Sometimes the modeling could be a really fast process by using the proper method. In this article I will try to share with you a method which I've recently discovered speeding up my modeling.
Below we can see the desired model.
The most common method that I had in mind is to create a plane adding this photo as a material and by using spline modeling to complete the process.
This way will take a lot of time and thus I thought that may exists an easier way in order to catch the shape of those two leaves only by using Illustrator. As usual I made a fast search on the net and I found a video tutorial which really helped a lot! You can see it at the end of the article. The trick was to turn an image into a Graphic vector!
I tried exactly what the tutorial described but it didn't work for me as well. So before using Illustrator I converted the reference to a totally black & white image using Photoshop. The method is pretty easy and it is described below.
1. Add a Hue/Saturation layer to covert the image in a grey scale situation.
2. Add a Levels layer to create a black and white image.
3. Ctrl + Alt + Shift +E to create a new layer.
4. Select the brush tool with a white colour to remove the base of each leaf as we do not really need it.
5. Save the image as a simple .jpg file.
1. File -> New -> OK.
2. Drag and Drop your image into the new Illustrator's file.
3. With the image still selected go to Image Trace -> Sketched Art. Wait a bit for the process to be completed.
4. To create the vector shape hit Expand.
5. The last step is to save the vector shape as an Illustrator 8 Version.
1. File -> Import -> Select your illustrator file.
For some reason the imported file created double splines one above the other and thus if you try to add an extrude modifier for example, you will get undesired result. In fact this is not a big issue. Just delete one by one the doubled splines and then you will be able to add an extrude or edit mesh modifier as well.
If we compare the common 3ds Max spline modeling method and this Illustrator method we will observe two things.
1. 10 times faster process.
2. 100% more accurate modeling.
That's it! I hope that you found this tip useful somehow and If any of you knows a better way please do not hesitate to suggest it with a comment below.