Using Illustrator wizard (AI files) for modeling

[Vertexspline]

So I do not own a program yet that saves in "AI" and so I downloaded a demo of corelx5 draw to try out and make some shapes to use the Illustrator file import wizard in AM . It seem to me to be a pretty nifty way of saving some time on certain kinds of modeling. Especially for buildings, walls , windows , things with holes etc.

 

I was kind of curious what others thought of this process. Do they use it often, seldom , never ?

 

Are there any pitfalls , or issues . The splines it created so far for me seemed decent when imported and need little fixing but I have not really done a lot of this. So would be appreciate any thoughts. I know is it always better to keep working on making your models in AM to improve and I do ...but saw this as a time saver of which as we all know is always good.

[robcat2075]

My thoughts....

 

It's not cheating. Art is what shows on the screen, how you got it there doesn't matter to the viewer.

 

It's great for the types of things you listed especially if they need bevels.

 

Drawbacks...

 

the splining isn't as thoughtful as person would do. If you need to squash and stretch and bend an object as you might with a character you may need to rethink what it has done or build the object manually.

[John Bigboote]

I use the ai wizard all the time, extremely useful. You can also make paths in Photoshop for use with the ai wizard, but to a degree. Other programs include Flash and Inkscape. Always remember to save to the legacy illustrator 8 file format for importing to A:M.

[Rodney]

I'm a big fan of the idea of using AI files with A:M but in practice, I must admit, I don't use it a lot.

What I found was that the more I planned out my shapes in Coreldraw the better the results in A:M (I know... I know.... entirely too logical!).

However, the same thing can be said about planning those same/similar shapes out in A:M itself and often you'll find you would have spent about the same amount of time creating the shape directly in A:M.

 

Still, there is something about having the ability to draw/create splines in another program and easily transfer those to A:M that is... a whole lot of fun!

 

Perhaps the most useful thing about using Coreldraw is using Shaping to build splines via Weld and Trim (and to a lesser extent Intersect, Simplify, Front Minus Back and Back Minus Front). Complex cuts don't always transfer well into A:M though.

 

I've found one of the most useful ways to use AI is to bring the shapes into A:M as only outlines. Delete the unwanted CPs, then fill in the surfaces manually.

Whether building in A:M or elsewhere and importing its best to have a target to shoot for.

It's also nice to know that in a pinch I could use Coreldraw to create shapes and objects if necessary.

 

My original plan to work back and forth from A:M to Coreldraw was to draw layered drawings in Coreldraw and then incrementally bring each of those layers into A:M. Alas, I'm no programmer and so I'm not up to the task of getting each layer to import into A:M as desired. Steffen Gross did create the Connect plugin to address part of this in that a series of lines created in Coreldraw can be selected and connected in A:M quickly via the use of the Connect plugin. Not particularly useful in most cases but certainly a big step in that direction.

 

One specific pitfall to be avoided is over reliance on circles created in Coreldraw. Circles tend not to translate perfectly into A:M unless you plan for it. For instance, the AI wizard may not know how to interpret the bias of a single circular spline with only two or three Control Points. Similarly if you cut into a shape with no plan for where splines and CPs will connect... the AI wizard has to interpret where to build surfaces and so it will make best guesses that aren't always right.

[Rodney]

Here's an example of the above shape imported into A:M without any sides or surfaces (only the outlines).

Note how the AI Wizard created one CP for each of the star's points and four CPs for the circle.

Also note how the Bias at the start/end points of the circle's spline were not correctly interpreted.

Complex shapes can be planned for and fixed as necessary but it is often easier just to build in A:M in the first place.

Because circular shapes created in Coreldraw often don't produce enough CPs in the translation I consider them complex shapes that may need to be adjusted before and/or after importing.

[largento]

I use the AI wizard often when I'm making anything mechanical.

 

As Rodney suggests, You can plan ahead in Illustrator by making the points in the path make sense to A:M.

 

I almost never leave it up to the plug-in to fill in patches, though. I just bring in the path and do that on my own. I've found it helpful to create several parts in one AI file at the same size and bring them in all together.

 

For a background machine I made recently, I also threw in some common shapes that I knew I would be able to copy and paste for creating things like buttons and switches.

[Rodney]

Here is a look at the same shape but this time I converted it from Outline to Object in Coreldraw before saving to AI.

The circle shape is now maintained because there are more CPs built but we now have another problem... there are three circles/splines.

Also note that if I wanted to (perfectly) surface this shape the number of CPs on the outer circle and the number of CPs on the star don't allow them to align. The AI Wizard is going to have to interpret this and because of these problems its not likely to produce perfect splines.

 

Note: In the below image I have slightly moved the top CPs up/down to allow you to see that there is more than one circular spline.

[Rodney]

You can see if these two shapes are imported/interpreted separately the star works out fine but the circle...

[Rodney]

Now here is where I think things start getting interesting...

 

Coreldraw has a tool called Contour.

With this tool you can specify an outline be created either inside or outside of a shape.

Creating a contour inside our star translates quite well into A:M.

 

Note: All of these shapes are imported at the same time into A:M with no other adjustments made.

[Vertexspline]

Hey guys --thanks for all that feedback and information. So i guess like a lot of importers one has to still do a little thinking and planning and sometimes nothing beats the good AM modeler and your own splinage. But the botton line was glad to hear it was used by some of you guys and looks like for me I may add this to my tool pipe at least for somethings. The one man circus needs all the time savers one can find.

 

and Rodney special thanks for that detailed response and examples!

[Rodney]

and Rodney special thanks for that detailed response and examples!

 

You are very welcome.

 

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Illustrator and Coreldraw have one very useful tool that specifically can help with bringing drawings into A:M via the AI (Adobe Illustrator) vector format. In Corel it is called CorelTrace and it takes a bitmap (Raster) image and converts the image lines into vectors (which are then in turn turned into splines).

 

Here is a quick conversion of a random image that hasn't been tweaked or optimized in any way.

Original version>CorelTraced outline>Image Color removed (to better see the outline)>Import of AI into A:M

 

 

While you should be able to see some of the potential issues with such a conversion (Follow Mark Largento's suggestion to import the paths only and not surface the outlines!) it's not a bad deal for not even laying down a single spline. Note that I just accepted the default settings from CorelTrace and those settings could be further refined to obtain more/better splines.

 

So, the AI wizard can help with precision placement of lines/splines.

I took a little while to set up the image for displaying here in the forum but the conversion is almost instantaneous (depending on how fast you can click buttons the whole process here was easily under five minutes).

 

...and of course you don't have to actually use the splines you've imported in your final mesh. You can just use them as a spline rotoscope/framework from which to build upon.

[Fuchur]

Coreldraw has a tool called Contour.

With this tool you can specify an outline be created either inside or outside of a shape.

Creating a contour inside our star translates quite well into A:M.

 

For all of you who are working with Illustrator, have a look at the "Pathfinder"-Tool-Bar.

It provides something equal to boolean operations with many different options.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Vertexspline]

And thanks for the additional info.....you guys always go the extra yard in help.

[Rodney]

I should have linked to Holmes Bryant's AI Wizard Tutorial!

So, here it is:

 

The AI Wizard (Fundamentals) by Holmes Bryant

[Vertexspline]

Thanks Rodney-- Will take a look at that. Also for those looking for a cheap alternative for noncommercial uses --corel sells a special coreldraw x5 Home and student version suite that weighs in at $129.00 list but which can be seen at times at other online sources for much much less. (Its nearly the same as its big brother commercial version minus some content and a few features but still a nice draw and paint etc suite)

 

I have already seen for certain modeling things the AI importing process a huge time saver. (for me at least).

[John Bigboote]

For all of you who are working with Illustrator, have a look at the "Pathfinder"-Tool-Bar.

It provides something equal to boolean operations with many different options.

See you

*Fuchur*

 

That's what I was referring to, when I said 'sometimes a visit to AI is necessary'... I could not remember the tool... but to open-up your 'islands' (as I call them, like the inside of an 'o' or 'e') you do need to use that pathfinder tool, as Fucher says.