Relief carving from a photo

[ElderlyGent]

Goor mornng all.

So what is my latest thing I have made. There are two sides to this. Side one is that I can now make the various joints using the box and dovetail creator whixh is saatisfying but by chance I was looking at the 3d relief carving tutorial and this led me to carving from a photograph.
I spent some time findout how to et it up and had a merry old time getting it to show me something in the 3d window that might carve.
I did a first run using some soft pine aand the redult was not good at all. So I thicknessed an off cut of a piece of decking which I think is Accoya and so is a lot harder,
To keep it simple and not have the CNC running for ages I made the piece small as can be seen in the photo by the size of my thumb. On the event the Finishing path did take and hour.
I only have a .25 ball nose for theroughing and a .125 for the finishing a 1/16 th would be a lot better,
However, the result is a step in the right direction so this leads me to ask if there is a forum somewhere that specialises in this art form that I can go to.
If I can getthe result as good as my machine will allow I would like to make wall plaques as gifts perhaps of friends or even relatives petc etc.
I have seen some really fine examples of this on the Internet, so I know it is possible.
So, pointers please. thanks,
stay safe and well.
EG. aka Drew.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

What software are you running?

There are several parts to the solution. I use Vectric’s V Carve, which does enough 3D work for me, and the Facebook group and their forum are good, but obviously only for that software.

The first issue is turning a photo into a 3D model; it looks like you have 3 or 4 step heights; did you convert to black and white or greyscale? Then there is taking that data and putting it into a 3D model and generating the G-code; this also involves some choices because the direction of finishing pass will affect the look.

 

[Phill05]

Hi Drew,
This is something I have been doing for a while with Vectric software I started in Photo V carve and found it very satisfying and upgraded to Aspire to do full 2.5D models, by taking an image and put it through the import to vectors you can get a very good model cut out.

This started out as an image from a friend in Maine Canada of a Blue Heron fishing on a log in his pond.



Yes you do need to get a selection of cutter depending on the level of finish you want, my model was rough cut with a 1/8" finish cut 1/32" it took about 4 hours to do this.


Phill

Edit: spelling

 

[martin.pearson]

This is not an easy thing to do well & is generally not a click this button type of work or everyone would be doing it lol, yes there is software that will create something that you can carve with very little effort but the results are generally a bit hit & miss, there are things you can do to make this process a bit better but generally a good Bas relief model of a picture has been built up from many smaller parts & takes a lot of time to get right. Have a look at Michael Mezalick's youtube channel as he did some tutorials on creating a 3D model of a face using Aspire.
One problem you gave yourself was that you made the model small so it would carve a lot quicker, by doing that you have probably not been able to get the detail within the model because you didn't have a small enough bit to be able to machine the detail. Have a search on the vectric forum for creating models from photographs as it's a question that gets asked from time to time & you will find some good info about the subject.

 

[ElderlyGent]

What software are you running?

There are several parts to the solution. I use Vectric’s V Carve, which does enough 3D work for me, and the Facebook group and their forum are good, but obviously only for that software.

The first issue is turning a photo into a 3D model; it looks like you have 3 or 4 step heights; did you convert to black and white or greyscale? Then there is taking that data and putting it into a 3D model and generating the G-code; this also involves some choices because the direction of finishing pass will affect the look.

Goor mornng all.

So what is my latest thing I have made. There are two sides to this. Side one is that I can now make the various joints using the box and dovetail creator whixh is saatisfying but by chance I was looking at the 3d relief carving tutorial and this led me to carving from a photograph.
I spent some time findout how to et it up and had a merry old time getting it to show me something in the 3d window that might carve.
I did a first run using some soft pine aand the redult was not good at all. So I thicknessed an off cut of a piece of decking which I think is Accoya and so is a lot harder,
To keep it simple and not have the CNC running for ages I made the piece small as can be seen in the photo by the size of my thumb. On the event the Finishing path did take and hour.
I only have a .25 ball nose for theroughing and a .125 for the finishing a 1/16 th would be a lot better,
However, the result is a step in the right direction so this leads me to ask if there is a forum somewhere that specialises in this art form that I can go to.
If I can getthe result as good as my machine will allow I would like to make wall plaques as gifts perhaps of friends or even relatives petc etc.
I have seen some really fine examples of this on the Internet, so I know it is possible.
So, pointers please. thanks,
stay safe and well.
EG. aka Drew.
View attachment 124346

 

[ElderlyGent]

Good morning again.

Many thanks for your much valud comments and suggetions,
I use Vectric aspire.

So how did I do it.

I created a new work area in this case it was only .75 inch thick , 6 inches wide by about 10 inches long as this I can clamp on the table. I use a Next Wave Piranha which only has a foot square table. I imported it into the UK as there were no fully built ones available at a reasonable cost/

Basically being an Old Old Elderly Gent (I admit to being within a whisker of becoming a Nonogenarian, ) with a severe sight problem it was someething I just could not do, to buile one, even aftr a lifeetimme in engineering.

I then went to the Modeling tab on the top line,and imported from the Create component form bitmap. The photo is from my pictures, It is just a Jpeg.

I sized it and then used the Model tab at the bottom which opened the Modelling Tools panel. Ther I chose the component Properties which allowed m to choose Combine with other components (The secong from the left the U one, and then set the Model Height to .4 inch . the rest I left the same.

The toolpaths generated (Taps) seemed a bit rough so I used the Smoothing icon and set that to the best looking visual I could see.

I apreciate that being so small the result would not be good due to the fact that the finishing tool wasonlu 1/8 in ballnose. and it needed to be boh much larger in both areas, I was more concered with it actually working than perfection for now.

If I can gain height on the learning curve thenn time will not be a problem. What I have done seems to be quite wrong judging by the replies, so it is now a question of getting the Method right. so I need a step by step guide to follow..............

When that happens and I get it right I wojld gladly get the smallet diameter bits to get the finer detail to show.

I hope I have explained how I made the carving as sugested, so I look forward to continuing the thread.

Regards to all, and stay safe

Drew.

 

[martin.pearson]

If I can gain height on the learning curve thenn time will not be a problem. What I have done seems to be quite wrong judging by the replies, so it is now a question of getting the Method right. so I need a step by step guide to follow..............

It's not so much that you have done it wrong, I am not an expert but from what I have seen & read then you are never going to get great results trying to create a Human face using that Bitmap to component tool. Or maybe it's just me & I am to fussy about what I will accept & what I won't lol, Have a look at Michael Mezalick's youtube channel where he does a series on creating a human face using Aspire. The intro is here & then there are 4 or 5 different parts
Well worth watching as are all his tutorials.