2D Drawing To 3D Object Tool

legoburner writes, "Takeo Igarashi from the University of Tokyo has a very impressive java applet/program, called Teddy, which he describes as 'A Sketching Interface for 3D Freeform Design', and basically allows you to sketch in simple 2D and have it automatically converted to full 3D. The tool is certainly very impressive and there is a demonstration video available. The end product looks like a hand-drawn object instead of the usual clinical, perfect 3D objects that are designed using standard rendering tools." This impressive technology was presented at SigGraph 1999 (PDF); a commercial product based on it is available in Japan.

Wow...

[alyawn]

Now this seems like the 3D moldeling I've been dreaming for. I've tried blender on several occasions, but it's very difficult to get something that looks relatively close to what you're thinking. I really like the fact that you can really create complex models with a handful of simple operations. Me likee!

Re:Wow... NEAT!

[alyawn]

But come on... doesn't everyone have a potato powered clock design that they've been dying to get in a 3d model? Better yet, there's nothing like seeing you're panzer actually launch 3d potatoes on Enemy Territory!

Re:Duplicates some of Zbrush's efforts?

[grumbel]

Teddy is a different beast then ZBrush. ZBrush, as far as I know, allows you do model primitve 3D shapes in a relativly normal way and then to paint displacement maps on top of those base shapes, so you basically get an object with extreme detail. Which is great whe you want extremly detailed 3D models. Teddy on the other side isn't really about detail at all, its about making 3D modeling a 2D task and mainly about making it an trivially task so as in a 6 year old could do it. You can't really create detailed models with Teddy as it is, but you can create a 3D Teddy by simply drawing a 2D Teddy, all the 3d expansion is done automatically.

Re:Resulting format...

[BrynM]

I wonder what these objects look like when exported to an object file. Will they still look as natural if you import them into your favorite Quake map or blender world?

Here's a shot [networkoftheapes.net] of a bunny rabbit I was playing with imported into Maya. I threw a sphere eye into the Teddy mesh for giggles. Teddy saves OBJ files (OBJ is a standard text file format created by Alias - now Autodesk). Almost any 3D software can import OBJ files including Blender. Teddy creates poly tris, so you might get some game tools to compile raw teddy meshes if you dared.

It seems that the meshes it creates are pretty symetrical with a middle row of vertices. This means that what you create can be cut in half and mirrored to create truly symetrical meshes easily. In my bunny example, I only created one ear so that I can just duplicate it on the other side for matching ears (not done in the screenshot).

The meshes Teddy creates do need cleanup though as it wastes a lot of polys where things converge (look at the bottom tip of the bunny's nose). I would consider Teddy a decent tool to brainstorm ideas, however there will still be plenty of work to do inside your 3D software of choice. Using it as a tool to create organic primitives is another option. I'm going to keep it in the toolbox, but it's not a replacement for other software.