In this project, I plan to create a 3D model based on a still image’s color level value and use it as the information of the model thickness. My goal is to build a virtual model like terain, mountains, and other model based one 2 tone image such as satelite map, contour map, or x-ray photograph.

Date : 2006
Location : Savannah, GA, USA
Project Role : Programmer
Software : Adobe Photoshop CS, Cutter, Renderman, Maya

Pulling the Value of Images
First, I start with converting my test images into a grayscale value.

an image from an x-ray photograph

an areal earth contour from photograph

Then the project continue with using a TCL script that able to generate color values into poly vertices and can be used into any purposes. In this case I used them as scale value.

set polyUV [clientcmd “polyListComponentConversion -fv -tuv $str”]<br /> set UV [clientcmd “polyEditUV -q [lindex $polyUV 0]”]<br /> set U [lindex $UV 0]<br /> set V [lindex $UV 1]<br /> set colorAtUV [clientcmd “colorAtPoint -o RGB -u $U -v $V file1”]
this script was modified from Mayilan Krishnamoorthy’s script

Using Bloobby Surfaces for Modeling

After the script is pulled into RIB Box, using TCL script, model can be built by using image’s color level values into Y Scale. Since a grayscale images have an equal value for each of R-G-B, so that, any of them can be used as the scale information. That image is applied into RIB Box of a single plane polygon that has a massive vertices. Each vertice will have a Y scale information that will be applied into a blobby surface for each of the plane polygons’ vertices. At the end, those blobby surfaces will form the 3D model based on the image that I use.

a surface shader has been added into the 3D model

Here is the script that I used in the Rib box to convert image color level information into a 3D model.

[<br /> set tok [split $OBJPATH |]<br /> set tnode [lindex $tok end-1]<br /> set scale [mattr $tnode.size $F]</p> <p>set n [clientcmd “polyEvaluate -v $tnode”]<br /> set n [lindex $n 0]<br /> set out “”</p> <p>append out “Blobby $n [n”</p> <p>for {set i 0} {$i < $n} {incr i} {<br /> append out “1001 [expr $i * 16]n”<br /> }</p> <p>append out “0 $n “</p> <p>for {set i 0} {$i < $n} {incr i} {<br /> append out ” $i”<br /> }<br /> append out “]n”</p> <p>append out “[n”</p> <p>expr srand(1)</p> <p>for {set i 0} {$i < $n} {incr i} {<br /> set str $tnode<br /> append str “.vtx[$i]”<br /> set polyUV [clientcmd “polyListComponentConversion -fv -tuv $str”]<br /> set UV [clientcmd “polyEditUV -q [lindex $polyUV 0]”]<br /> set U [lindex $UV 0]<br /> set V [lindex $UV 1]<br /> set colorAtUV [clientcmd “colorAtPoint -o RGB -u $U -v $V file1”]<br /> set pnt [clientcmd “pointPosition -local $str”]<br /> #set size [expr $scale + rand() * 1<br /> set yblobscale [expr [lindex $colorAtUV 1]*.1]<br /> set blobdata “0.3 0 0 0 0 $yblobscale 0 0 0 0 0.3 0 $pnt 1n”<br /> append out $blobdata<br /> }<br /> append out “]n”<br /> append out “[“”]”</p> <p>append out “Opacity 0 0 0n”<br /> return $out<br /> ]