An interesting test project...

[MikeV]

While working on the prototype for a game project I was starting up, I created some models of various props and such. I was working in Blender, and so they're all polygonal models. But that's fine.

 

I've decided I'm going to recreate a couple in-particular in Blender. It's a good "1-to-1" comparison and, I think, will help me with learning how to handle splines better, etc.

 

They're a small and medium sized market stand which were going to be used for a market place area of the starting town in my prototype.

 

The medium stand isn't finished as of this screenshot, and actually needed some optimization to be really game ready (3661 faces for just a single, static object is a bit steep, especially when fewer would do just as well). The smaller stand isn't as complex, but could still be optimized a bit, and the texture-mapping was placeholder, to test my UV unwrapping job. Each of those, I bet, will be much lighter weight as Hash Patches.

 

So, I think it'll be a fun project to undertake, to sorta augment the exercises in TAoAM. Having first-hand knowledge of what the end result is supposed to be will be helpful, too. I still have the Blender models here somewhere, too, so I can open those up for a direct reference if need be.

 

So here's pics of each...

 

Small Stand

Medium Stand

 

Thought I'd share that, see if y'all had any thoughts, feedback, etc.

[robcat2075]

I've decided I'm going to recreate a couple in-particular in Blender.

 

you mean recreate them in A:M, They are already made in Blender, right.

 

Those look like eminently doable object for A:M, with smoother curves too.

 

Lathing can make the legs of the Small Stand.

 

The decorative panels with lots of empty space in the Medium stand can probably be easily done with the AI wizard which will import an Adobe Illustrator outline file.

[MikeV]

I've decided I'm going to recreate a couple in-particular in Blender.

 

you mean recreate them in A:M, They are already made in Blender, right.

 

Those look like eminently doable object for A:M, with smoother curves too.

 

Lathing can make the legs of the Small Stand.

 

The decorative panels with lots of empty space in the Medium stand can probably be easily done with the AI wizard which will import an Adobe Illustrator outline file.

 

Yeah, those shots were taken in, or rendered from the models I made in Blender, and my intention is to recreate them, probably improve on them, in A:M.

 

I'd forgotten about the ability to import from Illustrator. Does it specifically have to be .ai format? I have Inkscape, which is an open source version of Illustrator (actually it's kind of an Illustrator/Photoshop hybrid; neat program). 'cause if I can create the shapes in there and then still have them usable in A:M, that'd be great.

 

Incidentally, about the curly decorative bits.. those are part of what was pushing the poly count higher than it needed to be. You'd be surprised how many extra faces those little suckers add to the model. What I was going to do, before I stopped working on it, was to create an alpha mapped texture of more ornate, bronzed looking shape, and of varying thickness, etc. Then I'd have a normal map, a spec map and such to give them a 3D look. The end result would be much cheaper in terms of poly count, and would probably look better, with the use of pixel shaders giving everything more depth.

 

Alas, they won't be used for that. However, I'm sure that once I've remade them, I can find a use for them in something.

 

I was reading some of the threads for the Oz movies being worked on by y'all, and I think it would be fantastic to be able to contribute to that. It's very inspirational and a real charge to see so many people collaborating to something like that. So, hey, maybe if I can make some good props, etc that would be something.

 

I have a ways to go before I feel I'd be ready for that, though.

 

In the meantime, I'll just keep going through the TAoAM exercises and finding other ways to learn and challenge myself.

[Gerry]

Hey MikeV, the trick to importing paths from Illustrator is they have to be saved specifically in AIv8 format. If Inkscape can save to that format it should work.

[MikeV]

Hey MikeV, the trick to importing paths from Illustrator is they have to be saved specifically in AIv8 format. If Inkscape can save to that format it should work.

 

Hmmm, bummer. To my knowledge there is no plugin that will export directly to version 8. Maybe I can find a copy of Illustrator 8, or later, cheap somewhere.

[robcat2075]

I'm afraid I have yet to find a suitable free alternative to AI for making AI files. If anyone does, send up a flare.

 

However those shapes are also doable with conventional modeling techniques, no AI required. Ask if you get stuck.

 

I was reading some of the threads for the Oz movies being worked on by y'all, and I think it would be fantastic to be able to contribute to that.

 

Good news and bad news on that....

 

Good news: the movies are done.

 

Bad news (for you): the movies are done.

 

There was brief talk of a third one, but we all need to catch our breathe.

 

You CAN do something for "Rear Window". Take a look at our previous BUS STOP project and you'll see some people did very brief segments which still worked great.

[MikeV]

I'm afraid I have yet to find a suitable free alternative to AI for making AI files. If anyone does, send up a flare.

 

However those shapes are also doable with conventional modeling techniques, no AI required. Ask if you get stuck.

 

I was reading some of the threads for the Oz movies being worked on by y'all, and I think it would be fantastic to be able to contribute to that.

 

Good news and bad news on that....

 

Good news: the movies are done.

 

Bad news (for you): the movies are done.

 

There was brief talk of a third one, but we all need to catch our breathe.

 

You CAN do something for "Rear Window". Take a look at our previous BUS STOP project and you'll see some people did very brief segments which still worked great.

 

 

Ahh yeah, I did see those other projects as well. Are community projects fired up fairly regularly? I can always contribute to one of those when I feel my skills are up to it.

[pixelplucker]

Hey MikeV, the trick to importing paths from Illustrator is they have to be saved specifically in AIv8 format. If Inkscape can save to that format it should work.

 

Can Inkscape export an ai? Thought it was just svg.

[MikeV]

Hey MikeV, the trick to importing paths from Illustrator is they have to be saved specifically in AIv8 format. If Inkscape can save to that format it should work.

 

Can Inkscape export an ai? Thought it was just svg.

 

I looked into it a bit, and my initial findings aren't that promising. Every case I've seen of people asking about exporting AI format results in people telling them to use SVG instead.

 

I did see that you can get older versions of AI on EBay for pretty cheap - as low as $10 or $20 bucks. Thing is, they're all on auction mode with no "buy now"s available. The other thing is, I hate eBay.

[robcat2075]

I wish A:M could do with outlines made in A:M what it can do with outlines made in AI. OR expand the AI plugin to accept SVG plugins.

 

 

I used an old version of Macromedia Freehand to make outlines and export them to AI but it stopped working under Windows 7.

 

 

Someone on this forum said that an EPS file is almost the same as AI and you could make the change with a text editor, but I never found out how to do that.

[NancyGormezano]

I wish A:M could do with outlines made in A:M what it can do with outlines made in AI. OR expand the AI plugin to accept SVG plugins.

 

yeah - seems like it would have been better for the plugin to have used splines as input, rather than ai files. Must have been a reason why it didn't. Perhaps because it probably made use of same code as the font plugin. It's a very old plugin.

 

I used an old version of Macromedia Freehand to make outlines and export them to AI but it stopped working under Windows 7.

 

 

I still use XP Pro, and Photoshop 6.0.1 (pre CS) which can export paths to ai, that work with the plugin in A:M. My version of PS does not give me any options as to which version of ai to use when exporting, but since it works with A:M, I assume it must be 8 or lower.

 

I hate upgrading. Invariably, things stop working. OS's, drivers, graphic cards, computers, software. Bah humbug.

 

(uh...GULP...That must have been my evil really OLD cranky twin who wrote that last statement...)

[pixelplucker]

Old versions of Illustrator such as 7 will run on Win 7 64 bit but you will receive an error when it loads because it looks for Kodak's color management system that doesn't install properly. The program runs fine other than that.

 

Not sure why AM can't use generic eps files so long as they are just vector. I used to be able to import ai's and eps files in Amapi even though the plug-in said ai only. There isn't a ton of difference between ps, eps and ai so long as they are all vector. Vector import should be possible with pdf files as well.

 

As far as Photoslop is concerned I thought you could export the paths out to illustrator. I remember doing that way way back when I needed to extract the clipping path on a photo separately. They remove that ability?

[robcat2075]

Old versions of Illustrator such as 7 will run on Win 7 64 bit but you will receive an error when it loads because it looks for Kodak's color management system that doesn't install properly. The program runs fine other than that.

 

The installer for FH 7 on my original installation CD won't run under Win 7 or any compatibility settings i can apply to it. That's as far as i get.

[zandoriastudios]

paths from Photoshop exported as .ai, even CS6, are v8 so they will work in A:M

[johnl3d]

Converting .eps (Encapsulated PostScript) to .ai (Adobe Illustrator)

 

You may get away with simply renaming .eps to .ai

[robcat2075]

I just found I also had a CD for FreeHand V9. That does work on Windows 7, and can export a proper AI file.

 

[Roger]

I just found I also had a CD for FreeHand V9. That does work on Windows 7, and can export a proper AI file.

 

 

So, let me see if I can wrap my head round this: you can make a silhouette of a shape in Illustrator like that and import it into AM and have it auto-extrude and cap it? If so, that is a pretty neat trick. Which makes me wonder why you can't just do that with an outline in AM. Guess I need to look for an Illustrator clone now.

[robcat2075]

I just found I also had a CD for FreeHand V9. That does work on Windows 7, and can export a proper AI file.

 

 

So, let me see if I can wrap my head round this: you can make a silhouette of a shape in Illustrator like that and import it into AM and have it auto-extrude and cap it?

And will bevel the edge if you want, too!

 

 

If so, that is a pretty neat trick. Which makes me wonder why you can't just do that with an outline in AM. Guess I need to look for an Illustrator clone now.

 

It all started with the font wizard which did that same maneuver for standard outline fonts.

 

I think I made feature request for what you are wondering but it hasn't been taken up yet.

[Malo]

Hello,

 

It is possible to draw forms directly into AM and extrude them and cap them in AM through free plugin "CAP wizard" of CircusMedia.

The address was in: http://circusmedia.net/cap2/instructions.html

But the site has disappeared, and I do not know what happened to the creator of this plugin.

Maybe is there another link?

If this is not the case. What is the legality of transmitting this plugin? Is it possible to transmit it to the forum to allow it to download?

[robcat2075]

Hello,

 

It is possible to draw forms directly into AM and extrude them and cap them in AM through free plugin "CAP wizard" of CircusMedia.

The address was in: http://circusmedia.net/cap2/instructions.html

But the site has disappeared, and I do not know what happened to the creator of this plugin.

Maybe is there another link?

If this is not the case. What is the legality of transmitting this plugin? Is it possible to transmit it to the forum to allow it to download?

 

 

thanks for the tip, Malo!

 

 

Fortunately the page still exists via the Wayback machine at Archive.org

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20050315082059/...structions.html

 

It includes the download and the instruction page, minus a few jpgs.

 

I'd say it's safe to post here since it was free anyway. It will probably only work in 32-bit PC versions of A:M if it still works.

 

 

Brian Levine is the name on that. Anyone know him? How to contact him? He probably still has the source code.

[Malo]

the download link on the site history does not work.

 

I also think that this is not a problem, here is a link to download:

CM_Cap htx plugin (Brian Levine)

 

If it ever ask a problem, I will destroy the link.

Anyway thank you to Brian Levine, for this plugin.

[robcat2075]

I've tried it in v15. It runs but it doesn't do anything like the pictures show. What version are you using?

[pixelplucker]

Old versions of Illustrator such as 7 will run on Win 7 64 bit but you will receive an error when it loads because it looks for Kodak's color management system that doesn't install properly. The program runs fine other than that.

 

The installer for FH 7 on my original installation CD won't run under Win 7 or any compatibility settings i can apply to it. That's as far as i get.

 

Ya Macromedia really screwed up, I stopped using Freehand back in version 5. Ended up tossing version 6 because it was so buggy it wouldn't install on the pc. Macromedia killed Freehand when they took it over from Aldus and eventually layed off the old Aldus crew.

[pixelplucker]

Converting .eps (Encapsulated PostScript) to .ai (Adobe Illustrator)

 

You may get away with simply renaming .eps to .ai

 

Don't think you can just rename the extension. The headers are different. Eps file are either binary or asci format. The asci is closest to ai. With eps files there can be an issue with some programs reading the bounding box as an object that would need to be unmasked and removed or ignored. Better written programs will ignore the box and not print it.

[robcat2075]

OK, I got something like an expected result from the plugin, still using v15...

 

 

 

It's not quite as functional as the AI wizard but it might be useful in some circumstances.

[pixelplucker]

Did a quickie test creating a path in Moi3d and exporting an .ai. The AI importer for AM works really really well with the path.

Moi3d runs under $300. Far cheaper than Illustrator.

 

Moi3d will interpret the path and place segments in a uniform distance where Illustrator and other 2d drawing programs will export the points generated by the user. I think he Nurbs to AI work much cleaner in AM and less likely to have artifacts.

moi_path.zip

[robcat2075]

Testing the Circus Media Cap Wizard a bit... it gives more predictable results if you use it on a spline that is on a vertical plane, a spline drawn in the front view.

[pixelplucker]

I had loads of issues with that plug-in using 15xx, would crash like crazy here so I removed it.

 

The ai wizzard works really nice and the ai generated from a cad program gives much better results just because of the way it creates cp's in a grid rather than user defined. I don't see any really long edges and no edge artifacts.

[mouseman]

I created a feature request for SVG import.

 

When they were building the new building at work, I thought it would be great to try to import the splines and then extrude some walls and patch up the floor to create a quick 3D version of the model. Someone slipped me a copy of the plans in CAD DXF format and another set supposedly in AI format. The AI import crashed the A:M import function. I could get other programs to read the data in either DXF or AI format, but nothing I could find (without paying) would then subsequently export to a (fixed) version of the AI format. I would guess there would have been more options if A:M had an SVG import available.