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Can't Draw? You Need The Inkulator 9000.
NTK was kind enough to point out the Inkulator 9000, software to render pen-and-ink style drawings from 3D meshes. NTK also points to a number of other handy tools and papers.
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it's the other way around.
This means I can...draw extremely complicated polygonal meshes...and then have a computer ink them for me.
hi
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You need Visual Basic... conveniently converts images of windows into working programs!
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I think you would need very high poly counts on your mesh to achieve a level of detail good enough to look like professional cartoons. If it's just to do an image (or a few), I don't think its worth the effort. For animation tough, it looks like a wonderful application!
But nothing will ever beat SouthPark characters... so simple, and so much personality!
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The resulting images will have no life to them.
On the other hand, this is free and open source, and looks very promising.
In soviet russia, You ask not what country do for you, but what you do for country!
Oh wait...
Programs like this will never replace drawing. 3D Geometry is far too rigid. These types on Non-Photo-Real techniques have been around for years. (Although this is a great attempt). It will be many, many years before we can emulate 2D animation with 3D, and then, what's the point, why not draw it? Not to say that there aren't great applications for NPR like the non photorealistic camera, shown off at SIGGRAPH 2004. It uses multiple flashes and an edge detection algorithm to define hard edges; great for endoscopy and many other functions...
The title shouldn't be "Can't Draw? You Need The Inkulator 9000", it should be "Can't Draw, but you can create complex 3D meshes, and are somehow unable to figure out how to color them? You need the Inkulator 9000" The pictures looked really cool, until I realized that you had to do a LOT of work to make them. This looks like it is much more for the real artist than the average computer geek.
I didn't just do this post, I also did Yomomma!
I can /draw/, I just can't 3D model.
I'd love something to turn sketches, or a series of sketches, or whatever, into a 3D model.
This is not new... you can easily do this with a maya shader. Maya shaders are very fexlible in attaining realistic and Non photorealistic renders.
In America we are imprisoned by our fear of them.
3D studio max, rhino 3-D (with flamingo) and Maya can do that right in the render. We already have this technology
Neil is that you? Yeah yeah, it's me... Neil...
It mentions on the website that it uses obj files and works really well with ones created using Poser. The funny thing about that is Poser already has a function to render to 'hand drawn' or 'cartoon' type pictures.
:)
But I guess if you are using some other rendering program that doesn't have any of these features, you could also run a simple sketch filter in Photoshop(or whatever your favorite imaging program is) . Either way, I'm gonna give this program a try to see how well it stacks up.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
...then how the hell are you going to create realistic 3D meshes?
Sure, you could use some that somebody else made. But then it's hard to say what part of the result is actually your work.
Or you could take a 3D scan of some objects. But you may as well just take a snapshot of the objects then, and maybe trace the photo.
No, this sort of software is actually much more useful for people who _can_ draw and/or sculpt, or who at least have a well-developed sense of proportion. Architects have been using this kind of software for years to produce drawings that appear hand-drawn from CAD drawings.
It's hardly a new idea.
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So I can now either:
1) Draw stickmen for the rest of my life.
2) "Draw" boxes for the rest of my life.
Hmmm... those quotes around the draw really make in tempting...
We all live in a #FFFF00 submarine...
Maya, Lightwave, Animation:Master, and the list goes on.
The open-source community just discovered cell-shading? I'm ashamed.
I can either:
1) Draw stickmen for the rest of my life
2) "Draw" boxes for the rest of my life
I don't know about you, but those quotes really make it look tempting... Wait, what about maybe both?
I shall make... a stickboxman!
We all live in a #FFFF00 submarine...
Some free advice boys and girls: NEVER attempt to market something called "inkulator" in Spanish-speaking countries!
Here (In case it gets slashdotted, it is a hand flexing in a very peculiar manner)
I'd recognize that motion anywhere.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
The last thing we need is more help for people drawing furries and "anime" for DeviantArt...
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
I read the article brief and my mind thought this was a new pen plotter.
Cool stuff, though.
Bacardi + slashdot = negative karma.
"...check out the polygons on that one! She couldn't even stand up!"
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
Many years ago there was NPR Quake, a mod for Quake I that adds a new rendering system that looks like hand-made pencil drawing.
Check these screenshots.
And here is a more modern version.
I thought it would be cool if it was a program that would just draw you something, but it seems like it requires the even more advanced skill of creating wire meshes. As a frequent drawer, I think this is definitely a situation where I could use a meaningful and cliched saying, but I can't think of what I was going to say. Awaaaay!
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
Thinkfish produced a realtime artistic rendering engine ( PC and Mac ) around '97. The drawings generated ranged from charcoal, pen & ink, watercolor, over 30 styles. I was one of the engineers on the project. We did a plug in for SGI Cosmo Worlds, and Painter3D, as well as Archicad. My personal favorite was being able to render a charcoal drawing style walkthrough with QuicktimeVR. Looked very much like the A-HA "Take On Me" music video circa '85.
see LiveArt IMHO - I've yet to see it done better - especially considering we did it realtime.
You're going to hate me for saying this, but...practice, practice, practice, and understand your subject matter well (pay attention ).
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A good 3D artist starts out as a good 2D artist. Not just models, but texturing and lighting.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735714096
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/073
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/156
Grab a copy of Wings3D and Blender (with associated renderers).
Animation Master is also good for a Windows program.
Oh yes, make certain you own a decent scanner, and a nice digital camera will help.
And plenty of reference material.
Whoever choose that name has no clue what it stands for in italian. If he does he is sick, man!
"I shouldn't have let you guys have all that money. Biggest mistake I made" - Ross Perot
nice name... it will ring great to italians
Yes we need this desperately.
The enkulator 9000 will answer all your needs, now bend over and say awe.
Finding models for the people shouldn't be too hard. What about backgrounds/sets?
Inkulator in spanish means something like "assfucker", you insensitive clod!
Did they touch God or did they touch the Sun?
This is an interesting tool with potential...but I can't really see myself using it too much. I am already satisfied with Poser and Bryce for my 3d rendered webcomic, I can't really see myself putting in hours of work only to shred it to create a look I was trying to avoid in the first place. To each their own of course
Requiem
I wonder when they come out with a version that does color? Don't get me wrong, I think this program is super cool. But I'm just curious if they have plans on making one that does colors too.
Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
It is pronounced too much like Enculator 9000...
which litteraly means Buttf*cker in french!
There are tons of better software than this
"inkulator" (which is pronounced like a really bad insult in french, "enculator" [buttf*cker] ).
I have been using illustrate for a while and it was used by others to create the original windows XP icons, architecture drawings, technical drawings and
many cartoons including animated features such as Corto Maltese...
Take a look at the other galleries, some of the renderings are really impressive.
...albeit shittily in my case...
Pencilling, inking, and scanning is ultimately faster than diddling a 3d mesh into a render that's even close to what you have in your head. Not only that, but if you want, say.... variable line weight or a very specific style of hatching, you'll have pages of sequential art done by hand before you can get a single render to look right.
This stuff definitely has its uses, but it's never going to replace the traditional media, at least not completely.
Me, I draw all of my humanoids. Everything else is fair game for any other technique.
watch Chasing Amy.
Find out about my new childrens book: SS Death Camp Criminal Batallion Go To Monte Carlo For The Massacre
I don't think, this name is a lucky choice for a software program.
Just ask a frenchperson if he/she needs an "inkulator", and if you get slapped, ask wy. :)
...why everyone is so negative. I found this project at SourceForge.net a while ago, and I thought it was quite cool and started to follow it's progress. Just because the commercial XYZ app already can do something similar, I don't understand why we need to bash this project down.
I demand the Cone of Silence!
hey i can draw too
. jpg p g
http://home.primus.com.au/macnel/images/robo.jpg
http://home.primus.com.au/macnel/images/funkrobo2
http://home.primus.com.au/macnel/images/twisted.j
I've always been the same way.
But recently, out of boredom in class one day, I attempted to draw my teacher, and it came out fairly well. Mind you, I've not even attempted to draw anything more complex than stick figures in years, without a computer.
I think the potential is still there in us, but the skill just manifests differently, and whether you do your art by hand, or with a computer, you're going to increase your skill in other methods as well.
anyone know where i can get some free models that i can use to make a comic?
Do your model in Blender. Follow this tutorial:
The Anime Shader Tutorial. (Warning: If you go to that link straight from Google, it will give you a 404 error, but if you cut/paste the URL into a new browser, it brings it up, so it looks like Netscape is playing some nasty referrer games -- they might do the same for Slashdot referrers)
Need some models? I have a free (for noncommercial use) nude woman model on my site: faemalia dot net, the Blender page. Feel free to improve upon her and share improvements with the world.
I'm looking for people to collaborate on animation and other 3D character work, so I'd be happy if anyone wants to help out.
fifth sigma, inc.
Hi, such a software will not be a hit in any italian or spanish speaking country as it "Inkulator" sounds like a nickname for soebody who is like a sex machine with a tendency to predilige anal sex, leaving undetermined whether he's gay or straight. Globalisation carry some problems it seems :)))
Can't draw, but wish that you could create ink drawings? Spend a couple of weeks making some 3d meshes for the Inkulator 9000, and you'll be more determined to learn!
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Take an italian PC user and ask them if they need the "Inkulator 9000". Then run away to avoid being punched in the face.
Why is that?
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- Inkulator means "he who sticks it up your butt" in italian.
--Unless an artist uses very rigid rules of perspective, (which most comics and classic animations I've seen rarely bother with), then information represented visually is unrestrained by 3d physical rules. "Squish & Stretch" in the Bugs Bunny universe only works in a 2d, non-logical environment. EVERY time I've seen eyeballs bugging out attempted by 3d software, it looks scary and unsettling rather than funny. That's only one very small example.
This is why, while I enjoyed animations like "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo", I found them to be limited.
Stories bubble up from the realm of the subconscious; the dream world. Stripping them of that quality seems far more a time-saving compromise than it does an artistic achievement.
But then there are so many people hell-bent on stripping this world of all things non-logical, non-literal, non-material that this latest move to cut out the intuitive aspect of humanity should be expected as a very 'logical' step, I suppose.
Materialism is what you are left with once you have reduced your sensory inputs to only include those sanctioned by the "Learning Channel" and your high school science teacher.
Next stop: Voluntary Autism!
The logical half of our minds, while powerful, is over-used and our intuitive sides are shunned and atrophied. The most powerful people will always be those have the two sides working in concert.
But of course, I suspect the Powers That Be don't want the populations which feed them to be powerful or aware of any possibilities beyond those within very limited, very strict parameters. This is largely why, I think, computers have been allowed to spread as they have. Computers cannot think Outside of the Box.
I find it interesting that early on, there were efforts put into the development of analog computers. The theories were sound, but the funding went elsewhere. .
-FL
To create 3d models it's pretty standard to draw front and side (sometimes top) elevations and use them as guides when making your model.
However i can still see this being pretty useful when you need to put out a low quality comic week after week - as no animation is involved it's a very quick process just to position characters correctly.
I would be surprised if there are no similar cell-shaders available already though..
It will be many, many years before we can emulate 2D animation with 3D, and then, what's the point, why not draw it?
Can you draw it in real time?
Why would you want to do that? Go have a look at one of the regent Legend of Zelda games - Wind Walker. Think about it.
...software to render pen-and-ink style drawings...
Thousands of Londoners/Sweeney fans[1] and ex-pat Londoners around the world are wondering exactly what makes it stink[2]
[1] The Sweeney - a 1970's UK tv drama
[2] Pen-and-ink.... stink.... no? See Cockney Rhyming Slang
Color version due out in two weeks There is a list for announcements that you can sign up for: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkula tor-announce
Also, mouse based movement/placement.
http://www.curiouslabs.com/ Curious Labs markets Shade 7 to US now. Started about 2 months ago
Lightwave also has a shader that can do that job, and in colour. http://www.altuit.com/webs/serg/Portfolio/CelShade d.htm/
Artists like myself feel that this can only make hand-drawings and handmade arts more valuable and rare, as every shlub can and will do art with the computer. However, since I have done some art with a computer, I feel that I too am a shlub and will eventually use this to increase the value of my own hand renderings by selling limited edition copies of my own works that the computer did for cheaper.
stuff |
Once you see what Inkulator means in italian you'll understand how right you are.
Under the "handy tools and papers" link there's a full-length indie feature film done with this software. A little searching turned up a torrent: http://www.cicada.net/missingpersons/missingperson s.avi.torrent
Haven't finished it yet, but the previews look cool...
The torrent is here.
"No, you're not. I'm a 3D artist, and the best thing that ever happened to my career was learning how to draw. "
So what books do you recommend for the budding 3D artists?
Maybe you should talk to the guy who used it on Spiderman 2. See if he had any blinding headaches.
This means you can "draw" your character once in a 3D program and then produce a million drawings by simply posing its skeleton in different positions or moving the camera to arbitrary angles. Especially interesting is the ability to produce unlimited in-between frames with simple 3D interpolation of object positions instead of expensive, laborious hand drawing.
Unfortunately, simply "betweening" produces rotten motion. Robotic: constant speed from one position to another, then a discontinuous change to constant speed on the way to the third position, and so on. (For a hand drawn example look at the animation sequences in Pink Floyd's "The Wall".) Splines and accelleration rules help but don't get it right. (Good for animations of robotic characters, though. B-) )
Physical modeling of mass and muscle is producing some good results. But this gets 'way compliated. (And you also have to model some of the immediate surroundings or the character tends to penetrate them.)
Another good hack is putting actors in black suits with white dots and photographing them from multiple angles as they go through the motions, then solving for their location in three-space.
Or you can do it by hand and deveop THAT art.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
society needs to get its yin and yang in balance.
Very true, but with the current balance being what it is, how many would understand that?
The logical mind tends to require lots of wind.
-FL
Why only consider movies? Suppose you have made a product and you want to write a manual. You can take the CAD schematics and turn it into a "pencil drawing" to identify the parts/buttons/whatever. It looks nice and you can print it in B&W!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
...here's the translation of the verb. This product's name is the substantive of that verb, i.e. a person who commits the act of ... got it?
In Italian it sounds like the guy who "incula", with a Schwarzenegger touch in the end and a trendy, tough Germanlike "k" in the middle.
Oh yeah, "inculare" means "to fuck in the butt", regardless of the gender (or for that sake species) of the recipient. I guess the same goes for all latin languages.
So in short this sounds like a cheap B-pr0n movie, like the famous "Aurora Sborrealis" (quoted in Clerks Italian dubbing, don't know whether it actually exists) and "Il signore degli anali" (made that up myself, surely someone will market it sooner or later).
Other derogative meanings of inculare are to steal ("Al bar ho inculato un cioccolatino!"), to swindle ("L'assicuratore ci ha inculato con questa nuova polizza"), or generally to cause physical or psychological distress ("Il parlamento europeo ha inculato Rocco Buttiglione").
Speaking of which: everybody knows what happened in Sodomah. What the hell were they doing in Gommorrah?
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
This concept can easily be replicated with simple adjustments in outline width of any given object, and some moderately simple gradients relating to Light Incedence. PSH!