3D images as a sales tool

Jewelry Discussion
1

Does anyone have experience with 3-D images as a sales tool? I have
been approached about having my " back of envelope" (quick sketches)
draw up into 3-D images which could be beneficial as a sales tool,
since I don’t have such things cast it is unimportant to me to have
them CAD. What would be a per drawing cost for such a service? Are
there programs that can take a 2-D image and easily and quickly make
them 3-D (I’m thinking of how a dentist can shoot a digital photo and
use it to make 3-D images of a person’s mouth in real time) Any info
is much appreciated.

Sam Patania, Tucson

2

Sadly, there is not an “Easy Button” for creating 3D models from
your 2D images. Simply displaying your sketches, however, may be
useful.

Especially if you do multiple views for one design.

With that said, there are options for creating 3D models from your
drawings, which would give you a lot of freedom and flexibility. One
thing to think about is that if these are designs you would like to
sell multiple times, or perhaps a series of variants from one design,
a CAD model may be a beneficial tool. Changing colors / materials for
the renderings are usually a breeze, where as physical adjustments to
the model can range from easily modified to “Oh no, we have to
rebuild the entire thing.”

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d
be happy to chat about this.

Matt Bennett
beavco.com

3

Hi Sam,

Cad work is expensive if you don’t do it yourself.

There are some programs that take a series of 2D images and convert
them into a 3D object, but they have variable results. Autodesk has
the 123D Captcha application (I think that’s the name).

Regards Charles A.

4

Sam, Charles.

123D Catch.

this works by taking multiple photo’s of a real object to generate a
3D model.

It works and is kinda neat.

Problem with this approach would be you, if working from drawings,
would have to draw 30-40 views of the object to get it to do it’s
work.

At that point, it would be best to just model it from scratch.

creating 3D from a single image, would be difficult. hard to glean
real data from a single 2D image.

There are techniques to do it from a single photo, but special
preparation is attended to first. such as lighting it with 3
different color sources (RGB) from 3 different angle (120deg
separation) this is affective for front view data capture, but the
back side is left as a hole.

Who knows, someday maybe (hell maybe even to day as I do not have a
comprehensive understanding)

software prices vary, mostly depending on what you are trying to do.

say mechanical engineering type CAD will be the most expensive.

Architectural probably the next.

Animation types can vary from a few hundered dollars to something
like Maya about $3 to $4k

A nice app for around $800 (it may be higher now) is Modo. it is
excellent at freeform modeling… yes even hair. ehem…

A similar level modeling app for much less would be Silo. as far as
I know, it does not have the rendering capabilities. $109 on current
special.

if using a Mac. there is a $99 called Cheetah 3D (never worked with
it) but has a trial version.

If you are interested in doing

Cheers,
Christopher Lund
Neurascenic - Industrial Design

5 
There are techniques to do it from a single photo, but special
preparation is attended to first. such as lighting it with 3
different color sources (RGB) from 3 different angle (120deg
separation)

Well, that’s a new one on me. You learn something every day around
here. The usual way of modeling from drawings is ~two~ views - front
and profile, and they need to be “keyed” to each other just like
scupture. Same scale, same heights, same widths, same placement of
details, just like you tooktwo photos of a person’s head. Then you
set the front view as a backdrop on the “X” axis and the side view
as a backdrop on the “Y” axis and essentially connect the dots,
which is more laborious than it sounds, as it’s all in 3D.

I’m with the others - just show the drawings unless it’s CAD for
production or you can do it yourself.