Offset problem when using same texture for a vectorizer and a displacer to create a leaf…

[Brian Jones]

can you post the scene file? I’d have to guess a projection difference between the Vectorizer and the Displacer but since that’s not the way I would have approached it (likely) I’d have to see the file to work it out.

[Pierre Paslier]

Thx Brian,
Here is the scene file. What matters for me is the result so if you think there is a better way, I’m definitely interested! The project will involve doing this for a lot of leaves so I’m keen on finding a rather automatic way to generate 3d models from the photos. I’d have hoped that using the same texture for the poly outline and the displacer would have mapped perfectly onto each other, which means I could Xpresso something for the 1000 leaves to come…
10525_leaf.zip
Cheers!

[Brian Jones]

Vectorizer and Displacer definitely don’t seem to play nice together. Displacer seems to change it’s width narrower with every change of it’s Mapping/Length U (at least here). If I use the texture you have in there rather than the Displacer it’s just a matter of changing Length U there to 64.5 to get it to line up. That should be what works with Displacer but it doesn’t seem to for me.
As to a better way, I would try using a flat surface then adding thickness later but there are a lot of issues
– a leaf is usually (except for the veins) the same thickness throughout and adding displacement on a parametric object (the extrude in this case) means the normals are all facing outward so wherever your leaf bulges outwards due to displacement on one side it will do the same on the other side and the leaf gets thicker there.
– using a color image as the bump map is often done but is not actually accurate – displacement goes up for white and down (or zero depending on settings) for black and in your image the veins are darker than the leaf surface so they are actually depressing in the surface rather than raising above it (true for the stem as well). You may have to make a bump map from the color image but that depends on whether you need that level of reality in your 3D print. If you have 1000 to do also a problem. depends on the leaf images and whether you can process them quickly somehow.
– another problem with displacement on an object with thickness already is that it displaces the sides as well, you can control that with poly selections with a displacement texture but not with the Displacer that I know of.

[Pierre Paslier]

Thx Brian,
Very helpful to understand better how vectorizer and displacer stack up… or not.
The nature of the project is more artistic than science precision, so what I’m after is a simple way to start with 1000 pictures of real leaves and end up with 1000 leaf shapes polygons that have some sort of “microtexture” and some thickness that would make them 3d printable.
I like your suggestion to start flat? Would it be easier to displace a plane and then cut out the leaf? Boolean?
Any idea how to get 80% of the result with 20% of the work?
Cheers,
Pierre

[Pierre Paslier]

Hi there,

More questions!
It’s been a few months but the project is still running! I’ve managed to make quite a few versions of leaves and now I’m hitting a new challenge. The goal is to 3d print these leaves to then cast them in bronze. In order to 3d print them I have to give a thickness to the surface I create with the displacer.

I’ve tried a few different ways but nothing is working perfectly so far.
The best I’ve managed to do is to create two surfaces, offset them by ~1mm and then stitch and sew them together. The result however leaves the “steeper” parts of the surface very thin. 3D printing services don’t like that.
Surface.stl

I’ve also tried to use xsthickness but then one of the faces becomes very glitchy.

Does anyone have an idea of a trick in c4d or in other software to create a nice yet relatively consistent thickness?
Cheers!
Pierre