Can Rhino map a raster image using source and destination points?

[Steve1]

Hi,
V5, V8
I am trying to create side view profiles of aircraft.
as such here is an example of a task, draw the badge accurately, as no one has done so.

Asisbiz II. Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 52 - II./JG52 Battle of Britain Sep 1940

and having drawn accurately the cowling in Rhino, can I select lets say 10 points on the image and the 10 points on the model and say ‘go fit to those’
and have the image distorted and so on, and mapped onto the model ?

I am also trying to plot mottles and codes and wing camo patterns onto such and having got the item as an accurate Rhino model , to be able to indicate source and destination points and have the image wrapped/mapped onto the model, I could then get the ortho side view or planview (rare to get wing uppers as pics) into photoshop to complete the colour side view and planform profiles.

Photoshop distort tool is ok on planar areas, but fuselages are not planar.

This would in fact be the best thing I have dicovered I can do in a decade ! save days of work.

Now with V8 maybe it can do this.

Cheers

Steve

[David53 (David)]

Having had no response from your last request, I am feeling a little less inclined to help. Perhaps @theoutside solved your previous rendering problem.

Anyway, directly mapping this from the image seems a poor approach.

Instead, I would attempt to attempt a reverse perspective transform, using the approximate linear guides (perhaps the panelling) as adjustments to remove the perspective. This can be done in Photoshop or GIMP.

After that, you can likely then change this transformed image into a vectorised image using Illustrator or Inkscape.

Using the above methods would give you a clean, conserved, vectorised, and lossless decal to work with as you please in Rhino, using the decal function. It won’t be 100% accurate, but will be as good as if not far better than simply stripping a subsection of the image in the link.

[cdordoni]

I think what you want to do is possible using curves with unroll / reroll or squish / squishback.
I think it would be a huge amount of work for decals for an entire aircraft, and there would likely be some trial and error involved (iterative process).

I think it will not save you any time over the process you are currently using (it could be more), although it would be more accurate.

[Steve1]

Hi,
@David53
sorry if I missed replying, might have been the time I ended up with a redesigned spine…ouch.
I place all my posts into word and go through them, maybe I forgot to paste it into word. searching I cant find it.
Please give me the link to that thread.
I tried the magnify search icon here on you and @theoutside but cannot search on posts featuring both in that manner.

Meanwhile I was after a quick map and export into photoshop the result,

rather than draw round it first.

To just take a raster and do as my first post here would have been a wish come true.
I will also explore the second suggestion by cdordoni.

Hopes gone though for raster to model using source/destination method.

Must see the other post though, wherever it is and searching on keywords for it, I have used single words mapping, distort, raster. and no luck.

…and then I decided to enter the darkest recesses of my mind, scary place !
and memories came back of another prog I used to map photos I had to my model of the AM463 bowser I was modelling, so as to work out where the items I needed to model had to go, such as fuel tank, running boards, ladder etc.
I remembered a prog beginning wiith an S, and I have found it SketchUp Pro
It seems to be for buildings and 90deg planar surfaces, vanishing lines, not source and destination (target) points though.

Use Match Photo to put your SketchUp Model in Context

and then searching my files I see FormZ free and FormZ Jr.
aha thats it ! BINGO !

formZ Match View

So is this a useful tool to assist Rhino, as it appears Rhino cannot do this in this easy peasy way.
My Christmas Present to anyone that finds this tool useful.

However my subject matter of the cowling is curving slightly in two directions, so to map my raster image emblem to such a surface using source and destination points is still sought, if I am to be exact about this. pending trying your suggestions. and wish to see that thread I cant find of mine !

Cheers

Steve

[theoutside (Kyle Houchens)]

a decal is likely the best way to do this-

get your image, then add a decal and slide it around on the surface as needed-

[Steve1]

Hi,
my image I need to map to the cowling is taken at an angle, see the link.
as such it needs rubber matting onto the cowling using the panel lines on the model matched to those in the raster image.
Would decal allow such distorts of the image , ideally setting target and destination points or drawing lines as targets on the raster ? else it would be push pull until visually it fitted.

I need to post here the actual cowling and that image. I see my model needs the sparkplug panel adding in first, so some unexpected work to do, and here I was chilling out for Christmas.
To see the method actually map a realworld task would show me what works.

Steve

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

Could you give it a try with Wallpaper and PerspectiveMatch

[David53 (David)]

FYI.

If you perspective transform (remove/isolate) the badge from the original image, do some repair work; all in Photoshop, and then use the image as a decal in Rhino, you can get some nice effects and blends. I have no idea what the base of the original badge is, as there is not much to go on. Was sticker/vinyl a thing back in WWII? I’ve only ever really seen directly painted mascots.

Anyway, this method allows you relatively free reign over texture application on any materials (including placement onto a “base” sticker). Here is a lacklustre render of the method above, where the new decal is applied directly to a surface along with arbitrary PBR.

[jeremy5 (Jeremy)]

@David53

the badge from the original image, do some repair work

You might consider a companion image on that website a better starting point. It’s a photo that isn’t torn and was taken before a squaddie took a tin-opener to the fuselage to extract a souvenir… Asisbiz Messerschmitt Bf 109E1 5.JG52 Red 14 Leo Zaunbracher WNr 3367 shot down Lewes 12th Aug 1940-06

[David53 (David)]

I agree mostly. This image would also need some equalisation work around the glare/reflection, and of course the arrow reconstruction at the tip.

I think that second image is also certainly worth a punt. It has a much better completeness and is near enough side on.

[Steve1]

Hi,
Well thats an entire day spent tidying up what was my first Rhino model, that cowling, and I can see mistakes made, one heck of a thing to cut ones teeth on !

surfaces that come to a fine point, still struggling on some of these.

I had hoped to post a SOLID, but it refuses to behave, see other post.

so here it is as best my sagging spirits can do, with groceries melting in hallway 4 hrs ago.

Please play with this.
The thing is I need to map to aircraft fuselages quite oblique angled shots,
this badge is a simple one to test method.
Not always have luxury of a better shot, yes that other one is a better possibility, BUT its not the challenge I normally face,
I need to see where the mottles go, and then recreate in Pshop. so mapping a raster mottles and all, is my all time hope. as else its burning the midnight oil fiddling in pshop.
so its place markers at certain places then get them to end up at the target points.
Only then can I see where everything goes.

FormZ matchview sort of does that but its planar based.

please try with the image link I posted. chop the guys out etc.

here is the cowling sliced for the bits that are needed here, (saves giving away my family jewels ! )
tis valuable to me and confidential.
COWLING.3dm (710.2 KB)
use the location of the cowling fasteners, the U cutout, the panel line, the corner fasteners, and so on.

and then to confirm method, one could try for the other image as well, but I need the not so easy one played with first.
and thats what I might be doing , if I am lucky to have two, sometimes port oblique aft, another port oblique fwd.

Steve

[David53 (David)]

This geometry has many problems. Regardless, you can apply the same method.

I see what you mean, and what you want. However, it is not just a matter of the geometry, but also a matter of the camera that was used. We know nothing about the lens properties; so projecting this will always be a bit of guesswork and “best fit”.

The other problem is that you can only take approximations of the perspective anyway; as there are not really any suitable linear features from which to extract truely meaningful and accurate perspective.

Using some guessing…

However, what I think you want is something like this…

But you see, this is not a task involving linear transformation of a plane, it is a perspective removal that needs to happen. You should do this in Photoshop as well as you can, using Jeremy’s suggestion of using the second image. This is as close as I can get it without distortion using only scaling and rotation of a Rhino planar UV.

The only other way is to unwrap the UV of your largest panel, and then go and do the work in Photoshop. However this is in reality the same task (taking the image to the panels, rather than a general removal of perspective; ideally the two are equivalent).

[Steve1]

Hi,
I am MEGA EXCITED to see that b/w image onto my model, WOW !

However have you the .3dm which I can examine ?
How does the panel lines on my model in black correspond to the red lines in the attached image.

I could now spray over the camo and match the edge and demarcation of colours. excited…
I could create an accurate badge, better than someone who didnt have the mapping methods.

I am needing to do fuselages, yes the middle area and cockpit side are mostly planar, so Photoshop distort tool, but that tool is a nightmare, move one corner and what you had matching elsewhere moves again !
Maybe FormZ and its source/destination system of points.

getting this to be a side view is the challenge. To then draw over the mottles , trace the characters.
That its on a 3D shape to me says it needs a 3D shape to map it to again.
if this is the only view of the cowling , getting that mapped is fun !

another example of what I have to work with.

I need to know how its done, getting the image onto the model.

So very important to me.

Cheers and a Happy New Year, or it will be if I can manage this !

Steve