[ILLY] Little help with the "mesh" tool....

[Rocfrog]

I'm looking to see if anyone knows how to create a complex "mesh" quickly....

This is what I'm talking about...



from what I'm told it took the creator of this 3-4hrs to create this mesh, which I believe I just want to know if there is an easier way, even if it a program?

The only way I know how to do it is to start off with a square mesh grid and just start manipulating points and adding grid points to it until it looks like the above image, but there has to be a simpler/faster way....

Nick

[Dottonedan]

I may be off base here, but, (as far as I have done),  You can draw out the surrounding area/shape, fill it with a solid color, then come in and add break points. You can then select those points to manipulate the shadow shapes. Seems quick enough. I envision one taking about 30 min to do a nice job. Longer to make it photo real.  This is from me, as someone who is not that experienced with the mesh too. From what I did do, that was about all I did.  You can select the points and change the color that way.

[Inkworks]

Not sure about AI, but in Corel I'd make a grid of points, group them and edit the envelope of the group to fit the object, select "snap to objects and join them with the freehand tool.

A quick ( I didn't get carried away editing the envelope to make it perfect....) 10 minute sample attached. if you wanted a more realistic 3-D you'd need to spend more time choosing which area to pinch or expand when editing the envelope.

As far as I know neither Corel or AI have any sort of automated tool for this, you'd probably need some sort of 3-D rendering software, and even that may not be quicker.

[Rocfrog]

Humm...interesting about Corel...

Dan I tried the way your describing and it didn't really work....well it did but not 100%.

What we are trying to accomplish is to be eventually use the base image and the "mesh" to be able to run an action to overlay a customers image onto the product, in this case a bed cover. Aperently (as it was described to me) companies are online that offer a similar service where you can upload you pic to the site and it gives you an instant preview of your image on the product use some sort of AI action and these images and the mesh to create it.

Nick

[Sbrem]

You could make a displacement map in Photoshop, probably much, much faster.

Steve

[Rocfrog]

You could make a displacement map in Photoshop, probably much, much faster.

Steve

Explain please.

Nick

[3Deep]

I've been following this post, cause I too am interested in the mesh tool, never really had to use it, but what are the benefits of using it vs whatever.  I seen people on tuts on youtube use and it looks to be a long working tool but the results looks great!

Darryl

[Rocfrog]

You could make a displacement map in Photoshop, probably much, much faster.

Steve

Explain please.

Nick

So I did some digging on this and I think that might work for our "flat" objects but not for ones like this bed cover, because the map doesn't "skew" the image it just "overlays" it.......unless I'm missing something....

I'll take a few screen shots of what we are doing to kind of give you an idea of what exactly we are tying to accomplish...

Nick

[Dottonedan]

For a displacement map, you must use a rendered (shaded grayscale image) with not patterns, just the shading...to MAP a garment texture or pattern onto the bed (shape).  You use the shaded grayscale version of the blanket to build or fold your blanket pattern onto the bed folds. That is the displacement.


There are some tuts on this I'm sure. Google displacement maps and somewhere, you should see how you can do this.  Once you lean it (and do it often) it can be scripted easily.  I forget the average numbers I used to punch in for most stuff (to what amount you want to displace it). That will more so, be determined by your specific image. You will need to do it a few times with dif numbers to how what looks best. That you can script it.


Now that someone mentioned it, this might be what you're looking for.

[Rocfrog]

Ok so here is what we are trying to accomplish....

Here is a sample image as what the customer might have...


Then its placed into the file that we created with the "mesh warp"


Then the "mesh" layer is moved above the sample image and both layers are selected and then go to Object>Envelope Distort>Make with top object. Then just "multiply" that layer and you get this....



But making the "mesh" faster and maybe figuring out a better process for this is what we are looking for. The end result is to have this on our website and be able to have the customer "interact" with this to give them an instant view of what their product could look like.

Nick

[Rocfrog]

For a displacement map, you must use a rendered (shaded grayscale image) with not patterns, just the shading...to MAP a garment texture or pattern onto the bed (shape).  You use the shaded grayscale version of the blanket to build or fold your blanket pattern onto the bed folds. That is the displacement.


There are some tuts on this I'm sure. Google displacement maps and somewhere, you should see how you can do this.  Once you lean it (and do it often) it can be scripted easily.  I forget the average numbers I used to punch in for most stuff (to what amount you want to displace it). That will more so, be determined by your specific image. You will need to do it a few times with dif numbers to how what looks best. That you can script it.


Now that someone mentioned it, this might be what you're looking for.

Ya I went and looked thru a couple of tutorials that I found online but it just seems they are for "flat" images and don't think they will manipulate the image as well and the mesh seems to. maybe I just need to tinker with it and see what happens.

Nick

[Sbrem]

Dan's explanation is a good start. My last experiment with it was to crumple a piece of paper, then scan that; I laid our logo on top and it followed the shadows fairly nicely. A bit more tweaking would have gotten me there for sure. I also tried with a brick wall, and it worked well, but you have to play with the size of the logo relative to the size of the bricks...

Steve

[Dottonedan]

Dan's explanation is a good start. My last experiment with it was to crumple a piece of paper, then scan that; I laid our logo on top and it followed the shadows fairly nicely. A bit more tweaking would have gotten me there for sure. I also tried with a brick wall, and it worked well, but you have to play with the size of the logo relative to the size of the bricks...

Steve

And contrast. If I remember correctly, light shadows don't do good. Needs to have a good contrast from light to dark.  Not too dark tho. Black bends everything to the extreme.

[Rocfrog]

Ok so I have been doing some tinkering with the "displacement maps" in Photoshop and that is not what I'm needing....That function just seems to be a fancy clipping mask. When I use that process in the samples I provided above it just "masks" out that portion of the image and makes it have the contours of the bed cover, but it does not rotate and conform the image to the bed cover like the "mesh warping" in Illustrator does.

I guess what I'm looking for is a way to make the "mesh" more precise and not take 6+ hours to do it......

Nick

[Command-Z]

I think the way you're doing it is the fastest way...

You could record all of your actions but I don't know how to do it on a website.