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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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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.
Sure.
*(Google cache)
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...
Face it, your computer's a tracer
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!
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.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
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.
...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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Some free advice boys and girls: NEVER attempt to market something called "inkulator" in Spanish-speaking countries!
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.
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.
"Hmm..i'm missing the joke. What's a tracer?"
As others have mentioned, it's a reference to Chasing Amy. The basic gist of it is there is a comic book artist in the movie. Somebody else did the drawings, and he went over it in ink. Nobody, however, was impressed by this because they thought inking was just tracing. The artist in question found this quite offensive.
Sadly, as an artist, I sympathize with him. Inking is an art-form just like drawing. It's not something anybody can run out and do. Nor, for that matter, is it all that easy for a computer to do. Many have tried to make 3D renderings look hand drawn, and it is quite challenging.
Gotta say, though, I like the results on the website.
"Derp de derp."
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!