OK, I have been away for a bit. I got out of doing video and started faceting gemstones in the basement (the computer is in the house - not so sure it is a trade up ). Well, never say never again. The new hobby started meeting the old one. So now I am working on a video about a faceters' meeting (Franklin Faceter's Frolic 3 if you must).
Back to old reliable for doing covers and titles, A:M.
My new hobby has a tool, GemCad for Windows, for doing design work on stones. And there are large libraries of stones around (including famous diamonds). I noticed that it will export dxf files. Yippy! Well, not too fast. The plug-in import is a little clunky. But if I import into ####### and then export from there as 3DS and import, I have something to work with. A bit of cleanup (like the font extruder sometimes requires) and presto. Attached is a 161 facet Portuguese cut model.
Oh, and if anyone has materials for ruby, emerald, or other gemstones, I would love to know. I have not yet figured out how to do refractive index, dispersion, and birefringence in a material. And if you are curious there, here is a table of common gems and there material properties.
http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/gem_des...properties.html
Thanks
George Ellis
Portuguese2.mdl