Converting files to FBX for Beyond Ultimate 3D

Mgould

Member
Greetings, all;

I will be getting Beyond Ultimate shortly, and need to be able to get logos, etc., into the 3D part of Beyond, which only accepts FBX files. My goal is to import 2D and extrude to 3D.

Do any of you have any suggestions for JPG to FBX conversion, preferably on a Mac? What are other users using?

I realize this is a non-trivial bitmap to vector conversion process, and have found a few online vectorizers that will take files to SVG, etc., but no luck transferring to FBX.

Trying to avoid getting into more advanced 3D editors, like Blender and Autodesk.
 
I have done a boatload of work with QuickTrace, but my understanding is that the 3D aspect only works with FBX.
I think Aaron told me that you cannot import a Beyond frame and extrude that (which would be ideal).
I will have Ultimate in my hands next week to try this, but I don't think it will fly.
I would love to be wrong about this...

Mike
 
Hi Mike,

"Do any of you have any suggestions for JPG to FBX conversion"

--> I think this won´t be possible with good results.
Reason is quite simple:
To extrude from a spline object, the spline curve has to be "closed". This means the start and end point of the spline has to be on same position (e.g. simple circle or rectangle object...). If you do not close the spline object, extrude function won´t work correctly.
How should any conversion software know which part of the jpg file you´d like to "trace" should be extruded? The only result you may achive is a quite complex spline structure, that will end up in misleading extrusion result.
Just a simple example:
Take the above shown "Yin Yang" logo or the logo of the car brand "Volkswagen" --> if you try to trace this picture, the result may look great in 2D lasergrafic, but if you look into the spline creation, this is not giving a clear separation of closed individual splines.
Therefore, based on my opinion, the fastest and best result should be given by simply importing the jpg into Beyond 3D, set it as a background object and redraw the picture manually with closed splines. This should be far less effort than to correct and rework every traced or however imported fbx file...

Best regards,
Tobias
 
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