2

so I have a pattern as a PNG. I was wondering if Blender had a way of turning the PNG into a mesh. It's kinda like how if you put a transparent shader on a plane with an image texture you get a 2d picture/sprite thing. I was wondering if I could do something like that but extrude it so it's a 3d mesh. If any of that made sense, how could I do this/is there a way to do this without modelling it all over?

Thanks in advance

Chickenator
  • 1,803
  • 5
  • 22
  • 33
  • This is not possible without manually modelling it as far as I am aware. Would be a really cool addon though! – J Sargent Jan 18 '15 at 22:18
  • 1
    @NoviceInDisguise just found it out! There's a type of pixture called .svg or something which can be turned into a mesh! – Chickenator Jan 18 '15 at 22:32
  • 3
    TRACEyour image into paths using Inkscape or illustrator and save it as SVG. Then just import into blender using the SVG importer. Make sure you read this: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23170/why-cant-i-import-a-svg-file-from-adobe-illustrator http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/136/svg-to-mesh-conversion –  Jan 18 '15 at 22:35
  • @Chickenator True, SVG files do that, however with PNG files (like you asked) there is no way to do that. – J Sargent Jan 19 '15 at 03:42
  • See the answer here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1609/tracing-a-monochrome-image-into-a-3d-extruded-object-with-a-script/1610#1610 – Ray Mairlot Jan 19 '15 at 10:38
  • Can you post an example of your image? – ajwood Jan 19 '15 at 16:00
  • @ajwood no I can't because I haven't made it yet, it's just an idea – Chickenator Jan 19 '15 at 16:01
  • @Chickenator even a scribbled idea would be helpful. Something like this (http://img27.fansshare.com/pic19/w/seamless3d/1200/21569_seamless_texture_of_star_shape_with_complex_colorful_pattern.jpg) will probably need a different strategy from this (http://4vector.com/i/free-vector-beautiful-pattern-background-03-vector_015044_all-free-download.com_109363670.jpg) – ajwood Jan 19 '15 at 16:05
  • @ajwood okay, here's an image if you need one http://imgur.com/prLCAAS – Chickenator Jan 19 '15 at 16:13

1 Answers1

8

There is a possibility I have thought of:

Create a plane. Subdivide it a lot. Then add displacement modifier. Make sure the texture is black and white.

Apply the texture to the displacement modifier, this will raise 1 area of the plane while the other is lowered. Apply the displacement modifier.

Than you can go to side view in edit mode and select the lower faces using box select and delete them.

beiller
  • 2,170
  • 12
  • 11