Turn a Flat Image Into a 3d Relief for CNC

In this video I explain a trick that I use to make digital sculpting of shallow reliefs much easier. I use Fusion 360 and Zbrush together to turn a flat image into a shallow relief for a CNC carving. This is NOT an automated process, it does take some work. But it is far easier than just sculpting from scratch or using CAD software to try make a complex organic form.
#zbrush
#cnc

[@KirbaZ]

I am a beginner jeweler cannot begin to describe you how much this video has helped me man.... Thanks for taking the time and walking us through this.

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

Here is a tip for sculpting in zbrush that a lot of beginners dont know. this goes for 3D Coat, Blender and the like too... ALWAYS sculpt in low resolution and move upwards in resolution as you need more detail. If you start out with high rez, be it in dynamesh or subdiv, its VERY VERY VERY HARD to get your shapes correct early on. And shapes are literally the backbone, the DNA, THE LITERAL FOUNDATION of your work. That goes for 2D as well. Very few artists can draw without doing guidelines first, but NO sculptors can sculpt without the shapes and foundation for the details to sit on. Just my little tip i learned early on many, many years ago.

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

Also i forgot to add, when you start out in 3D programs sculpting in high rez at first, imagine it sorta like working with warm clay to build the face or whatever up, then putting it in the icebox to cool it off for detail? Same thing. If you try to sculpt big shapes with ice cold, ultra hard clay you'll have a bad time. Same goes for ultra warm clay for handling or details. VERY annoying to deal with. Constant smudges and ruined work.

[@darinbolvin3663]

Thanks. Great video, but that music is kind of annoying.

[@DGAWDGAW]

Very annoying at least to me.

[@anotherdrummer2]

Extremely annoying

[@MrmerryPippin-tw6rv]

Super annoying

[@boobiej08]

Make your own videos then.

[@Krokodilhunter19]

Great logic, came to watch a tutorial but because it's annoying I created my own tutorial instead.

[@team-tinker]

Amazing tutorial, perfect pace, very clear.

[@danpangione]

Straight to the point video with no bs. Thanks for that!

[@tsadickmelehoff9081]

Thank you so much! It's like a lightbulb moment for me-so clear and easy to grasp!

[@emilianoperezr9676]

Just started yesterday with fusion and your tutorial was completely understandable. Didn't knew I could do that!

[@CraftySven]

this is really neatly done and makes the sculpting step really easy and understandable.

[@jeepers52002]

Great intro to the concepts! Love the fixture/tape method for two sided machining. I'll be using that trick for sure :).

[@LtJerryRigg]

Excellent demonstration of workflow, exactly what I was looking for. I love the integration of the softwares. Thank you, I have some research to do now, hah. You do beautiful work

[@shahbokhari]

That was an exceptional piece of work! Thank You for sharing!

[@doubleT84]

That was extremely valuable, thank you. I'm trying to create a 3D PVC patch and wanted to give the main visual a bit more depth and texture. Also, I wanted to make a terrain relief with distance marks and details for my windowsill for a while and was stuck with how to achieve that. This will help.

[@barefootlyrooted]

Thanks so much for sharing this process. Woke up with an idea and now I have a bit more direction on how to do it.

[@joepaonessa1298]

Excellent video, I was looking for something as straight forward as this.

[@kdericson]

Probably one of the most useful videos I've ever seen on youtube. Great job!

[@cecilomar]

This is one of my favorite videos, I keep watching it and I've gone as far as modeling something I want to carve in the CNC, but still have not. Just wanted to pass by and say thank you, while I watch it again to get motivated to carve what I modeled.

[@johnfogg7858]

Excellent video! Exactly what I needed to see. THANKS!

[@MrAtomic9]

I have been trying to figure out how to do a 3d image of my dog that passed a couple weeks ago. Very concise explanation of where I need to start! Excellent video!

[@drumunl]

This is a fantastic video! I just got a CNC, and I've been watching a lot of tutorial videos to work on expanding my capabilities. This was really helpful.

[@Chemical14]

Thanks! Video coming soon about carving into irregular shaped stock in your CNC. For example - pumpkin carving!

[@thirteenthangel6482]

In one video you've solved most of my issues and got a new subscriber

[@bemccune7671]

Hey thanks for this. That's a very cool workflow!

[@daveyJ213]

WOW! Amazing. Excellent tutorial. It will be a while before I can catch up to you, but very inspirational. Thanks for sharing.

[@IrjiDudek]

You are magic. So short and so clear. Really thank you.

[@Chemical14]

Thanks! I appreciate you

[@JacquelynSmith_perfect45degree]

Fantastic video! Thanks for sharing!!!!

[@feasterfamine836]

Great video, the use of a jig and tape to hold a piece you repeat took me off guard, very clever.

[@johnlafferty5032]

Thank you. Excellent intro

[@amysteryprojects]

Great simplistic video thank you so very much very straight forward

[@evangelina84]

So good! Thanks for sharing

[@nafiswatson991]

This is amazing thank you so much this is going to change my whole process.

[@SpencerYonce]

I loved this!! Thank you man!!

[@johnstra002]

thats incredible thanks man

[@eliotaugusto9548]

Perfect. Exactly what I needed.

[@antonioferreiro]

Very helpful video. Thanks for sharing. I will practice in my designs.

[@laveryring3527]

This is the video I've been looking for. Was terrified of zbrush and couldn't break into it. Now I can work on my very basic 3d stl files that I made in tinkercad in zbrush to get me started. Thank you.

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

If you ever need any paid tutorials or chracks for Zbrush, let me know. Ive been helping people get those for a while now, to help people learn the program. I was a SUPERFAN of the program, until they sold out to Maxon, i still love the program, but now i help people get it for free cause to hell with maxon "the greedy company that bought the program"

[@MakeSomething]

Oh wow, that was great! I have to try this. Thanks!

[@Chemical14]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@skyeblue6834]

Gorgeous boxes

[@wjones1972]

This is a great video. Nice job..I haven't used Zbrush but now I am going to have to check it out.

[@erosangelos9422]

El MAGNIFICO)). no Words more! Thank you !

[@peteredwards2371]

Well done, you explained that really well 👍😊

[@grahamshere]

Thank you Chemical, been struggling with ways to do this, tried box modeling first but ahhhh just not great and takes for ever. This should work great.

[@onlyychevys]

WOW, impressive video!

[@escanmek]

Great tutorial, thanks.

[@AzazelWill.]

actually this tutorial is very helpful and informative thank very much ;)

[@JAYTEEAU]

Nicely done, thanks. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@user-ou4dp1kw8w]

Шкатулки - просто красота !!!👍👍👍👍

[@vanshikhakansay7629]

ooo god uh r such a saviour man 🥺 thanks for the tutorial , everything single thing is so clear , love uh🥺

[@longlivingdude]

Great tutorial!

[@dynomania]

Very nice - Kurt would be impressed

[@jewelator]

Respect for leaving a comment to the author. I would be grateful if you look at my content and rate it. In one of the videos, I made a gold case for a Zippo 3D printer lighter.

[@woodensoup3423]

thanks for the information!

[@crookcostello6018]

LEGENDARY VIDEO!! GREAT INFO! You earned the Thumb and Sub many times over.

[@Chemical14]

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[@ericgaymard5218]

amazing tuto thks bro !!

[@bjoernbrasch2432]

Hardcore. Well done.

[@davidmortimore6838]

This is really useful. Thank you very much.

[@Chemical14]

No problem, thanks for watching!

[@jrdevelopment2020]

nice work !!

[@woodworkingvangioi4996]

So beautiful

[@fxsrider]

I have been playing around with Fusion 360 for a couple years. Every now and then I'll get frustrated with the whole mess and play a guitar instead, only to find out I can't remember how to play more than a few songs. I have a cnc router and it has been quite an experience by itself. My main goal is to take a photo and create a 3D model from it. Every time I come back to try again I find videos I haven't seen yet demonstrating software I've never heard of. If we didn't have the internet and I had to do this old school with the local library resources I doubt I would get very far. The technology advances faster than they can get the books on the shelves. The books they do have are always checked out. The internet changed everything didn't it? Thank you for taking the time to show the rest of us what probably took you a good while to sort out.

[@altar7885]

Great stuff. Thanks a lot. I was wanting to do some medallions and this could come in handy. Are the functions you used available in the free versions of those softwares?

[@farukTheProBro]

thanks for the idea :D

[@SmellyCatCreations]

Really good video. 👍🏻

[@djorgeo]

Excelente video, Muchas gracias por compartir tu conocimiento!!!!

[@Chemical14]

Gracias!

[@andrewlongfellow8745]

Wow this is amazing. I’ve attempt to sculpt multiple times now with different programs and I never get the shape I want. I’m going to seriously try this technique with blender or some other free program.

[@kiethbiasillo4678]

wow. thank you

[@theflamingredone]

This is a great tutorial. Super clear and helpful. It seems you've exported a metronome in the voice-over audio though. I don't know if you're aware of it but thought I'd point it out just in case. Thanks very much for your work.

[@gomtb]

The Fusion 360 Image2Surface Addin may help in this process. You would be able to quickly convert the heart image to a mesh and to a T-Spline surface.

[@edinhoazso]

thank you so much !!!!

[@lord_byron_pg7204]

@Chemical 14 Awesome Man, great Method!!!

[@cloudview4220]

amazing work i subscribed because of this video

[@Chemical14]

Thanks!

[@KN-ix2xm]

are all these tools free to use on the softwares you have shown in this video? Also, would this design and other designs like these, also be applicable for engraving onto metal via fiber lasers? Thanks and keep up the amazing work!

[@user-mp1ce7oq4d]

Yeah. ZBrush ZRemesher the best))) Thank you)

[@austinhuntley5169]

As a fast base for organic objects like this you can always shove any image into a program like materialize which is small and FREE where you can generate a heightmap and then use that as a good starting point or even find that good enough without going through most of this process. You can either displace geo in Blender or in zbrush with the heightmap or drag the alpha onto a plane.

[@freshmaker4o]

In was thinking exact same thing, Materialize is fantastic. Apparently there is also a website where you can convert a normal map to geometry

[@austinhuntley5169]

@@freshmaker4o recently there's been some really good ai tools on huggingface for generating high-quality depth maps from images too.

[@cgrosbeck]

Also when smoothing if sculptures pro is enabled you can do finer smoothing keeping detail!

[@krd8058]

this beat fire

[@cgrosbeck]

most brushes can add more vertices if you enable sculptures pro. Quick tip!!!!! Its the round button to the left of MRGB at the top the button looks kind of like yin and yang.

[@geauxracerx]

Exactly!

[@BEEFYCNC]

Thanks for the tutorial, just what i was looking for... Which tablet are you using? I've been looking at getting one with a screen for design work...

[@jhall651]

Awesome video! Just what I was looking for. What type of gaming controller is that you controller your cnc with? Does it control it through your computer or through the cnc module/brain?

[@SHEMZILLER]

Great video

[@jewelator]

Respect for leaving a comment to the author. I would be grateful if you look at my content and rate it. In one of the videos, I made golden matches on a 3D printer.

[@SHEMZILLER]

@@jewelator ok

[@goodluckcnctotalsolution1222]

NICE

[@TheZahnputz]

hi, have you tried using a texture brush? i just discovered this in blender - you use a 2d black and white image to deform surface texture. you wont get the complete depth and your image might need some photoshopping, but after that its basically just ONE click to get you 90% of the work done.

[@mapache_jega]

Excelente , gracias por compartir. Como se consigue el Zplugin?

[@seabeepirate]

Pretty cool. I was hoping for something simpler though like using a pic in greyscale.

[@bacsijancsi]

Amazing video. I need a CNC next to my Lasercutters :-)

[@Chemical14]

Cnc machines are getting more and more affordable! I don’t have a laser cutter yet but I’m sure I will eventually.

[@bacsijancsi]

@@Chemical14 I am a big lasercutter maniac, after using my diode laser for a year I got my CO2 laser which is a big step forward. Yes smaller CNCV is cheaper size is a big factor with price...

[@ilearntoearn]

great

[@artsquirrel]

If you want a nice basemesh from a depth / height map to begin the sculpt process 3d Coat or inflate bitmap in Curvy 3D is useful

[@noochmahh]

what was the controller you used to jog your cnc. I am looking for a new controller

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

Forgot to ask, what sorta C&C machine do you use? Is it a fairly affordable one? Id love to make lie... furnature type stuff like this.

[@Victor-bx3js]

Awesome tutorial! Not a big fan of the music, but still great video!

[@statuechick7925]

Is there a cnc machine u would recommend for this sort of work but a high quality beginner? Something that is something I can grow into

[@donkshot1]

thx for share, u a refference !

[@dindaayu7365]

Nicee

[@AJonahU]

Great video. Do you have any recommendations on learning material for how to mill on fusion or in general? Thank you!

[@Chemical14]

When I first got started I just watched whatever tutorials for Fusion I could find on KZbin. After that I just started trying things. Just being persistent and not being scared to screw up is what will get you where you want to go.

[@robsonwaynne7811]

Very good , congratulations my friend 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🇧🇷

[@garyzalewski9787]

Well done! What type and size of bit did you use for the heart?

[@Chemical14]

I used a 1mm radius tapered bit for the finish pass. 1/4” radius ballnose for the rough in.

[@joepaonessa1298]

What tablet do you use?

[@ScottBarrettihq]

this is great - well done. really terrific tutorial on a lot of levels. now, PLEASE find a rubber heart replica, painted as realistically as possible and place it in that box and perhaps fill it with a clear epoxy. Let nosey people just 'discover' the contents of the heart box.

[@user-ln7wl1qi2f]

🔥🔥🔥

[@hillcountryCNC]

What kind of controller was that with your CNC?

[@danwohlslagel1277]

Awesome work! Are you able to use the G-code generated from Fusion 360 for a proprietary program like the Shark HD4 ( Nextwave CNC)? I know that there is an export option for Shark CNC but I have also heard that generic G-code will not work and you have to use Vectric V-Carve Pro.

[@Chemical14]

When you export your gcode from fusion you get a lot of options for post processing for different systems. If your system is in the list just select that and it’ll work. Lots of hobbyist cncs are grbl based (like shapeoko) so in that case you just select the grbl post processor. You can also find other post processor add-ons that people have made if you don’t see your system in the list.

[@Funcasino-royaleCoUk]

Is there a similar tutorial using Blender instead of Zbrush?

[@mohds6082]

You’re amazing! I can’t believe how much I learned from tNice tutorials video. My softs just got 10 tis better after watcNice tutorialng tNice tutorials!

[@jewelator]

Respect for leaving a comment to the author. I would be grateful if you look at my content and rate it. In one of the videos, I made golden matches on a 3D printer.