Greyscale variable emboss/engrave

Hi,

I suggest expand emboss/engrave from BW to greyscale displace. As example, designer could be define "minimal depth" and "maximal depth" for embossing via greyscale image (soft glow raster text, as example). In this case light gray areas will displaced on "minimal depth" and fully black areas will displaced on "maximal depth". Mid-grey areas would be displaced on value by linear interpolation between minimal and maximal depth.

This option can allow the designer offer more variable (sharp/normal/soft) and controllable custom elements simultaneous.

Please see easy examples of my suggested option.

1. Designer defined minimal Emboss 1mm and maximal Emboss 1mm also. As result ANY grayscale images will embossed only on 1 mm with maximum sharp edges (not presented ability now). It's equivalent of easy constant sharp extrude operation. Or It's equivalent of converting grey/color image to BW where all non-white (light grey/color) areas become pure black.

2. Designer defined minimal. Emboss 0mm and maximal Emboss 1mm. As result you can see current solution (0=white, 1=black).

3. Designer defined minimal Emboss 0.5/0.3/-0.3/-0.5 mm and maximal Emboss 1mm. As result you can see already suggested solution (see below).



There I suggest define max emboss value as not absolute value, but relative to minimal emboss value.

In the case of soft (very glow) text as image and min=0.5 and max=0.3 you will get sharp extruded text on 0.5 mm with soft bumped design atop of characters/signs (with additional soft bump height 0.3 mm) as on picture below.

You are absolutely right. So will needs some tweaks.

1. For removing of jpeg artefacts and similar noise in white areas will need make some sensitivity threshold. As examlpe, <10% grey will applied as pure white.
2. Now you implemented beveled embossing method (edge smoothing?) and similar algorithm needs to be saved for edges between "pure white" and 10%+ of grey value. Maybe, it would be internal mask over "pure white" with anti-aliasing of edges (soft mask by <10% grey areas). So first (10%+ grey, 0.5mm on picture) extrude (displace) will produce lite beveled walls, not as in my picture, but also not as now realized.
3. For produce custom geometry without "pixel's ladder" will needs some global public soft parameter (as you, maybe, already use into your app).

Current beveled custom elements are too soft in my opinion, so I prefer have some internal parameters for sharp tuning. Also, don't forget that small artifacts will be lost during 3Dprinting and finishing.

It you make a re-meshing into cropped custom place, maybe, will needs public parameter of new polygon density inside custom area.

Thank you for detail substantive discussion.

The problem I was alluding to in the other thread was that black and white images are often shades of gray with no black or white. So the idea of having an option to maximize the dynamic range of the photo would spread out the image in height to the full value of the embossing or engraving height.

On one hand it's fine to say that's the responsibility of the buyer. The buyer needs to optimize their photo in a photo editor by playing with brightness and contrast controls to maximize the spread. On the other hand having an optional selector button to maximize image depth would also take care of the problem. So let's imagine that the image space is scaled from 0 to 20 levels from white to black, and if a user supplies an image that comes in over a range of 5 to 10, the height will be half of what the designer specified in the personalization set-up and the image will be sitting on a pedestal above the plane of the model. An optional processing of this image matrix by subtracting 5 (the pedestal or DC offset) and multiplying the remainder by 4 would get the image used for personalization in the tool to range from 0 to 20, or absolute minimum to absolute maximum.

For example, a buyer finds this image to use



and gets this embossing with a pedestal that may or may not be visible after manufacture.




It's really just a matter of managing buyer expectations and what's less of a hassle for a buyer to achieve desired results.

I think that in CustomMaker needs in such mean as auto-adjust image for solve it. Or maximal height would be computed for the darkest areas (not for 100 black) as if such areas would be fully black. It's fully similar solution.

... auto-adjust image in irfan viewer = AUTOCONTRAST for color/greyscale images.

Autocontrast should be optional IMHO. Because the current system allows for more fine tuning, softer embossing and the 'option' of creating a pedestal. Maybe Autocontrast should default to 'on'. Simply because it's what works best for inexperienced and hasty users.