Xara 2D drawings to 3D modeling program

[Gare]

OBJ is a legacy file format created byAlias|Wavefront which is now owned by AutoDesk and named Maya.

This format is as common in modeling programs as a TXT file is to writing stuff.

The reason why is that OBJ files can contain curved splines to make true 3D meshes with curves just like Xara shapes. DXF and other export and import file formats use straight small vectors to make circles and stuff and in close-ups, the straight little vectors are visible.

Beware of SketchUp. You can do wonderful architecture, but curved surfaces are very difficult, as in impossible! They, too, have hard, straight profiles when you try to make spheres and stuff. They need a lot of subdivision (increasing polygons by dividing one into two) and Phong angles (at which angle does geometry get a curve during rendering time).

-g

[handrawn]

as it happens the avatar that I have been using up to now:



is based on a 3D model from a xara sketch - very simple and stylised horse sculpture seen from behind and to one side - easier to see what it is a bit larger size:



was meant to give a 'concrete' block structure effect in it's original use... and it worked well

anyway the avatar is being retired, [sorry Egg ], it has had a good run

[Gare]

Handrawn—

If you're interested in exploring more "block" treatments, boy do I have a source forge for you. It's called Structure Synth, Right Here



This image is a paltry example of what it can do and export as an obj.

My Best,

Gary

[angelize]

I have used a very similar technique with drawing splines in Xara and saving them as a .svg then importing them into Blender and using the spin feature to create the 3D mesh. I export as an open path though but the result is much the same. I have also used Xara to create a quick closed shape to bring into Blender for modeling.

Once I needed a bowl of dog food so I created the bowl in a similar fashion to what Gary did, and the dog food needed to have several different shapes so I quickly and roughly drew those in Xara, exported to svg and once I had each svg imported into Blender I converted them to a mesh and started modeling from there.

[Gare]

While it's true that Xara's 3D engine produces some pretty slick, complex, and very attractive extrudes, there are more operations than extruding that you can do with a path. What Frances refers to, and what I did was create a vertical half shape of a cylindrical object and then performed something called lathing, like how you make ceramics on a potter's wheel. There is also lofting, where you can draw different objects, put them in 3D space at regular intervals and then skin them.

You also have sweeping, where you run a closed path shape along an open path.

At left, the spring thing is a pentagon swept along a helix. At right, the thing that looks like it fell off your car around 30 miles back is a loft of a circle, to a hexagon, to another circle, and then the journey proceeds downward to create a round recess at top:



-g

[csehz]

At left, the spring thing is a pentagon swept along a helix. At right, the thing that looks like it fell off your car around 30 miles back is a loft of a circle, to a hexagon, to another circle, and then the journey proceeds downward to create a round recess at top:

That looks so great.. Also easily associates the impression that the 3D modeler programs are on 'higher level', not sure that is true. But relating the angle assumingly in few second you could rotate differently and with that any similiar representation by a 2D program like Xara could not compete.

Inspite of that reading on Wikipedia that there is also a back direction, so moving drawing from 3D modeler to a 2D program. However seeing this quality hard to imagine for what reason would be that needed.

[Gare]

That looks so great.. Also easily associates the impression that the 3D modeler programs are on 'higher level', not sure that is true. But... a 2D program like Xara could not compete.

Oh, csehz! You make be want to never post another rendered model again on tg!

There is no competition in art programs...there is only addition. I think I have 400 programs installed, cut that down to about 200 if you discount utilities, but I used everyone of them at least one a month, not giving up a single one (except when one of my $%^# Western Digitals suddenly crashed!)

I have not given up CorelDRAW for Xara,and I have not given up Xara for (expensive) modeling programs.

The truth is that my favorite art tools are sitting on a physical draughting table upstairs and they mostly consist of different harnesses of pencils, and 24 lb. ledger bond paper, kneaded erasers and a whole bunch of ink pens.

Direct contact with what you're creating has it all over using a computer for beginnings to art, revisions, and I must say that the growing niche of computer programs I now use came second, not first, in expressing myself.

I still cannot create the sort of expression in my mind's eye and my heart using graphics programs that I do with a sketch pad. Today, I do my finishing in Xara, auto-tracing my B&W work, and then doing the coloring. Before 1991, I used makers, the same as most other cartoonists and ad agency storyboard artists.

Here's a typeface I conceived of over 20 years ago, but didn't have the technology to bring it to life, as life goes inside a computer! It might be another 20 years to complete it, because I'm easily distracted, but the point is: you see the pencil strokes and the ink-overs? They were the preliminary impressions I created, and I'm using Xara here to create accuracy and consistency among the characters.



Modeling is great: I've indulged myself in it as long as I've used vector drawing programs. But one is not the other, and you need to remember to use the right tool for the right job. I've been cartooning since I was 6 years old (my 61st birthday is tomorrow, so that makes it 55 years of 'tooning endeavors. And I'm not soliciting sympathy for my temporal plight!).

And a pencil and ink are absolutely the right tools for cartooning. Modeling programs suck in comparison. The reason why I model a lot is because I can "see" three dimensions projected onto a 2D monitor screen, and have an innate ease of navigating this faux 3D space, which puts me ahead of the game. If I can draw it, I draw it. If it needs rotation, and different lighting and entirely different reflective textures, a modeling program is my choice of tools.

No competition, csehz, and I must emphasize this. There are no "better" programs (okay, Chrome is better than Opera ), but only specialized tool that you collect. Heck, I have a superb texture making program that won't run in 64x space, so I'm using a virtual machine with Win XP on it just to access one stinking program I need.

I'd be on CG Society and not TalkGrasphics if I felt there was one indisputable terrific piece of software. There isn't.

My Best,

Gary

[handrawn]

Handrawn—

If you're interested in exploring more "block" treatments, boy do I have a source forge for you. It's called Structure Synth, Right Here

thanks I'll go take a look