photo conversion

[Retired 1st Sgt]

Is it possible to take a picture and convert it to a 3d file to cut out using Aspire? I have the Photo VCarve program and have never had any luck with it. I was thinking a 3d carve would be good.

[Leo]

I have Aspire.

Short answer is - no

Long answer is hmmmm - yeah - sorta
It's a lot of work
There are tutorials that you can watch

I suppose there are some work arounds - but I don't know about them.

Mike Mezalik has some tutorials

I would not buy it for the reason you are asking about.

[FixitMike]

PhotoVCarve hints:
1. Apply a coat or 2 of sealer/varnish before cutting. Makes it easier to remove the excess fill color.
2. After carving, fill with contrasting color paint. I use acrylic thinned slightly so it gets into all of the carving.
3. After filler dries completely, sand off excess with an oscillating sander and fine (220 or finer) sandpaper.

[BDM]

PhotoVCarve can do a pseudo 3D carving. Think lithophane but using wood and making it much deeper. The dark parts will be deeper and the light parts less so (or vice versa depending on settings).

[Tailmaker]

Depends on the required result. As mentioned in other posts there is no simple conversion from picture to a 3d-object to be carved. A single picture just does not contain the spatial information.

But if you want to just replicate the picture visually (besides Photo-Vcarve) you can create a height map (in Aspire or separately, e.g. 3d-Builder) and carve a lithophane or pigmented resin cast. For the latter see example below:
Height map carved in maple:

Carving filled with lighly pigmented epoxy:

My problem with that is it can become so realistic that you could use a photo-print just as well.

[Holzarbeiter]

Depends on the required result. As mentioned in other posts there is no simple conversion from picture to a 3d-object to be carved. A single picture just does not contain the spatial information.

But if you want to just replicate the picture visually (besides Photo-Vcarve) you can create a height map (in Aspire or separately, e.g. 3d-Builder) and carve a lithophane or pigmented resin cast. For the latter see example below:
Height map carved in maple: IMG_2578.JPG
Carving filled with lighly pigmented epoxy: IMG_2584.JPG
My problem with that is it can become so realistic that you could use a photo-print just as well.

That is awesome looking!! Can you educate me on the process. Im not familiar with a height map. But I would love to try this out.
Thanks for sharing.