you please?! Thats a neat technique and I'm sure a lot of folks might be interested. Maybe a separate thread -- Like in Machine Created Art Forum -- or something similar? Fewer cutting paths than a lithopane and interesting optic. Great for signage viewed at a distance.

As to cutting it -- seems like you could use any of the bitmap to Gcode programs - that have a tool included. I'm surprised ARTCAM can't doit! Seems like a high-end program. But, definitely seems like a VCarve solution - again expen$ive.
I'll look at a couple and see what I can come up with -- Thinking Rasterfratx might do it.
Oh, maybe this would do it with a v-bit?
First, a few things about the attachment:
1 - its an RAR not ZIP - change the ext and open with winrar (zone won't let me load a rar.)
2 - Its listed as txt -- change ext to dnc/tap/nc -- I checked in NCPLOT - looked ok.
3. See what you think


:cheers: Jim

[todd71]

This was done by reducing the bit map color to 2 (blk/wht)
Then used the "bit map to vector" for v-carve. Pretty rough
looking compared to other photo carving I've seen. But it does look
like a Porche. When tilted at the right angle.
PM with your email if you want the ArtCAM file to play around with.

Todd

[freefall]

Thanks a lot guys! :cheers:

Daniel, here's the tutorial, it's not a simple script but a few (pretty easy steps) in photoshop. I'm sure there's other ways to do it but this worked pretty well. Credits go to wildpixel.


1. Open your image.

2. Create a new layer filled with pattern (It works best if this is black/white). Text, half tone, whatever you want.

3. Duplicate the original image layer and place it to the top. Desaturate it with your favorite method. To desaturate I hit Shift+backspace (assuming you are windows user but if mac like mine, it's delete), then a dialog should pop up and there, you can find blend mode menu. I filled it with black/white + Hue). Name this layer "Shadow". Change the layer blend mode to "Multiply" then hide this layer.

4. Load luminosity of RGB channel as a selection (Cmd/Ctr+Option/Alt + ~). A lot of marching ants (the selection thingy) should show up around your pattern. Option/Alt+Click the layer mask button (the button at the bottom of the layer panel) to add inverted layer mask to the "Shadow" layer.

5. Duplicate "Shadow" layer and change the name to "Light". Change the layer blend mode to "Screen". Click the layer mask of the "Light" layer and inverse it (Cmd/Ctr+I)

6. Make the "Light" layer visible if it's not. Apply a very small amount of Gaussian blur (I used 0.5) to the layer mask of the "Light" layer. Still working with the layer mask, go to Image > Adjustments > Level (Cmd/Ctr+L). Move sliders and click OK when you are happy with it. My input was 0, 1, 60 which worked pretty well.

7. Repeat last step 6 to the "Shadow" layer.

8. Create a Level adjustment layer to the top of all layers. My input was: 50, 1, 128

Hope this helps!

EDIT: Something I just figured out, this is not going to be perfect for carving. So to solve that problem, just merge all layers (except the original image) and apply a Cutout filter to this new layer. I used these settings: levels: 3, simplicity: 3, fidelity: 2

Then change the levels again (ctrl+L), I ended up with 90, 1, 180. which worked pretty well.
------------------------

Thanks Jim, I'll open the file today/tomorrow and see if it helps me (I'm sure it will though!)

Todd, that looks really good, I'll look into your technique today/tomorrow as well

[freefall]

Been playing around with the settings for a while but can't really find the result i want yet. What settings did you guys use for bitmap to vector? Thanks!

[Sean P]

Freefall

Just a quick FYI bit of details...

Recently at this years Delcam TSPM (Technical sales partner [reseller] Meeting) we taught (more like reminded) the resellers how to use ArtCAM for achieving the photo carve effect.

I would recommend that you contact your reseller to inquire about this and they should be able to assist you with details and information about how best to use ArtCAM for acquring this V-carve effect.

I hope this suggestion and information help you out and proves to be useful.

Cheers
Sean