Decaling

[oakchas]

Okay, I made the statement that I am modeling a keyboard type device. I have decals for each key.. there are 45 some keys. I have a seperate graphic for each key.

 

Currrently, my method is as follows:

 

Here are 3 keys:

[attachmentid=14144]

 

I select one of them. and hide the rest.

 

With the one key zoomed in, I load a decal, something like this:

[attachmentid=14145]

 

The checkerboard area is transparent. the letter graphic is centered on the key and applied.

 

Assuming the next letter is "B," I would select the next key and apply the graphic as before.

 

And so on, thru the complete keyboard layout... this is a lot of decals, on a lot of seperate keys.

 

The question is this... if I have a graphic that has A B C on it (... not just C); how do I apply just the C on the third key?

 

Does this require the UV editor? Or that I flatten the keys? Well, I've gotten confugled.

 

Please note... where I am writing this, I have no A:M nor PS.... so the jpgs above are rough representations of the real things.

[noewjook]

I do not understand quit well why you should use seperate decals for each key.

Would it not be easyer to do the following;

 

-Select the keys of your keyboardmodel

-Hide the rest

- import an image of your modelwindow into photoshop so you can use this as

a guide to compose your graphics on the keyboard on one single image.

-Import the resulting image in AM.

-select the keys of your model and hide the rest.

-Apply one single decal with all your graphics al ready in place on the keys.

 

done. ?

 

Eventally If you have a graphic with ABC on it and you select one key, hide the rest, center the

"c" on the key and apply,then the other letters (AB) will not be visible.

 

Hope this helps.

[oakchas]

Marc,

 

Of course! Simple isn't it? I can even just hide everything but the tops of the keys...

 

Sheesh! It HAS been a long week. I just wasn't thinking.

 

Thanks, and by the way, I really like your self portrait (on your profile page)... very expressive!

[noewjook]

Marc,

 

Of course! Simple isn't it? I can even just hide everything but the tops of the keys...

 

Sheesh! It HAS been a long week. I just wasn't thinking.

 

Thanks, and by the way, I really like your self portrait (on your profile page)... very expressive!

Thank you However the portrait is not my work it has been made by a good friend of mine

Daniel Schelfthout a conventional 2d animator and a animation monument in Belgium.

The avator is a selfportrait as well but that one is made by me. In AM of course [attachmentid=14163]

It is an old model (so am I) I should fix the hands.

[oakchas]

Well, then!

 

I like them both!

 

And thanks for making the method of decaling obvious... Sometimes we complicate things too much.

[Slipin Lizard]

Just browsing, but that little pick you made for your avatar is just great noewjook, I really like it, a lot! Now, can you guys go find my decal posting and save me from my own AM hell?

 

[oakchas]

Well... Sigh.

 

Things are not going so well. I have a keyboard model. An old typewriter to be more precise. I have decaled the keys ~45, I never kept count. It looks beautiful so far (take my word)... but the problem is those 45 + decals at 600 X600 pixels, one for each key.

 

Okay, don't take my word... here's a screenshot of the beginning, and the end result

[attachmentid=14221][attachmentid=14223]

 

And, a closeup (nonwire) in panavision res (cropped)

[attachmentid=14222]

 

I have tried hiding all but the tops of all the keys and making a large decal of all the letters and numbers. It is not working because the model then will not stand up to scrutiny. The letters are fuzzy up close and this keyboard will be used in a close up. I can always use a proxy of the typewriter and use the keyboard portion of the model with the hi res decals for up close work, I guess... but I was hoping not to.

 

Here is another solution I tried:

 

Render to 35MM or Panavision or any of the large formats (wireframe only) from either the modeling window or from chor. I get an error msg. There is an asterisk next to these large format options in the rendering dialogue... Why? Can't find anything in the tech manual... or the other usual places (I'm trying to do my duty to check available resources first before firing off these questions).

 

This solution might give me a big enough file to use as a template for the decaling that won't make the letters blur on close up.

 

Currently the targa (decals) I am saving @ 600X600 with unaliased letters in a PS like product, with an alpha channel are giving great fantastic results on the keys. When I do render as large as I can 1280X1064 and make the letters fit the area to be decaled... the letters are jagged like an old .pcx file....

 

I can up the actual dpi resolution of the targa... that might do it.... but can you see anything in the description above that might be wrong? For example ... why I can't render wireframe to the large format files?

 

Any thoughts appreciated....

 

I ought to ask helimox about his 'copter cockpit and all the decals that surely MUST be there....

[Stuart Rogers]

... but the problem is those 45 + decals at 600 X600 pixels, one for each key. ... I have tried hiding all but the tops of all the keys and making a large decal of all the letters and numbers. It is not working because the model then will not stand up to scrutiny.

I would go for the one-decal-for-all-keys approach - but it will need a higher resolution than 600 pixels. To find out how big your image should be, you'll have to know how big (in pixels) each key will appear to be in the final render.

I can up the actual dpi resolution of the targa...

Forget about DPI. A:M ignores DPI (as not all image file formats contain a DPI value) - all it cares about is pixels.

 

After all that careful splining, I hate to suggest that your keys are more spline heavy than they need. You have three ring splines defining the base of each key. With careful tweaking of gamma and magniture values, you can easily get away with just one. Absolute accuracy isn't necessary here as you're covering up all that detail with the top plate. Come to think of it, as the top plate obscures the key bases, there's no need to join all your keys together into one surface.

[oakchas]

Come to think of it, as the top plate obscures the key bases, there's no need to join all your keys together into one surface.

 

 

The key bases are not joined into one surface... that is the top plate...

 

I would go for the one-decal-for-all-keys approach - but it will need a higher resolution than 600 pixels. To find out how big your image should be, you'll have to know how big (in pixels) each key will appear to be in the final render.

 

I hadn't thought of seeing how big, in pixels, each key is... I'll look at that... but the problem I have is rendering out bigger than 1280X1064.

 

Maybe I don't need to go bigger than that, anyway...

 

I'm currently rebuilding it anyway 'cause I pulled a stupid trick and corrupted the mdl file... I submitted to Hash Reports ... but figured I ought to rebuild and learn my lesson about saving to separate files...

[Stuart Rogers]

Come to think of it, as the top plate obscures the key bases, there's no need to join all your keys together into one surface.

The key bases are not joined into one surface... that is the top plate...

My mistake - I misinterpreted your image.

... but figured I ought to rebuild and learn my lesson about saving to separate files...

Not only that, but get in the habit of taking extra back ups as you go. If you save your models to separate files you reduce the damage if a file gets corrupted, but you still lose the work in the corrupted file. If you take regular copies, you have something to go back to. Or rename your model every now and again (eg with a version code on the end that you can tweak).

[ddustin]

I'm currently rebuilding it anyway 'cause I pulled a stupid trick and corrupted the mdl file... I submitted to Hash Reports ... but figured I ought to rebuild and learn my lesson about saving to separate files...

Seems to be a recuring problem for more that just you.

[Ganthofer]

Here is a trick that may be helpful (maybe not !). I used it on book covers.

 

For all the keys that are the same (Identical) size and shape:

- make a model of a key ( cut it out of your full model ).

- make a set of images (same aspect ratio, over all size can be different )

- position and apply one image, then add all the other images to this key model.

- make a model of the rest of the keyboard.

- in an Action for the keyboard, add the key model as an Action Object for as many copies you need.

- set each key to display the proper letter (I set the % to 0 for all the unwanted letters ).

 

might be able to use a Images sequence, but I don't know how you control which frame is displayed. there is only a frame number selection and obviously you don't want the letters changing every frame .

 

Just a thought.

[heyvern]

I am a big fan of the "One Big Decal".

 

You don't need a huge hi-res wire frame render for placement. Use the highest you can produce without problems... apply it to the model... then... resize this wire frame decal in photoshop till the keys aren't "fuzzy" in your renders.

 

When you save over the "old" decal image it will update in AM with the "new larger" one.

 

As a matter of fact you could have two decal images... one "smaller" one for distant shots (improves render times possibly)... then switch to the larger one for close ups by swapping the decal image.

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[oakchas]

Thanks all for the replies... it'll be Tuesday or Wednesday before I can get back to it and try these things....

[Slipin Lizard]

Just a little more food for thought. My Juno 60 model is still hanging out in the Showcase forum. I used basically one big decal for it (there were a few spots I decaled separately, but most of it is one huge decal).

 

I was able to make the decal just a little bigger than needed in Illustrator, so if you can imagine how complicated all those little numbers and lines are, and yet if I sized the decal to something like 93.5 % and then applied, everything matched up beautifully.

 

I only mention this because the decal holds up to close ups. As a matter of fact, the writing becomes more legiable the closer you get. Are you sure your can't use one big decal for and still get close ups? What if you make your model bigger, so that when you zoom in, you're not reaching the pixel limit of your computer?

 

Maybe I'm just wacked out of my gord...

[JohnArtbox]

Another option is to decal one key. Then copy and paste it 26+ times, then go into the decal list and update the decal to the appropriate letter. Unless ram is an issue I'd go with the one big decal and Vern's suggestion, it makes it much easier to update the decal at a later date.