modeling a puzzle piece

[theorizer]

even this task turned out to be too difficult to me because i’m new to 3D modeling. i thought i could make a puzzle piece from cube and cylinder meshes, but the cylinder parts weren’t smooth enough after beveling. alternatively, an extruded circle curve is smooth, but it can’t be used as a target object for a boolean modifier. so i’m confused and asking for help.

[theorizer]

even this task turned out to be too difficult to me because i’m new to 3D modeling. i thought i could make a puzzle piece from cube and cylinder meshes, but the cylinder parts weren’t smooth enough after beveling. alternatively, an extruded circle curve is smooth, but it can’t be used as a target object for a boolean modifier. so i’m confused and asking for help.

[ridix]

You mean you want Jigsaw puzzle like this one? Here is one I did in the past:

If yes then start from plane. The image on peaces must be UVed as a whole. Divide up the plane and move vertices around to form the interlocking part. Each peace must then be duplicated to make separate peaces.

[theorizer]

yes, i mean a jigsaw puzzle. sorry for not making it clear in the beginning.

unlike your puzzle, mine doesn’t have any image on itself, so my worry is not about integrity of the whole picture, but about a perfect shape of the puzzle pieces, which implies that those circular parts must be perfectly round.

i also forgot to mention that my puzzle is quite fat. the height of a piece is about a third of its length.

[JA12]

Here’s how you can make the whole puzzle in a way that it’s possible to separate the pieces if necessary.
Gimp (jigsaw pattern) -> Inkscape (trace bitmap) -> Blender (import svg).

[RickyBlender]

very interesting method here

with GImp do you save image as JPG ?
then re upload it as a UV image ?

is there a pattern to do some old roman fresco ?

thanks

[JA12]

@RickyBlender

with GImp do you save image as JPG ?
then re upload it as a UV image ?

I saved the pattern as PNG, opened that in inkscape and traced it, then saved that as SVG that can be imported in Blender (as curves).
Texture is just a random image texture.
That way it’s possible to add thickness and bevel to curves, convert to mesh, cleanup, unwrap, texture and separate.

@RickyBlender

is there a pattern to do some old roman fresco ?

Not that I know of, but you could prepare one from a photo.

[RickyBlender]

no for mosaic i have to find an old example from 2.49
there was a simple way of doing this!

but here you run the bitmap to automatically makes path from whatever pattern in image
then you manually correct or add revmove things kin inkscape then save the curves to be imported in blender as curves

then you can upload/ import in blender as curves to be converted to mesh and add wahtever image and split unjoint pieces!

thanks

[mik.a]

Here an example:

About the circle curve you can convert it to mesh: select curve, go to object, covert to>mesh, or alt+c is the shortcut, so you can use it as target.

[theorizer]

my problem is not in making the pieces, but in making them perfect. look at what i want to do:

Puzzle

and i can’t make them both smooth and beveled.

[eppo]

Here is one: make outline whatever you want out of bezier curve; draw it in any vector editor then import as svg.
Bevel and extrude, like in image, convert to the mesh. As a result you’ll have perfect face loop where you want bevel. Cover hole with ngon - select vertex loop, hit F, then add Subsurf modifier and start to join some vertices of the ngon by selecting 2 opposite and hit J. Goal is to limit visible distortions done by subsurf mod.

Result

[RickyBlender]

one little detail here
the pin have to be locking into each other or it wont stick together

so instead of a straight circle you need to have a neck smaller then the circle diam so it can lock in!

have fun

happy blendering

[Sanctuary]

Some very nice techniques in this thread.

To add on the curve beveling subject, when you increase the bevel setting, you will notice that the curve object as a whole grow in size.

For puzzle pieces that need to keep exactly the dimension so they can fit into each other, this can be a problem, but a solution to this is to give a negative offset value , the opposite to what you set as the bevel.

By example if you give a bevel depth of 0.085 to your curve object, give it an offset of -0.085 to keep the original dimensions .

[eppo]

Thanks, Sanctuary! I’ve never used this option, really, good to know that.
@RickyBlender: these have small magnets inside and come in a nice wooden box; something like that 15 game ;).

[Lurifax]

Thanks for a exiting tutorial. I open up one image on Gimp and exported to .png
Open up Inkscape for the first time in my life. Open up my Gimp image, but I dont know which tooolbutton to press to traced it. I try with Shift-Alt+B but still confused.
Can you advice me.
Thanks in advance.
Yesterday I made my own puzzle but yours ar more pro.
[video]http://player.vimeo.com/video/70923895[/video]

[eppo]

I’d say choose image with less in it - just one piece will do fine. I use Gimp at first to get it clean - black&white is the best to track outline in Inkscape. Use Levels, Treshold, Color selector and Grow, Shrink selections to cut out clean shape in Gimp, then bring it into Inkscape and use Path, Trace Bitmap (no idea, maybe Slinga? in yours). After you have to sort which is what - delete not needed bitmap and use Path, Simplify on the remaining part. Also, check if it has Fill which is not needed. In general there could be two curves and fill - you need just one curve which you then Save as svg for Blender. Here is mine - rename to svg.

[Lurifax]

Thanks for helping eppo.

I try something els.
I let the puzzle pieces drop from above and land on the floor and look for there places. One by one after each other. No tools but I and frames.
Is this the best way to animate my pieces.

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/23051

Thanks
Lurifax.

[Richard_Marklew]

MODERATION
Thread re-opened

[foal_11]

Hello,

Quick query on this.

The issue is when I am getting the localPosition of any of the new objects created in python, the x and y coordinates are the same.

Here is what I did -

1. In Gimp create puzzle
2. Export as PNG
3. In Inkscape load, trace and export as SVG
4. Import in Blender
5. Scale as required
6. Mesh from Curve
7. Edit mode -> Separate (creates new objects which I can move independently)

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

• Foal.

[foal_11]

I followed all the steps and have the image UV wrapped on the object. I then split it using the ‘P’ -> separate by selection. I now have multiple objects created. I can move the objects independently. The issue is when I get the localPosition of any object in the scene, the x and y coordinates are coming as the same. Any idea why?

Here is what I did -

1. In Gimp create puzzle
2. Export as PNG
3. In Inkscape load, trace and export as SVG
4. Import in Blender
5. Scale as required
6. Mesh from Curve
7. Edit mode -> Separate

What am I doing wrong?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks

Foal.