font bevel help

[cj8n]

I want to make a title that looks like the opening sequence of Panic Room. See sample here: <http://www.picturemill.com/site/portfolio/film/maintitles/panicroom/index.html>

The bevel comes out of the face of the font to a thin sharp edge. Any suggestions how to model this. I've tried the basic bevel tool with no luck.

thanks,

Chris

[Mylenium]

Well, you will have to try again.... They reportedly used LW for this and honestly this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Of course you will have to use multiple bevels or Router but I think it is doable.

Mylenium

[Ralph Keyser]

It won't be painless though. Bevels off of characters often need a little tweaking to keep them in line. It's easy for edges to cross as they are beveled, so the resulting polygons often get wonky (that's the technical term). Picking a simple font for the base would be a good place to start.

[riki]

Thanks for the link, I love that title sequence, one of the best I've seen.

[hrgiger]

I really did like the opening credits. Not sure what it had to do with the movie but oh well...


I usually end up deleting a lot of points on the curves on my fonts so that when I bevel them, they don't cross.

[riki]

I thought it was great, it was the best part of the film.

[pdeb]

cj8n,

If beveling becomes too tedious, as I expect it would be to try to achieve a chisel effect, try a displacement map on a flat subd surface. The displacement map for a chisel effect can be done in Photoshop with it's layer effects (inner glow from center, white on black), then add a clip map for the text.

I've attached a quick test I had done last week, I think it holds up quite well.

HTH,
pdeb

[pdeb]

The perspective on the chisel may look off on the above image, it's only because it's a recessed chisel (negative displacement map, subtract mode if memory serves)

pdeb

[richpr]

Riki has some font beveling tips in the modeling section of his (http://www.suture.net) site. Additionally there are several recent threads that touch this topic.