Image Paint Software

[Scott Shepherd]

Anyone else checked out the new advertiser, Image Paint Software? Their website has some absolutely gorgeous inlays. It says it works for the lasers as well as CNC. We don't do any colorful things like that for our inlay work, but that's really some beautiful work. If I did inlay work more often, I'd be taking that software for a test drive.

Check it out.....

http://www.amazoncanvas.com

[Bert Kemp]

I did a quick look says you need AI which I don't have. Also was wondering how you print the wood texture designs on the veneer? Suppose I have to read more LOL

[gary l roberts]

Saw the software work at AWFS. It's a pug in on AI. I believe it will work on any vrs so an old copy should not cost you much. He seemed to solve all or at least most of the issues you might have doing marquetry. It automates the issues of reducing size by beam size, cleaning up vectors, veneer selection based on color and shading etc.
It appears to be a first class solution in making marquetry user friendly especially with a laser which he used to do the cut demos at the show.

[Mike Null]

That's impressive and the kind of thing I would like to do. I don't have Illustrator though.

[Steve Morris]

Do look great but it states "Some images shown above represents the actual physical artworks, while others represent the finished designs still in digital format"
Does make you wonder just how good it really is compared to the advertising, raises trust issues for me when they present false pics like that with the intent of taking my money.

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't know Steve, I think that hummingbird on the front page looks pretty amazing on that wooden box. If you watch the video, you can see it made. That's a pretty good snapshot of how close to the image the final product turned out to me.

I'd love to see an actual gallery of completed and customers works on their site. That's really beautiful stuff.

[Steve Morris]

Yep got to agree would be great to see the real McCoy from users.

[Rob Damon]

The impression I got was this does not produce any final product.

You scan in actual wood veneer samples or use theirs in order to make the picture in the digital world so you can see "as close to live" as possible what your final picture will look like. That file is then used as a cut list/pathway for when you put the real veneer on your laser/cnc and create the actual cut parts.

It does not actually "paint" anything on the final product, but rather acts as a go between, between a paint program and the code to cut real veneer.

That's my take.

[Scott Shepherd]

Exactly Rob, that's what it does. It takes graphics and creates the cut files, which is a huge hurtle when trying to do something like that. I would suspect as intricate as it is, it wouldn't take much to pay for the software pretty quickly. I don't recall seeing anything that intricate posted in all the years I've been here.

They do have a free wood image download that's huge. The names are weird, but there's an excel file that explains the codes. Really great stuff there.

[Dan Hintz]

The impression I got was this does not produce any final product.

You scan in actual wood veneer samples or use theirs in order to make the picture in the digital world so you can see "as close to live" as possible what your final picture will look like. That file is then used as a cut list/pathway for when you put the real veneer on your laser/cnc and create the actual cut parts.

It does not actually "paint" anything on the final product, but rather acts as a go between, between a paint program and the code to cut real veneer.

That's the beauty of this product. If you scan in the actual piece of veneer you plan to use, you can twist/tweak the cutout line to match up with the grain as you see fit. Once you've put together an entire project, you know that what you wind up with in the real world will be awfully close to what was on the screen.

I like it... just wish I had the time to play with it.

[Roy Nielsen]

It is possible to play with the demo version on top of a demo version of AI.

I tried it out for a few hours one evening, was really fighting to figure out AI, but ImagePaint was fairly intuitive and fast for at least pattern filling. The pattern filling is essentially the same outcome as using Pattern Fill in Corel Draw, just a whole lot easier and more flexible in that you can lay out your object to get an exact spot from your veneer, such as a highly figured area; that's assuming that you properly scanned/photographed the piece. This would allow tweaking your design so much easier for either one off pieces, to set exactly what you want, or using "stock" photos if you're not concerned with getting exact pieces/do several copies of the same design/etc. but want to experiment with different species.

I didn't quite figure out how to retrieve the items to actually cut (AI newby problems).

[Kev Williams]

That software is pretty cool..

One thing I didn't find on the website is info on the transformation from photo to line art. I would be interested in the software simply for that purpose. But like many others, I don't have AI.

[Scott Shepherd]

I emailed them and got a reply back last night from one of the creators of the software. He said that he's out of the country at the moment and the site is blocked from that country, but when he gets back home, he'll answer questions about it. He said it was just released this spring. He gave me a link to a site that had some final photos of the work, but it's a site with a lot of Artists pieces and it's hard to navigate and I wasn't able to locate them very easily. He said there are a dozen or so real life images on that site, so there are some photos around.

I look forward to seeing them when he gets back.

Seemed like a really nice guy and glad to help.

[Doug Griffith]

That software is pretty cool..

One thing I didn't find on the website is info on the transformation from photo to line art. I would be interested in the software simply for that purpose. But like many others, I don't have AI.

That information is detailed on the Production Pro page. It has some well thought out features. It even compensates for the kerf.

[Kev Williams]

The info I found isn't exactly what I'm talking about-

I'll copy & paste, website info in blue:

...The Toolpath Generator takes a finished digital design and automatically converts all shapes in the design to toolpaths. With a single mouse click, all shapes on a selected sheet of material are duplicated and converted to toolpaths.

"a finished digital design"... The way that sentence is phrase makes it sound like the 'finished digital design' was created somewhere else...

There's 3 images used of the little girl: The photo, the toolpath, and the finished wood-art...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/vect.jpg

--what I want to know is, did this program take the photo "as is" and convert it to toolpaths? Or was something needed to be done to the photo first? There's a LOT of detail in the photo missing from the toolpaths. Which is exactly what interests me! If this program did this, then great! But if the photo had to be "worked over" first, I'd also like to know how that was done...

Example: ever scan a photo of say, a brick building, and hope whatever trace/vectorization program you use can change it into useable toolpath art? Most results contain way too much detail because of outlining everything black, and centerline trace results usually resemble a rock puzzle that barely resembles the original subject. I really like how that toolpath of the girl left a lot of unneeded detail behind, yet the detail that IS there is still quite detailed. That would be really handy to me!

[Doug Griffith]

My guess is that the photo was vectorized by hand and is what "a finished digital design" is.

[Scott Shepherd]

In watching a number of the videos, I think Doug is right. You have to start with a vector shape. In watching a number of the videos, I was only more impressed by it all. It's really a powerful piece of software that makes creating incredible things quite easy. I'd take it for a test drive and report back, but they don't have the Plug in for the Mac version available yet.

Watch some of the tutorials, I think you'll be impressed. Especially to see that yellow bird project where the bird is close to a bee. The detail is amazing.

[Glen Monaghan]

There are so many differences between the photo and vector drawing, with such attention to "important" or "useful" detail at the expense of "extraneous" or superfluous detail, that I have to believe it was done by hand. There are some obvious additions such as the fence and field (although the photo has the background so blown out mayhaps those features were present but not visible in this specific photo?), and the tree details are only very loosely based on the real thing. Likewise, look at the wrinkles in the skirt... hard to believe software decided to pull out those few small ones at the back and totally ignore the more prominent, deep, dark one running almost to the knee. Ditto on the head wrap wrinkles, which are totally absent in the vector, although were "picked up" in the inlaid version (as were several of the skirt wrinkles that were left out of the vector). The hair vectors also are quite different from the photo. Human drawn, I'd say.

[Wilbur Harris]

Yes, human drawn. AND....if you're like me that would be a lifetime project.:) On the other hand, there's a lot of stuff that could be cut straight out that would work just fine - maybe! Whoever buys/trys this (and I know somebody will), please tell us how well it works.

If you've got something to do in just two colors, George Perzel did that a long time ago by engraving, reverse engraving, glue and sand. Takes a while, but this does too....

[Amazon Canvas]

Hi,
My name is Vincent Doan. I am one of the developers for ImagePaint. I just got back from an oversea trip and am ready to work again. ImagePaint does not convert raster image to vector art, you would need AI native tool to do that (Image Trace CS6 and above or Live Trace CS3-CS5). All vector artworks created by Amazon Canvas were drawn by hand. Image Trace and Live Trace are not appropriate for marquetry, because they produce too many shapes. I know most of us use CorelDraw and prefer to create vector arts in CorelDraw. We can continue using CorelDraw for creating vector arts and export it to .ai or .eps file and open them with Illustrator. ImagePaint has its own user interface, so we don't need to know much about how to use Illustrator to apply wood or other materials to vector arts imported from CorelDraw. The finished digital design (vector design with wood images applied) can then be converted to toolpaths for cutting with a laser. If you have one of those Chinese laser that do not support sending through a printer driver, you need to export the toolpaths prepared by ImagePaint to a format supported by that laser.
Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Vincent

[Doug Griffith]

Hi,
My name is Vincent Doan. I am one of the developers for ImagePaint. I just got back from an oversea trip and am ready to work again. ImagePaint does not convert raster image to vector art, you would need AI native tool to do that (Image Trace CS6 and above or Live Trace CS3-CS5). All vector artworks created by Amazon Canvas were drawn by hand. Image Trace and Live Trace are not appropriate for marquetry, because they produce too many shapes. I know most of us use CorelDraw and prefer to create vector arts in CorelDraw. We can continue using CorelDraw for creating vector arts and export it to .ai or .eps file and open them with Illustrator. ImagePaint has its own user interface, so we don't need to know much about how to use Illustrator to apply wood or other materials to vector arts imported from CorelDraw. The finished digital design (vector design with wood images applied) can then be converted to toolpaths for cutting with a laser. If you have one of those Chinese laser that do not support sending through a printer driver, you need to export the toolpaths prepared by ImagePaint to a format supported by that laser.
Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Vincent

Awesome piece of work Vincent.

Thanks for popping on here and sharing information with us.

[Rich Harman]

Hi,
My name is Vincent Doan...

One thing I really like about this forum is that they require you to use your real first and last name as a username, says so right where you fill in "username" when you register. I think you must have missed that...

[Scott Shepherd]

One thing I really like about this forum is that they require you to use your real first and last name as a username, says so right where you fill in "username" when you register. I think you must have missed that...

Rich, they are a sponsor of this site, and Keith manually approves all new users, so if he is posting as his company name, then it's because that's how Keith wanted to handle them being a sponsor. I believe there are a few like this, but we don't see them in the engraving forum too often.

[Keith Outten]

My Mistake.....

I failed to change the title for Amazon Canvas from Member to Sponsor when I created their account.
.

[Bill George]

Hi,
My name is Vincent Doan. I am one of the developers for ImagePaint. I just got back from an oversea trip and am ready to work again. ImagePaint does not convert raster image to vector art, you would need AI native tool to do that (Image Trace CS6 and above or Live Trace CS3-CS5). All vector artworks created by Amazon Canvas were drawn by hand. Image Trace and Live Trace are not appropriate for marquetry, because they produce too many shapes. I know most of us use CorelDraw and prefer to create vector arts in CorelDraw. We can continue using CorelDraw for creating vector arts and export it to .ai or .eps file and open them with Illustrator. ImagePaint has its own user interface, so we don't need to know much about how to use Illustrator to apply wood or other materials to vector arts imported from CorelDraw. The finished digital design (vector design with wood images applied) can then be converted to toolpaths for cutting with a laser. If you have one of those Chinese laser that do not support sending through a printer driver, you need to export the toolpaths prepared by ImagePaint to a format supported by that laser.
Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Vincent

Would it be possible to make this work for those of us with Corel Draw, without using Illustrator?

[Amazon Canvas]

Would it be possible to make this work for those of us with Corel Draw, without using Illustrator?

Bill,
To support CorelDraw, if at all possible, would take a long while. However, if we do eventually support CorelDraw, user who purchased a license of ImagePaint for Illustrator can swap without additional cost.
I hope that answer your question.

[Amazon Canvas]

Thanks Doug for the warm welcome. I do own an Epilog Mini myself. I live in Irvine, CA since 2012.
And it is so so good to be back to CA after 2 hot and humid weeks in Vietnam.

[Amazon Canvas]

In Adobe Illustrator CC we have a tool called Image Trace. Below is a high resolution (250ppi) photo.
320888

With Image Trace setting of 8 colors rendering, about 1200 paths were generated (see below)
320889

With Image Trace setting of 16 colors rendering, about 1900 paths were generated (see below)
320890

With Image Trace setting of 30 colors rendering, about 2500 paths were generated (see below)

320891
So, for photo with lots of details it is better to hand trace as shown below:
320892
We use the pencil and pen tools in Illustrator to trace the photo.

[Scott Shepherd]

Upon my request, they have emailed me some actual photos, not digital renderings. This is very impressive to me. I love the yellow birds.

I wish I did more stuff like this, I'd be all in on this software. Hopefully someone here will take it and run with it because there's a lot of creative people here and I'd love to see what they could do with it.

Really cool how they used the wood pattern that looks like fish scales on the koi.

320904320905320906

[Amazon Canvas]

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Please use this coupon at checkout. This coupon is valid from Nov 27-Nov29.
This goes for all software, patterns and veneer kits including ImagePaint Production Pro software for marquetry and inlays using your CNC.
Coupon Code: HAPPY-TG-40

[Bruce Page]

Just an FYI, Amazon Canvas is a valued sponsor of SawMill Creek.

[Raphael Weil]

I'm eagerly waiting for this to be Mac friendly. Odd choice to just do Windows when it's an Adobe plugin. Such a big part of the Adobe user base (most of it?) has to be on the Mac OS. I'm an instant customer when this is Mac available.

[Lee DeRaud]

Yes, human drawn. AND....if you're like me that would be a lifetime project.:) And that pretty much sums up why I was vaguely underwhelmed by the whole thing: it automates the easiest part of the job.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm eagerly waiting for this to be Mac friendly. Odd choice to just do Windows when it's an Adobe plugin. Such a big part of the Adobe user base (most of it?) has to be on the Mac OS. I'm an instant customer when this is Mac available.If Illustrator plugins work like Photoshop plugins , as I suspect they do, at a minimum the UI portion of the plugin is O/S-dependent, i.e. not provided by the host app. There are ways around this (e.g. cross-platform libraries or Javascript), but you pretty much have to start out that way from the get-go: converting after the fact is not for the squeamish.