Hi all,

i thought it would be nice to have the ability to create NURBS letters
from ArtText3 2D graphics. So, if you have a Mac and access to a Windows
box let me know if you are interested in this conversion technique.



Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan!

I could be interested in, if there's a version of ArtText3 for iPad Pro.

Do you know if it's so ?

Thanks.

Hi Marco,

no, afaik there is no iOS version available but i just
saw that there is a Windows version available...

https://www.belightsoft.com/art-text/win/

If it has the same features as the Mac version i don't know.

Here is another quick sample from ArtText3 ... -> MoI. :-)

Next step would be to add details, some in MoI and some in
ZBrush etc.


upload images

Regards
Stefan

...and i have just seen that there is an old Lite version
available for Windows. ;-)

https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/store/p/art-text-lite/9wzdncrdd438

Regards
Stefan

If time permits tomorrow i will post the required steps
and additional free software required to get a NURBS
model for MoI usage. Maybe this is then useful for
Windows users to test out and see if the free Lite version
is enough for the whole procedure.

Regards
Stefan

Hello Stefan!

Thanks a lot for your reply!

Too bad there isn't a version of ArtText 3 for the iPad Pro.

Anyway, I've made some research to find a good alternative to ArtText 3 for Windows platforms, and this is my (for the moment) final consideration :

As you (maybe) already know, I'm a big fan of 2D workflow, in all its aspects, and in fact some times ago here on this forum I published many interesting posts about this topic, involving Moi and Affinity Designer.

Well...after reviewed and tested (also in the recent past) many of these alternatives to ArtText 3, I find that the very best and more powerful way for me, when I want to turn 2D vector text into 3D, is creating all the stuff I need from scratch and "by hand".

And I do this, essentially following these 3 steps :

1) In Affinity Photo/Designer for Windows (or any other powerful 2D bitmap tool like Procreate on iPad Pro) I just create the "input" black and white stylized graphics that I want to turn into 3D

2) Then I use the old and ever green and very powerful Serif Drawplus X8 (on Windows) just in order to use its "tracing" capabilities and also some of its cool effects.
Than I simply copy/paste from DrawPlus to Affinity Designer, making there some final adjustment to the vector curves, and finally copy/paste from Affinity Designer to Moi in order to get the final 2D Nurbs.

3) In Moi I do the final work on the 2D nurbs curves before creating the 3D objects.

Here you can watch a brief example of what I'm talking about : http://take.ms/t4dYR
Please consider that this is only a totally random example.


OK. Certainly this way isn't simple like pressing some buttons on ArtText 3, but using this manual workflow I can create almost everything and I can create it just in the way I want, without sticking to a library presets or library effects of a given software.

Anyway...to bad ArtText 3 is not available for the powerful iPad Pro!

Ciao!

Hi Marco,

i understand what you are trying to say, but you missed a very important point!

The procedure you show, in your video, does not produce nicely rounded front / back
surfaces, so that the shape is looking pleasing to the eye and not like the old
boring flat standard text procedures, one finds in a NURBS or subd modeler.

Normally one would use box modeling, with a subd modeler, to archive nicely rounded
organic looking letters. What i mean with my procedure is that you can do the same
as NURBS surface, because you can not model those front / back faces (easily) in
MoI, if at all...

My procedure compared to box modeling allows a user of 3D software to do that much
much quicker than in a subd modeler and no modeling skills are required!

Professional Artists however can later retopo and tweak those NURBS surfaces in
ZBrush, to get a more even result or to add details.

Hope you understand now why to use ArtText as a starting point.

BTW. One can also import vector graphics into ArtText, when they are in
.pdf 1.2 format...

Regards
Stefan

Ciao Stefan!

I write these lines only to share my very personal workflow with you and the other guys.

@You : "...The procedure you show, in your video, does not produce nicely rounded front / back surfaces..."

For sure! I understand and in fact in my latest post I only wanted to point out the overall workflow I much prefer now, only an example, without worrying about the overall quality :)

Believe me, I'm aware of the power of almost all this kind of "semi automatic" vector graphic generator.
I've used tons and tons during last 20 years...
And, of course, also ArtText 3 for Mac Os is undoubtedly a very good tool for that kind of stuff.

But actually, and I made this decision some time ago since I went back again to my very first passion in CG, that is "digital painting (by hand)", I decided that for the moment I want to get rid of almost all this kind of "semi automatic" tool, and now I much prefer to create almost all the 2D stuff I need, by drawing and painting on my own, with the different digital painting apps that I'm currently using and learning (mainly Affinity Photo/Designer and "PaintStorm Studio" on PC side and Procreate/Affinity Photo/Artstudio Pro/Assembly/Autodesk Graphics on iPad Pro side).

Only when I need very "mathematically precise" curves I leverage on automatic vector graphic generators like ArtText or similar.

And obviously I leverage also on the super precise Nurbs tools for curves in Moi :)


Thanks again for this conversation and have a nice day.

Added some details with MoI.



Regards
Stefan

... and one more, with variations in materials and colors.



Regards
Stefan

Very nice!! Congrats!

Thank you, Marco!

Regards
Stefan

...and another little test. Heart shape, tip and feathers from arrow and lettering
done with vectors imported into ArtText3 and then modeled in MoI.



Regards
Stefan

My Chinese Zodiac sign is Tiger, with the element water, so i thought give it a try
too. :-)



Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan - that love pendant really turned out nice!

- Michael

Hi Michael,

thank you very much, much appreciated! I'm also re-rendering my Tiger
Zodiac sign, because i'm not happy with the overall color scheme, and
the frontal view of the pendant, which does not show the curvature
much.

Regards
Stefan

...and another try with my Zodiac sign.



Regards
Stefan

Interesting and intrigue. Very nice models. I think you like experiment and explore alternative ways modelling using various applications.

Really nice !

Thank you Marius and Finema!

@Marius: Yes, i like to explore techniques, which makes the modeling process easier for me,
instead of going the harder, for me, subd route. And of course modeling in MoI is always so
much fun, due to it's ease of use. :-)

Regards
Stefan