Speculative thread about 3D output of artwork

[William Overington]

This thread is very speculative, but I am wonderimg what might possibly be the result if we have a look at the idea.

If one has an original painting, then sometimes the surface is not flat as, for example, if thick paint is used and brushmarks show.

Can Affinity Designer be used to generate artwork as a sequence of images that could be used to build up a 3d model file in some other application, such as, for example, Microsoft Paint 3D?

The picture could, in theory, then be printed on a 3D printer.

In Affinity Designer, perhaps a base layer then various layers on transparent backgrounds, such that the layers are, say, 0.1 mm thick, or even less.

I am wondering if, possibly in the future, an Affinity brush could paint into, say, ten layers simultaneously so that the upper layers have less and less paint so as to have thick paint with brushmarks.

I am just wondering if some experiments of doing it all manually using what is available at present could be both fun and a learning experience out of which results unknown at present might be produced.

William

 

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, William Overington said:

Can Affinity Designer be used to generate artwork as a sequence of images that could be used to build up a 3d model file in some other application, such as, for example, Microsoft Paint 3D?

Probably, but it would be a slow & tedious process & I doubt the results would look very good.

[firstdefence]

How do you tell a 2D app to have depth?

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, firstdefence said:

How do you tell a 2D app to have depth?

You can't, but you could create a sequence of handmade images, like maybe from a bunch of vectors, that would simulate the various depths of a real 3D object, export each of them separately, & combine them to build a 3D layered model. There would be lots of stair stepped edges so it would probably not look very convincing.

[firstdefence]

What you would have is a lot of images with zero depth , it makes no sense and wouldn't work, better to use a 3D app.

[R C-R]

54 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

What you would have is a lot of images with zero depth

Sure, but each of them would be different, like different slices through a real 3D object. They could be used to build up a 3D model. Admittedly, it would be a crude one, but it could be done.

[William Overington]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

You can't, but you could create a sequence of handmade images, like maybe from a bunch of vectors, that would simulate the various depths of a real 3D object, export each of them separately, & combine them to build a 3D layered model. There would be lots of stair stepped edges so it would probably not look very convincing.

Yet if the depth were less than the resolution of the 3D nozzle then would the steps be detectable by the human eye?

Sort of like that a hardcopy print of a 300 dots per inch digital image does not appear chunky.

William

 

[v_kyr]

Since there is no real Z-axis handling in 2D apps it will be just a pour emulation at best. - Also there is a reason why 3D apps exist for such purposes, here's a list of some free ones ...

• MS 3D Builder
• Blender
• BlocksCAD
• FreeCAD
• LeoCAD
• Meshmixer
• OpenSCAD
• SketchUp Free
• TinkerCAD
• Vectary
• ... and so on ...

[thomaso]

10 hours ago, William Overington said:

perhaps a base layer then various layers on transparent backgrounds, such that the layers are, say, 0.1 mm thick, or even less.

I am wondering if, possibly in the future, an Affinity brush could paint into, say, ten layers simultaneously so that the upper layers have less and less paint so as to have thick paint with brushmarks.

Alternatively, instead using different layers for different depths (z-axis), currently "bump maps" / "displacement maps" are used to simulate 3D information. Not with various layers but, easier, by brightness only, so they are grayscale, like masks.

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/a-beginners-guide-to-displacement-and-bump-maps

Compare also in APhoto the Displacement Filter and the Bump Map option of the Lighting Effect.

[R C-R]

16 hours ago, William Overington said:

Yet if the depth were less than the resolution of the 3D nozzle then would the steps be detectable by the human eye?

The steps would have to be extremely small to be undetectable, meaning there would need to be a very large number of '2D slices' made. That's why I said it would be a long & tedious process to produce anything that looked even vaguely realistic.