Hi all,

i am currently studying various techniques to create bas reliefs from meshes, inspired by
reading documents from researchers in China. Here i like to show you a variant for NURBS
models. Please don't ask how this is done. At least it is not done with expensive ArtCam
software etc. It was quite interesting to research this topic a bit, because the usual techniques
when doing mesh reliefs have the drawback that the further the Z-Depth goes the more
problematic it gets at the edges, which end up usually as straight and unwanted extrusions.

P.S. while i get better results with meshes, i think this NURBS solutions is probably also
o.k. for jewellery designs, even if the if the contours of the NURBS surface are not so sharp
as their mesh counterparts.

Hope you like this idea!

The model shows the Ajax bust from my friend Jotero, converted to a bas relief.

The ring was taken from Grabcad.

https://grabcad.com/library/ring-female-1





Regards
Stefan

The smoothing or melting effect is a major drawback.

I haven't gotten too far into any technique to overcome this. My next step would be to determine if crease angles that are applied to normals would transfer to T-Splines (Fusion360) or PowerNurbs that allow edge weighting. Although there may be a way to control the edge weighting in these apps that looks at the angle between faces in the subd surface, instead of manually selecting each edge.

Hi Chris,

i have to research this smoothing issue also a bit more. For NURBS i could a least get
a bit better results, like shown in my image. For meshes i have two techniques, were one
allows me to sharpen the source mesh prior processing.

But i think for such little NURBS items, like rings etc. it might be o.k.





Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan,
What is your process of OBJ to MoI ?
What application you use ?
Your result is great;
Thanks

Hi Finema,

thanks, but sorry to disappoint you because i don't speak about the process...

Why? I have in the CG world four special interests, which are Voronoi stuff (NURBS and meshes),
Reaction Diffusion on meshes, bas reliefs (meshes and NURBS) and Texture Synthesis (meshes).

If you, or others, do research on those topics you will quickly figure out that there aren't much
infos out there, only mostly research papers and no major Software companies are tackling
those areas. It is also a very time consuming process to figure those things, as a non-programmer,
out.

Hope you understand.

Regards
Stefan

I found a way to do that as well, but I think it also makes the nurbs suface quality worse.

Cool! For me it was more or less a test with NURBS because i primarily use meshes and wanted
to see what results can be obtained with NURBS. With meshes i have more control and can use
also tools like ZBrush etc.

Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan,
>> Please don't ask how this is done

And what is the goal of this topic ??

Hi Eddi,

quite simple. I wanted to show you guys and girls that with a bit brainstorming and inexpensive
software like MoI and other tools things can be done, which usually is done with very expensive
and specialized software(s) or software not available to the public. :-)

If that is not appropriate to post this here then i will of course not do that anymore in the future!

Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

>>If that is not appropriate to post this here then i will of course not do that anymore in the future!

Let's go, I'm not the forum police !!!

>> I wanted to show you guys and girls that with a bit brainstorming and inexpensive
>> software like MoI and other tools things can be done

Yes, but you do not talk about it.

Is there any difference to free ZSURF or Max Smirnov's script?
So from depthmap to surface (with very high iso density as untrimed surface)?
Or quadmeshed and imported to Moi3D (with skyscraper of polysurfaces)?

A few techniques are known here, it would be nice to see, where are the quality differences.

Regards

Hi Eddi,

>Yes, but you do not talk about it.

For a good reason. While the MoI community is pretty cool in discussing things and solving
MoI related problems, there are also many lurkers out there which like to get things for free
and then making money out of it. I'm only a little hobbyist, who can't afford the pro tools and
if i spill the beans i gain nothing from that, so to speak. O.k. here i gain now probably bad
karma points with my thread. I should have better not started it.

>A few techniques are known here, it would be nice to see, where are the quality differences.

Well, for 3D printing or CNC there should be no quality issues. I can't say for other
fields which requires NURBS data for manufacturing, because i have no experience
in that field.

P.S. regarding the creation of proper bas reliefs. I have seen the best reliefs done in ZBrush
and it was also spoken about on how to do that, with one word. I tried that, it did not gave
the correct results. I ask the author, got no reply, asked at #AskZBrush got no reply yet, and
asked on CGTalk and got no reply from the pros there.

I contacted also other people in this field and got also not the proper response.

Hope you understand.

Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

>> if i spill the beans i gain nothing from that, so to speak. O.k. here i gain now probably bad

No No No, I think the topic is really good !!! (and is exactly on my same interests)

>>there are also many lurkers out there which like to get things for free
>>and then making money out of it
>>Hope you understand.

Yeees, I understand your point of view, it is absolutely clear.
I therefore keep silence.

Regards

>>I have seen the best reliefs done in ZBrush
>>and it was also spoken about on how to do that, with one word. I tried that, it did not gave
>>the correct results. I ask the author, got no reply, asked at #AskZBrush got no reply yet, and
>>asked on CGTalk and got no reply from the pros there.

Yeah, I think there is some difference of opinion as to what is a bas-relief.

Definition of bas-relief from a dictionary
art : sculptural relief in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut (see 1undercut 2); also : sculpture executed in bas-relief a limestone bas-relief of a female figure

It is an art in and of itself to create figurative elements that look right. One cannot in general take a full 3D model and scale it down on one axis and expect that to work. I tried that a long time ago ...
I'm not saying that is an invalid method for some things, just that it often does not produce expected or desired results universally.

Fully agree. Here is one more example i did. As one can see no flat sharp extrusions, as mentioned in my initial post.



Regards
Stefan

Very, very, very nice :)

Ciao!

Thank you Marco.

Regards
Stefan

You're welcome.

Watching how accurate is that model, I think you could for sure start the production of these items on your own and sell them around the world :)

Ciao!

Hi Marco,

the shown model is a free one, available for Shade3D and served only as example.
You are right however, one could start an additional business segment with that
in case he/she is a good modeller of the human form, or uses high-res head-scans
as a source for a bas relief.

I know two successful russian artists who do excellent bas relief artworks for 3D Print
and CNC with ZBrush, but i am not sure if those things would guarantee a steady
income here in Europe and i am only a hobbyist, who does not plan to do 3D business.

Regards
Stefan

@You : "...i am only a hobbiyst, who does not plan to do 3D business..."

Ok. I undesrtand.

Hi, about sculpting and Russians, I know guy that use Blender to sculpt beautiful 3d models.
https://www.artstation.com/maximus48