Hello… Brand new user here…
I have been out of 3D for the most part of almost a decade… I used to use Cinema 4D and still use it for illustrations, modelling, etc. now and then, but have come to a point where I need it to do something that the decade old version I have simply can’t do…
I have a large format CNC Router/Mill that I built a few years ago and recently acquired a CAM package that will allow me to import and use true 3D models to be carved in wood, plastic, soft metals, and other soft substrates…
So now I am to set about creating some of the models to carve that I have kicking around in my head over the years, as opposed to the 2D and 2.5D stuff (using purchased models) I have thus far been limited to…
The first problem I need to solve is one of incorporating textures into the models… such as hand carved wood textures and what not…
The nature of the CAM software requires that only true 3D meshes be used… So textures that influence mesh can not be imported with the main model and be used in the CAM software… only the main DXF or whatever mesh will be recognized…
So I need to be able to use an image or procedural texture to ‘truly’ displace and modify the mesh itself, so that when I export the model the texture is baked into the mesh… that is, the actual point geometry is modified to reflect the displacement map, and no additional texture is needed…
Think along the lines of a boolean subtract operation where once the boolean object is subtracted, it can be baked into the remaining mesh, and exporting the model at this point will result in a mesh that is deformed as it was with the boolean…
So before I dive too deep into learning blender only to find out that it can’t do this, I thought I’d run it past you guys and see if this is indeed doable… and maybe get some advice as to what aspects of the program I should focus on first in order to get me to the point where I can do this…
I am amazed at how much power is in this free program compared to what I owned before that was an expensive commercial application… But I suppose that is the nature of the beast when it comes to all things technology related these days…
Even if blender can not do this, I suspect I will learn it and play with it because it has some incredible tools that were cutting edge and very clunky on anything but extremely expensive commercial platforms like the Discreet stuff (smoke, flame, inferno, etc.)… for instance, the camera mapping features… I can’t believe this is included and so straight forward…
Anyways, I need to know if this program can do this for me… I have almost no money, so I need to find a free or dirt cheap solution to this problem, otherwise manual modeling textures it is…
Thanks,
Mark
(I’m gonna post this in two places, modeling and the forum for noobs/basics… If double posting is forbidden, let me no and I will remove it from one of them… please tell me which is the better place for it if it is a problem)