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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: rcallicotte on April 02, 2011, 07:41:16 AM

Title: 3D Text Import
Post by: rcallicotte on April 02, 2011, 07:41:16 AM
I searched, but couldn't find anything on this.  I have created text in Lightwave and want to import the exported object into TG2.  But, the result is like there are no faces.  Surface normal is fine.

I have included the object.
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Henry Blewer on April 02, 2011, 08:20:24 AM
I have made some renders using text. I used Wavefront's obj format.
Text in many programs uses b-splines to create the curves and faces. You will probably need to convert the text into a mesh object/s.
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: airflamesred on April 02, 2011, 09:08:47 AM
The mesh seems ok thought there is an overlapping tri on the 'e' which I guess was an n-gon. I don't have tg to hand atm to try - I'll look later
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Kadri on April 02, 2011, 09:26:58 AM

Try this Calico . After Poseray as you see!
I think the polygons with more then 4 vertices causes problems (Ngons? They are problematic most of the time).
You can tripple the model in LW as the basic way but it creates sometimes very bad made objects (from a polygon workflow)  .
You can-must cleanup the model after. There are other ways too maybe.

I like Poseray it is sometimes a life saver  :)

Edit: I only used "Recalculate normals" in the  "Groups"  tabs in Poseray. Crease angle (deg) was 10 (don't know if this is the default or one that i put in there).
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: rcallicotte on April 02, 2011, 11:01:42 AM
You guys have been so helpful.  THANKS!  Kadri, thanks for going to all of the trouble; this is working.  I need to get used to the idea of looking for ngons and keep using PoseRay. 

Thanks again.
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Kadri on April 02, 2011, 11:17:11 AM

:)
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: bobbystahr on April 11, 2011, 09:18:26 AM
Quote from: calico on April 02, 2011, 11:01:42 AM
You guys have been so helpful.  THANKS!  Kadri, thanks for going to all of the trouble; this is working.  I need to get used to the idea of looking for ngons and keep using PoseRay. 

Thanks again.
PoseRay is indeed my best find ever...it has saved me time and again....good that you got it working.. ...
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Seth on April 11, 2011, 09:47:01 AM
agreed, poseray
i did my "logo" on blender then put the letters object through poseray and imported it into TG2.
never had problem
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: inkydigit on April 12, 2011, 05:37:48 AM
does anybody have a link to alphabetic letters etc in obj format (or TGO)?
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: airflamesred on April 12, 2011, 06:13:58 AM
I'v never seen any, a lot would depend on the font you want. I recall an app called elefont? from years ago
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Henry Blewer on April 12, 2011, 08:32:47 AM
It's very easy to make 3D text with most 3D modelling programs. Long ago, back when Reagan was President, 3D fonts sold at a premium.
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: bobbystahr on April 12, 2011, 09:18:16 AM
Quote from: inkydigit on April 12, 2011, 05:37:48 AM
does anybody have a link to alphabetic letters etc in obj format (or TGO)?
Found these in freestuff at Renderosity, Just correct the URLs
hXXp://wwwDOTrenderosityDOTcom/mod/freestuff/detailsDOTphp?item_id=29801
hXXp://wwwDOTrenderosityDOTcom/mod/freestuff/detailsDOTphp?item_id=47273
hXXp://wwwDOTrenderosityDOTcom/mod/freestuff/detailsDOTphp?item_id=47327
hXXp://wwwDOTrenderosityDOTcom/mod/freestuff/detailsDOTphp?item_id=63150

Not sure they're all .obj but we have PoseRay to fix that...will likely need running through anyhoo...I use Imagine3D[freely downloadable from imagine3dDOTorg]It has a spline editor you can do type in and it will access any font you have installed with varting degrees of success, and as some one else recommended there's Elefont tho I dunno if it works beyond XP SP3 as I haven't tried it on Win7 which kills a lot of older apps.. ...
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: goldfarb on April 12, 2011, 09:46:43 AM
Houdini's Font SOP (surface operator) is very good...
does all kinds of things like kerning and italics...
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: inkydigit on April 12, 2011, 10:42:00 AM
thanks folks...I will check this out!
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: Ogre on April 12, 2011, 03:47:09 PM
http://www.terragen.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item377
http://www.terragen.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item378
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: bobbystahr on April 12, 2011, 04:12:50 PM
Quote from: Ogre on April 12, 2011, 03:47:09 PM
http://www.terragen.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item377
http://www.terragen.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item378

Totally spaced this one out...nice catch Ogre
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: inkydigit on April 12, 2011, 04:45:48 PM
Cheers Ogre!!!!

I knew I had seen these somewhere....doh!!!

:)
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: rcallicotte on April 14, 2011, 10:11:55 AM
Thanks Ogre!
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: jaf on April 14, 2011, 01:10:56 PM
Speaking of Poseray....

I noticed there's a new beta version on the download page at: http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/

It might be good for those of us that use it with Terragen to download it and use it to see if the developer hasn't made changes that will negatively effect our obj->tg workflow. I did a quick test and it seems to work the same as the current release (as far as obj prep for tg.)
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: bobbystahr on April 14, 2011, 02:32:59 PM
Quote from: jaf on April 14, 2011, 01:10:56 PM
Speaking of Poseray....

I noticed there's a new beta version on the download page at: http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/

It might be good for those of us that use it with Terragen to download it and use it to see if the developer hasn't made changes that will negatively effect our obj->tg workflow. I did a quick test and it seems to work the same as the current release (as far as obj prep for tg.)
Well I dl'd it and it still won't handle a model with a ton of parts in the parts list...tried bout 5 of my huge models and none would re group by texture if they load and a few woulddn't even get past building the display list. That's as it was and the one thing that really needed fixing IMHO....will explore more, maybe they've fixed up the U/V mapping function as it was rudimentary at best....will report back if I find gold.. ...the one object I did convert that had a reasonable number of parts loaded and rendered well in TG2 though.. ...
Title: Re: 3D Text Import
Post by: jaf on April 14, 2011, 09:26:49 PM
I noticed in the Gallery section of the Poseray site, that there were no Terragen renders.  Maybe we could submit a couple renders with objects prepped by Poseray (my Terragen "art" is not very good, but there's plenty of real artists here that could really upgrade that gallery.)  It might give our suggestions more weight.