Hello guys,
I am not that much experienced with more sophisticated modelling techniques,
therefore I need some advice how properly recreate/workflow/ such medallion w/out crazy subdividing the mesh yet reasonably resemble the original?? / base photo is not a hi-res image/
it can be done several ways, but what is the final goal? is it for 3D print, or in a 3D scene? will there be some close-up shot? etc⌠The easiest way to do it would be to create a height map from the photo and to fake the 3D with a Bump node. You can also mix real 3D and height map, etcâŚ
Thanx for reply, its planned for 3D scene/video postprod./ mainly.;
You mean creating bump map/s/ for each âtypicalâ part/element first or for the whole medallion at once?
again it all depends on if itâs a close-up shot, is it realistic, etc⌠what you could is model the shape, extrude some parts like the edge and the 2 central letters, and count on the bump map for the rest (little small dots, âde Sevillaâ text, etc), seems the best to do and itâs rather easy to do
ok, but how could i estimate sufficient subdivisions + Subdiv Modif. then and not to excagerate /so my comp could still handle that mesh/ ?
first, with the knife, draw all the parts that are supposed to be extruded (the rim, the big letters), then extrude, give it bevel to soften, give a Subdivision Surface, give addtional edge loops to sharp or smooth some edges, etc. At least thatâs how I would do it, you can keep it rather low poly, you donât need to apply the Subdivision Surface modifier
just a quick try, itâs ugly of course but itâs to make myself clear:
Use a displacement map to make all the small bumps:
ok, so no SubdivModif. for further Displace needed-only visual bump mapping for the detailes?
So i should rather focus on preparing good maps insteadâŚ
Yes use a Subdivision Surface otherwise youâll have sharp angle, but donât use a high-poly and donât use Displacement node or modifiers, just extrude the big parts and let the height map fake the small 3D bumps
ok, let me do my homework now 
Some things drive me nuts, really /congrats for the guy who implemented Origin/Pivot vs CursorâŚ/;
Try to produce these beads along a curve-while its a circle curve-seems ok.
After rescaling into ellipsoidal shape -/deformations applied/- everything gets launched into outer spaceâŚBtw. Do these beads have to get deformed - no tangent alignment, w/out object deformation possible?
What might go wrong?
I would not try to bake anything, as I said I would model all the big bumps and leave the small bumps to a height map (to convert your current image to a height map use for example this site: https://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ )
Well, its matcap representation, no baking.
I am just trying to model main parts: the medallions w/beads around, ribbon etc, rest to mapping&bump
Ps. Thanks for good link.
You probably have unapplied scaling on the curve. Ctrl + A > Apply scale.
I feel your approach to model the big parts and do the rest with materials is the right way to go. The pattern on the medallion is probably pretty easy to do with a curve as well.
PS
There are some options under the array modifier; fit curve but my experience is that it leads to pretty crap results. I usually enter a fixed length and then scale my mesh in the long axis until it looks ârightâ and there is no/minimal gap where the two ends meet.
This leads to a really outstretched mesh for my component but it looking decent when deformed on the curve and thats all that counts.
You re basically right but i HAVE applied /as stated above/ all the transformations prior to assigning any modifierâŚ; Alternatively I get this ;):
I think the component you want to deform around the curve needs to be at world origin or you get an offset.
The squashing you show I already showed you how to solve. That is something you need to counter for yourself, there are no good options to counter it inside the curve modifier as far as I know.
