2D to 3D Applet

Posted on by

Smooth TeddyBlenderNation recently came across a really interesting tool which takes 2D freehand drawings and converts them into 3D models which can be loaded into other programs such as Blender. You can literally create just about anything you can draw on the screen!

Teddy, created by Takeo Igarashi during Siggraph 1999, is the name of this Java application. It loads in a simple applet that allows easy freehand drawing. The application supports Drawing, Extrusion, Cutting, Smoothing, and Bending. It’s newer revision is SmoothTeddy which includes better drawing controls and even painting. The results are quite impressive.

Teddy is a sketch-based 3D modeling software.
You can make interesting 3D models just by drawing freeform strokes.

You can read more about it here and here where you can watch a 5 minute video demonstration.

Be Sociable, Share!

    Twitter



    Please support us

    • aws357

      Is that thing similar to zbrush?
      You draw some sort of 3D blob? Or it convert 2D in 3D?

      From what I read, it seems it must be the first option…

    • http://mediablog.christ-net.sk LukasT
    • eltom

      kind of similar, but much simpler to handle. In connection with a graphics tablet you can create funny animals in seconds. Try the java applet browser version of the tool. Real fun. I love it :) A 3d construction mode like this directly embedded in the blender user interface would be great!

    • Dave

      It’s a great program. He has many great programs on his site. It’s just a shame he isn’t developing any of them. :(

    • IAN R

      WOW!, I wonder if blender could have these type of tools?

    • http://binder-eddie.blogspot.com/ Eddie

      this news a little bit late (for me atleast) im already tried several Takeo Igarashis softwares

    • tripdragon

      that is very old. He has gone on to use the program in Magical Pengal I think is teh name of a PS2 game, you draw the monsters and they battle. Same engine. Also this is now imbuned into Shader 3d. So yes it is being worked on still just not as a school activity like most of these test apps are. 

      Blender ever see it ? Nah,, somebody would have to try it out, which I doubt they will do. But that why you can learn still and prove me wrong :P

    • http://www.klangfreund.com Klangfreund

      what a great tool!

      the link at SmoothTeddy’s page to the converter (asg to x3d) is broken.
      http://www.dadim.org/norbert/xsl/ is the place to go.

      Sadly this converter (I’ve downloaded the full package) doesn’t work here. the command prompt tells me: at net.sf.saxon.Transform.main(Transform.java:67) Source file root.x3d does not exist

      (root.xml is the source-file and root.x3d should be created by the converter)

      has someone been more successful?

    • Vassilios Boucer

      Thats a Great Tool!
      another great Japanese Tool is Hexagreat!

    • http://www.nathan.nl.tt JD-Multi

      A really usefull tool. When I saw this, I whish they had this when I was a child. How cool would it be as a child to draw something in Pixar style. ? :P
      Besides that this tool can be used to give childeren a sight now how to think 3D, it’s also an awesome tool to make quick drawings for presentations, prototypes, ideas for 3d stills or animations. I defently hope that there will come someday an animation feature (if it doesn’t already exists, cause I’m going to try it out right afther this post ;) ) to make quick animation sketches for real movies, storyboards or more.

      I think the power of this tool is that you can create something on the fly with handdrawing instead of click, drag and whatever, and almost without any knowledge. It would be a great tool on a designers desk, that’s something I’m sure about, because right now I know a lot of situations were I could have used it to make things more clear to someone else. :D

      Ok enought talk, I’m going to try it out. :P

    • Ares

      Hey, that Teddy aplication is very good. I have been following Takeo Igarashi work for a while now. I like this idea also: http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/%7Etakeo/research/rigid/index.html
      That is very similar to the UV pinning tool in Blender. I wish somebody put that same tool but for the mesh to be able to animate like that in Blender . If you download the aplication “rigid.zip” and run it, load the bear image it comes with, you will apreciate more the potencial.

      I found another aplication that is very similar to Teddy and it is also free:
      http://www.unknownroad.com/index.html
      you can see some video on their site or here:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyJUG2VSvqw&eurl=
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggVLnb_3T4c&mode=related&search=

      I also found another free aplication that is similar in the sence that uses gestures to operate, but is more a SkechUp kind of aplication:
      http://immi.inesc.pt/~tfdc/gides++/application.html
      You can find videos on their site or here:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaHp5nEgJuE&mode=related&search=

      I hope you like them.

    • Ares

      Continuing with cool aplications, check out the base link where you can find most of the projects you guys have mention here and some more:
      http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/index.html
      They have a very cool and easy way of creating trees there….
      http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/%7Emakoto21/MakoTree2005.htm
      A cloth tool:
      http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/research/cloth/index.html
      and more….
      Very interesting stuff

    • T-Ry

      This is a spinoff of the Alice3d package (if Alice3d isn’t the exact name it’s very similar). I remember playing with it perhaps in the mid to late 90′s?

      You can successfully make some very humorous things and when you mess up it’s usually even funnier.

    • http://www.osysi.net Bmud

      As aforementioned, this is old news. 1999 kind of old news. Um… I guess there really isn’t anything going on in the world of Blender these days? Yeah… I guess not.

      Well, I encourage all of you to enjoy Teddy. IMO, the original Teddy works better than smoothteddy because it’s easier to work with just one model instead of multiple in such a bizarre interface. Oh yeah, and since that time, there’s been a couple of Playstation 2 games made from the same engine, and an open source flavor of Teddy.
      Magic Pengel -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Pengel
      Graffiti Kingdom -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_Kingdom
      Original Teddy -> http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy/teddy.html
      OpenTeddy -> http://openteddy.sourceforge.net

      Don’t you dare short change Mr. Igrarashi by stopping at Teddy and then leaving his site! All his other projects are simply amazing. Sweater for example, is fantastic! And after many years since its creation, i’ve come accross many people in the textile industry that already used it to test out designs of their own. Can you believe a toy like that has real world application?! :D
      -> http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/research/cloth/index.html

      And make sure you visit his white paper section where you can see his application developed for messy doctors combining tablety glyph goodness to real text conversion algorithms, teddy for drawing 3D diagrams and doodles, and a lovely little schedule book keeper all combined into one!
      -> http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/research/Projects.html

      I’m sad that he didn’t have anything new to show off at siggraph this year, but as I already asked our good blendernation head honcho to post *cough!* Paul Debevec DID have new stuff to present, like his brand new HD resolution HDRi lightprobe gallery.
      -> http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Data/HighResProbes/

    • Wim

      Maybe this model tool could the next to include in Blender like the Sculpt tool! Any body contacted the writer yet? :-D
      Nice stuff!

    • http://www.osysi.net Bmud
    • http://www.davidrevoy.com David Revoy

      Hello! I was really surprise to see this link because I discover Teddy last week ( the black&white original one : http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm )
      I use it just to do draw organic spiral and spike / organic strange shape.
      Result with a Blender rendering is original.

    • http://www.parastudios.de Paratron

      Hi there. :)
      I was very unhappy, that I can’t find a really working converter for the ASG Files to use them in Blender…
      I had nothing to do yesterday night and tried to code it for myself ^^

      My converter works fine, if you have just a single object in your ASG-File. If you have multiple Objects, it will deliver a destroyed mesh, but i work on this bug…

      Maybe someone is interrested: http://www.parastudios.de/Files/asg2obj.zip

      Now you can use the Teddy-Meshes in Blender, too :D
      Don’t forget to read the “How to use.txt” !

    • Olav

      @Paratron

      Thanks for your nifty little program.
      It works fine !!
      I was hoping that someone would pick up the not-working converter.
      Thanks you did…
      Looking forward for the bug-fix

    • Pingback: egioazc

    • http://www.parastudios.de Paratron

      I had allready fixed the bug yesterday und uploaded the Program again, but totally forgot to post it here ^^
      The URL is the same, the Bug is fixed :)

      One little thing, that i have to do now is, that all object-positions are lost; all of them are on the zero-postion after importing…

      Maybe i’ll fix this, too in a few days ^^

    • Pingback: foradil

    • Pingback: lodine

    • http://www.mixx.com/stories/9646039/avoid_damagind_your_muscle_workout_routine Moana Ezell

      The thing about a beginner is that they’re eager. This is both good and bad. It’s good because they’ll put full effort into things and learn as much as they can, it’s bad because their eagerness makes them impatient! Many’s the beginner who didn’t get dramatic results in the first month and gave up because of it.

    • http://www.animejoint.com Whelchel

      this is very interesting post. thanks.

    • http://vwbq Clausell

      Perfect thought!
      Will revisit