Face Relief

HI,
I’m trying to make a profile relief of a face (like on a coin), and would love some suggestions. So far, I’ve done a network surface, and rebuilt the UV points and increased them to 40 by 40, so that I can move the points. The problem is since it’s a grid, I’m having difficulty sculpting curved parts like the ear or eyes. Is there a different or easier way to do this in Rhino?
thanks,
Susan

Hi Susan, you should look into Clayoo. They have an Emboss type command that might do what you looking for. There should be a webinar that shows this feature on YouTube. —-Mark

have you got screenshot or a file of what you want to do? there are a bunch of onboard methods.

check this thread Fillet with text
or this How to smooth this

Hi Susan - if your goal is to sculpt more or less realistically in low relief, I would say you have your work cut out for you using surfacing - if you know how to sculpt you may have a chance using some mesh based tools but you’d really have to know your stuff, surfacing wise, to get a good result using surfaces, depending, of course on what level of detail and ‘realism’ you’re shooting for.

-Pascal

Hey Pascal,
How are you? I took your Rhino 2 class a few years ago. Anyways I’m trying to do a simple relief, doesn’t have to be super detailed. I’ve sculpted other simple animals like seahorses and salamanders similar to the duck exercise in Rhino 1 training manual, but I was wondering if there is another option of surface modeling in Rhino?

Hi Susan - I’d think about adding the details you mentioned above as separate surfaces, even if they just intersect one another and can be trimmed to one another and don’t match up perfectly - I don’t see being too much hope in trying to do this as a single surface, for the reason you mention - the squareness of NURBS. A SubD modeling tool is probably more appropriate , or a sculpting thing like ZBrush.

-Pascal

What about making a gray scale photo and a Bump / Displacement map?

// Rolf

yup at least a heightfield as suggested. one would have to repaint it a bit that the front parts are darker versus the back parts brighter. i had a quick try on that, i didnt want to be respectless making a coin out of whos ever child that is. if so then just add more white area around the body and head.

here the texture, i started repainting it a bit, greyscaling and inverting was a good start since the head already had this kind of shading which is needed. either for further cleaning up or as a reference. if taken serious the shading could still be improved, a more subtle transition for example. i use the dodge and the burn tool in Photoshop for shading repainting.

800x1068 copy.tif.zip (1.9 MB)

and the file

Untitled.3dm.zip (5.7 MB)

HEy Richard and Rolf,
I did try that, but the surface is really choppy. Ultimately I need to print this, and cast in sterling silver and then the jewelers will need to polish this. For now I think I’ll just move rebuild and move points on the surface. I think ultimately I will need ZBrush. Thanks for the suggestions guys!
thanks,
Susan

I agree. Sculptris is a free program for making 3D sculptures (for those who cannot afford $699 ZBrush): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fpxfQUD3Uo

Something similar I’ve just made this week. I had a photo of a rock, friend of mine convert it to grey scale picture, in Corel I believe. After this I load this picture to zsurf to generate an IGS file. This file I imported to Rhino to make some minor adjustment (change scale, draw raw material, cut unused surfaces, create some curves) for easier milling in SurfCam.

If you want to make high quality reliefs you should have a look at Artcam. Delcam sold out to Autodesk a few years ago and AD eliminated some of the specialty packages but the standard version is available for about $360/yr. One month free. Standard version includes CAM module for programming a CNC router and, generating G code.

For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fdc0aRnmg8