Mesh outline generation for leaves?

somawheels · Oct 2015

Hi.
In speedtree (software), there is an automatic mesh generation feature for leaves.

However, it only creates up to 20 edges.
I need something like this, but not so limited on the deatail of the generated mesh.
Any ideas?
I would try photoshop, but the 3d functions are not currently compatible with my latest gpu driver.
thanks

Octo · Oct 2015

Houdini does this with the trace node.

somawheels · Oct 2015

I have never used houdini, so would appreciate any other suggestions (Would rather not learn/use a new software just for this little function.)
If there are none, of-course ill try houdini, thanks.

throttlekitty · Oct 2015

Maya has a function for generating polys out of an image, I believe Max does too.

I've never had a whole lot of luck controlling the one in maya, but this guy got a nice result.

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73okywUTWjg[/ame]

somawheels · Oct 2015

My attempts with maya were not very good, it seems to work best for non organic shapes; my tracing has got to be very exact.
Cant find a function like this in 3ds max... There is a good looking script called "spline trace" but it costs money.

SonicBlue · Oct 2015

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZougNpp2GKM[/ame]

This is with Blender and Inkscape, I'm not sure if 3ds Max supports .svg files, anyway you can export the mesh from Blender and import it back in Max.

poopipe · Oct 2015

This piqued my interest so I hacked a macroscript I'd cobbled together a while back for turning sprites into 3d objects (it's a hack squared)

It appears to work - it's not fully automated or clever but I actually got some decent results out of it

bad things :
It starts from a very inefficient mesh (quad per pixel) and relies on pro-optimise to sort it out
It's very slow on images bigger than 128 pixels when processing at native resolution.
I'm a terrible programmer

plus sides :
it'll process anything
it UVs the object using the original image

settings :
Pixel grid : set it to 4 and it will process every 4th pixel and so on
Detail : vertex count % setting for pro-optimise

it uses alpha to determine whether to make a poly or not

so yeah, copy the script below out, run it and make yourself a button - you'll find it in MK_Tools.

if it's useful it'd be nice to hear back, if it blows your computer up it'd be nice to not hear back

macroScript tracebitmap category:"MK_Tools"
(
	clearListener()
	gc()
	local elementWidth	=	75
	
	
	
	-- defaults
	local hmMax 			= 1
	local hmIncrement	= 1
	local pxIncrement	= 1
	local vertPercent 	= 30
	global transpColor = [255,0,255]

	
	-- functions
	fn roundFloatToIncrement valFloat valIncrement = 
	(
		
		/* round float to nearest valIncrement */
		(floor( 1.0 * valFloat / valIncrement + 0.5) * valIncrement) as integer
	)
	
	fn createPixelFace obj pixelPosition height colorValue pixelGridSize= 
	(
		height = height as integer
	--	print (height as string)
		-- create 4 verts
		tempVertArray = #()
			
		v1 = polyop.createVert obj pixelPosition
		v2 = polyop.createVert obj (pixelPosition + [pixelGridSize,0,0])
		v3 = polyop.createVert obj (pixelPosition + [pixelGridSize,pixelGridSize,0])
		v4 = polyop.createVert obj (pixelPosition + [0,pixelGridSize,0])

		
		append tempVertArray v1
		append tempVertArray v2
		append tempVertArray v3
		append tempVertArray v4
			
		f1 = polyop.createPolygon obj tempVertArray
		

		for v in tempVertArray do
		(
			polyop.setvertcolor obj 0 v (colorValue)
		)
		/*
		if height >0 then
		(
			
			polyop.setFaceSelection obj f1 
			obj.extrudeFaces height
		)	
		*/


		free tempVertArray
	)
	
	
	fn createMeshObject nm maxHeight heightGrid pixelGrid vertPercent= 
	(
		
			local hmMax 			= maxHeight
			local hmIncrement	= heightGrid
		/* get bitmap */
		srcBitmap = selectBitMap caption:"Select a Bitmap"
		--print aBitmap.fileName 
		local bitmapHeight = srcBitmap.height
		local bitmapWidth = srcBitmap.width
		
		
	
		undo off
		(
			
			-- create a mesh and convert to poly
			local polyObj = editable_mesh name:(uniquename nm) --create an empty EMesh
			convertTo polyObj Editable_Poly --convert to Editable_Poly 
			--create and assign material
			--polyObj.material =  standard  diffuseMap: (Bitmaptexture fileName:srcBitmap.fileName ) showInViewport:true
			
			for currentRow = 0 to (bitmapHeight-1) by pixelGrid do
			(

				pixelRow = getPixels srcBitmap [0,currentRow] bitmapWidth
				
				for currentColumn = 1 to (bitmapWidth) by pixelGrid do
				(
					
					p=pixelRow[currentColumn]
					pixelColor = [ p.red, p.green, p.blue, p.alpha]
					pixelVertColor = [ p.red, p.green, p.blue]
					pixelAlpha = p.alpha

					/*
					WORK OUT A WAY TO COMBINE SIMILAR HEIGHT PIXELS INTO SAME POLY
					GEOMETRY IS GETTING EXPENSIVE  64x64 gives 40960 tris at worst
					
					yeah - nevermind  that for now, requires rearchitecture
								*/	
					-- posterize heightmap
					hmDivision = 255/hmMax
					
					if pixelAlpha != 0 do  -- change this to a  silly colour rather than using alpha - will give us more range in height and allow for zero height planes(which will save polys)
					(
						-- establish height based on alpha channel
						hm = pixelAlpha / hmDivision
						-- round height off to nearest integer
						hm = roundFloatToIncrement hm hmIncrement
						-- invert Y coords cos its upside down in bitmaps
						invI = currentRow*-1
						--subtract 1 from x coord because max is an arse and starts at 1
		

						createPixelFace polyObj  [currentColumn-1,invI-1,0] hm pixelVertColor pixelGrid
					)
				)
			)
			-- add UVs etc.


			select polyObj

			polyObj.showVertexColors = true
			polyObj.vertexColorsShaded = false
			polyObj.VertexColorType = #color
			polyop.collapsedeadstructs polyObj
			
			addModifier polyObj (Uvwmap())		
			polyObj.modifiers[#UVW_Map].length = bitmapHeight
			polyObj.modifiers[#UVW_Map].width = bitmapWidth
				
			addModifier polyObj (Vertex_Weld ())
			addModifier polyObj (ProOptimizer ())
				
			polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].KeepUV = on	
			polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].MergeFaces = on
			polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].MergeFacesAngle = 10
			--polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].KeepVC = on
			polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].Calculate = on
			--polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].vertexCount = 40
			polyObj.modifiers[#ProOptimizer].VertexPercent = vertPercent
		
			close srcBitmap
			free srcBitmap
	
		)
		--undo back on
	)
	
	
	rollout pixelate_rollout "trace_bitmap"
	(
		

		
		--edittext t_hmMax "Max Height" offset: ([-6,4]) width:elementWidth readOnly: False	text:(hmMax as string) labelOnTop:true
		--edittext t_hmIncrement "Height Grid" offset: ([-6,4]) width:elementWidth readOnly: False	text:(hmIncrement as string) labelOnTop:true
		edittext t_pxIncrement "Pixel Grid" offset: ([-6,4]) width:elementWidth readOnly: False	text:(pxIncrement as string) labelOnTop:true
		edittext t_vertPercent "Detail" offset: ([-6,4]) width:elementWidth readOnly: False	text:(vertPercent as string) labelOnTop:true
		button b_getViewerPath "Choose Bitmap" offset: ([0,4]) width: elementWidth  tooltip:"Choose Bitmap"
		
		on b_getViewerPath pressed do
		(
			
			createMeshObject "pixelMesh001" (hmMax as integer) (hmIncrement as integer) (t_pxIncrement.text as integer) (t_vertPercent.text as integer) 
		)
		
	)
	try (destroyDialog pixelate_rollout)	catch()
	createDialog pixelate_rollout 100 250
)

cptSwing · Oct 2015

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/pix3led

(narrower uses, though)

poopipe · Oct 2015

oh, my original script did that - I expect theirs is better

Mesh outline generation for leaves?

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