Comments on: PantoGraph: The Vector Renderer http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/ Fresh Blender News, Every Day Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:15:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Luke http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-361516 Luke Sat, 02 Aug 2008 07:44:23 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-361516 OMG! This is awesome, I've been wanting this for so long and all of the other options are dead ends these days... Please continue! I'm especially interested in the SWF output, because I'm a flash game designer. Blender's character animation + swf output would really make my day! :3 OMG! This is awesome, I've been wanting this for so long and all of the other options are dead ends these days… Please continue! I'm especially interested in the SWF output, because I'm a flash game designer. Blender's character animation + swf output would really make my day! :3

]]> By: Lucy http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-329055 Lucy Fri, 23 May 2008 21:17:26 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-329055 wanted such a tool for a long time wanted such a tool for a long time

]]> By: rocketship http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-325166 rocketship Sat, 17 May 2008 00:00:57 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-325166 ADG, Thanks for the pitch! Actually, combining the output of Pantograph with that of the internal renderer is a planned feature - it shouldn't be too hard. I've been aware of the Illustrate plug-in for a while - I've never tried it, because its limited to the Windows platform and a 3d package which I don't use. I began the project partly out of frustration with the lack of Linux-native vector renderers (Maya's, for example, is Windows-only). I'm hoping to make Pantograph easier to install and use - I would love to eventually get feedback from people about how they would like to use it! Version 0.5 will have a native Blender GUI, which should be a big help (and will mean one less dependency to install). RS ADG,
Thanks for the pitch! Actually, combining the output of Pantograph with that of the internal renderer is a planned feature - it shouldn't be too hard. I've been aware of the Illustrate plug-in for a while - I've never tried it, because its limited to the Windows platform and a 3d package which I don't use. I began the project partly out of frustration with the lack of Linux-native vector renderers (Maya's, for example, is Windows-only).

I'm hoping to make Pantograph easier to install and use - I would love to eventually get feedback from people about how they would like to use it! Version 0.5 will have a native Blender GUI, which should be a big help (and will mean one less dependency to install).

RS

]]> By: A. David Guzman http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-310011 A. David Guzman Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:07:51 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-310011 I think this is not only a great idea but a badly needed one. This plug-in does much more for Blender than what you think at first. To begin with, output to SVG is something that many people will need and if later on this could be converted to Flash it might be even better but remember that SVG is also an animated vector standard. What happens is that I don't think that there is yet an application that does the standard as much justice as other applications do for the Flash format. In addition to that I think the plug-in does other important things that could benefit other sectors like architecture. Even tough Blender is not exactly a CAD program people are starting to use it for architectural purposes and there is a lot of talk about this lately. I don't know how much control you have over the edges of your plug-in but being able to render the edges you want with the thickness you want is an important capability because it augments the edge feature that Blender has internally much, much more. In architecture or product design and visualization this could yield very decent illustrations. If you want to see better what I'm talking about take a look at the Illustrate plug-in for 3D Studio. Take a look at this addresses: http://www.pluginz.com/product/10112 Check out this gallery (the blue links atop the page) especially the Technical Illustration and Architecture but check all you want anyway: http://www.davidgould.com/Gallery/index.html See the potential that Pantograph could have if developed well? This Pantograph plug-in is the closest thing to Illustrate that I've seen so far for Blender. I'm not saying that it should be developed as far as Illustrate because I now that is not easy to compete with commercial applications but it might be develop enough to be put to really good use! This with proper application could create some very, very powerful and professional Illustrations. This enters the area of non-photo realistic rendering giving Blender users new capabilities of this type and if you know what you are doing (I think you can overlay or mix these edges over other type of renderings like the Illustrate examples even if you had to do it by manual post-processing or with some sort of batch post-processing ) the photo realistic or shaded renderings can be combined with edges of this type to create some very nifty and powerful images and it could also be very useful to give cartoon shading (in combination) better edges with much better control of the lines than again what is possible with the internal Blender edge renderer. I have not been able to use it because I haven't seen anybody write a tutorial of how to configure it for Windows and I don't have the time at the moment to play with it until I figure it out but from what I've seen this could be very powerful and I think it should be developed seriously. About the curves been too square I'm not sure (like I said I have not been able to use it yet) but I think that that depends on your polygonal resolution and some more experience modelers might overcome this by creating higher resolutions meshes and that may not be so good for animation (even tough I've seen pretty high polygonal resolution animations) it might be very good for technical Illustrations. I think this thing has a lot of potential. I think this is not only a great idea but a badly needed one. This plug-in does much more for Blender than what you think at first. To begin with, output to SVG is something that many people will need and if later on this could be converted to Flash it might be even better but remember that SVG is also an animated vector standard. What happens is that I don't think that there is yet an application that does the standard as much justice as other applications do for the Flash format.

In addition to that I think the plug-in does other important things that could benefit other sectors like architecture. Even tough Blender is not exactly a CAD program people are starting to use it for architectural purposes and there is a lot of talk about this lately. I don't know how much control you have over the edges of your plug-in but being able to render the edges you want with the thickness you want is an important capability because it augments the edge feature that Blender has internally much, much more. In architecture or product design and visualization this could yield very decent illustrations. If you want to see better what I'm talking about take a look at the Illustrate plug-in for 3D Studio. Take a look at this addresses:

http://www.pluginz.com/product/10112

Check out this gallery (the blue links atop the page) especially the Technical Illustration and Architecture but check all you want anyway:

http://www.davidgould.com/Gallery/index.html

See the potential that Pantograph could have if developed well? This Pantograph plug-in is the closest thing to Illustrate that I've seen so far for Blender. I'm not saying that it should be developed as far as Illustrate because I now that is not easy to compete with commercial applications but it might be develop enough to be put to really good use! This with proper application could create some very, very powerful and professional Illustrations. This enters the area of non-photo realistic rendering giving Blender users new capabilities of this type and if you know what you are doing (I think you can overlay or mix these edges over other type of renderings like the Illustrate examples even if you had to do it by manual post-processing or with some sort of batch post-processing ) the photo realistic or shaded renderings can be combined with edges of this type to create some very nifty and powerful images and it could also be very useful to give cartoon shading (in combination) better edges with much better control of the lines than again what is possible with the internal Blender edge renderer.

I have not been able to use it because I haven't seen anybody write a tutorial of how to configure it for Windows and I don't have the time at the moment to play with it until I figure it out but from what I've seen this could be very powerful and I think it should be developed seriously. About the curves been too square I'm not sure (like I said I have not been able to use it yet) but I think that that depends on your polygonal resolution and some more experience modelers might overcome this by creating higher resolutions meshes and that may not be so good for animation (even tough I've seen pretty high polygonal resolution animations) it might be very good for technical Illustrations. I think this thing has a lot of potential.

]]> By: rocketship http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-281433 rocketship Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:55:23 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-281433 T.K. - This is fantastic! I can host the installers if you need, and/or the tutorial - I'll definitely put a link to it up. Thanks for your work! RS T.K. -
This is fantastic! I can host the installers if you need, and/or the tutorial - I'll definitely put a link to it up. Thanks for your work!

RS

]]> By: T.K. http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-273542 T.K. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:55:40 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-273542 I have finished a tutorial on how to get PantoGraph on Windows. http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rd6t-kjym/tmp/pantograph.html Have fun. I have finished a tutorial on how to get PantoGraph on Windows.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rd6t-kjym/tmp/pantograph.html
Have fun.

]]> By: T.K. http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-271377 T.K. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:50:26 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-271377 @rocketship, I started writing a how-to tutorial on installing PantoGraph on Windows. It will take a few more days. Since AFAIK the Polygon module and Ming's Python binding have no official Windows installers on the Web, I have prepared unofficial ones (those for Python 2.5) together with the tutorial. What do you think is the best way to put the tutorial and supplementary installers online? I have my own Web space, so uploading to there can be considered as a last resort. @rocketship,
I started writing a how-to tutorial on installing PantoGraph on
Windows. It will take a few more days. Since AFAIK the Polygon
module and Ming's Python binding have no official Windows installers
on the Web, I have prepared unofficial ones (those for Python 2.5)
together with the tutorial. What do you think is the best way to
put the tutorial and supplementary installers online? I have my own
Web space, so uploading to there can be considered as a last resort.

]]> By: hasan http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-267257 hasan Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:39:32 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-267257 pantograph is very good program pantograph is very good program

]]> By: rocketship http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-264794 rocketship Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:25:57 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-264794 @mzungu, I'm not sure if tweening is actually in the SWF file - isn't it mostly just an animation technique in Flash? The movie is still only playing at 12fps - I don't think its making any frames in between. I could be wrong... I just started working with Ming - it might be possible... @TK, Do you have any interest in writing up a short paragraph how-to on installing in Windows? You could send it to me at the blog... RS @mzungu,
I'm not sure if tweening is actually in the SWF file - isn't it mostly just an animation technique in Flash? The movie is still only playing at 12fps - I don't think its making any frames in between. I could be wrong…

I just started working with Ming - it might be possible…

@TK,
Do you have any interest in writing up a short paragraph how-to on installing in Windows? You could send it to me at the blog…

RS

]]> By: mzungu http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-264420 mzungu Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:09:12 +0000 http://www.blendernation.com/2008/03/03/pantograph-the-vector-renderer/#comment-264420 How does this compare to previous efforts: VRM: http://shell.studenti.unina.it/~ospite/vrm/ and sflender: http://www3.sympatico.ca/emilio.aguirre/ ??? Did you rely upon, borrow from or enhance them at all in your efforts? I, too, would love to see if tweening would be possible and how much that would reduce file sizes. How does this compare to previous efforts:

VRM: http://shell.studenti.unina.it/~ospite/vrm/ and
sflender: http://www3.sympatico.ca/emilio.aguirre/ ???

Did you rely upon, borrow from or enhance them at all in your efforts?

I, too, would love to see if tweening would be possible and how much that would reduce file sizes.

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