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to clarify, I'm attempting to model a Kylo Ren (Star Wars Ep 7) helmet in Blender. As you can see in this picture, there are metallic patterns on his cheek area.

I am fairly new to Blender, so I was wondering if there is a way to trace the pattern with something like the knife tool, or a grease pencil type drawing tool that actually cuts the mesh, and then extrude the pattern to desired thickness.

Or if there is a simpler way to extrude the pattern, I'd be thankful for info on that too.

Thanks in advance. JB

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  • $\begingroup$ It might be useful to show your work or some simplification of you work as a 3D model so some people know where do start assisting you. $\endgroup$
    – atomicbezierslinger
    Sep 14, 2015 at 15:47
  • $\begingroup$ Both Knife tool and Grease pencil (converted to geometry) do the job pretty good. The difficoult part is tracing the contour! As the lines are evenly spaced, I woud suggest to work with a "smart" topology and use loopcuts to define the areas. $\endgroup$
    – Carlo
    Sep 14, 2015 at 15:58
  • $\begingroup$ Hi atomicbezierslinger, I don't have anything to show yet, but a subsurfed cube. I thought I'd work out how to do the detail work first so that I can model the helmet to suit whatever base it needs. $\endgroup$
    – Banokk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 17:28
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks Carlo. I am going to try loopcuts, as I'm struggling with the converting grease pencil to geometry part. I appreciate the suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – Banokk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 17:49

2 Answers 2

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You may use use a Bsurfaces addon and then the Knife Project Tool. Go to User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U-->Add-ons) and enable it. enter image description here

Add an object you want to draw the extrusion pattern on, then add a Plane (or any other object you like), enter the Edit Mode and delete it (X). In the Properties Panel (N) add a new Grease Pencil layer, then go to the Tool Shelf (T)-->Grease Pencil and change a stroke placement to Surface. Now go to the Tool bookmark in a Tool Shelf. Draw some strokes on an object (hold D, then press LMB [ How to draw grease pencil on a surface (blender 2,75)? ]). When finished, click on Add Surface in Bsurface panel. Change the settings below as you like.
enter image description here

Now (being in Object Mode) select a mesh you created using a Grease Pencil, then your base mesh and enter the Edit Mode. Go to the Tool Shelf-->Tools-->Transform-->Add-->Knife Project. Now the only thing you should do is to retopologize your mesh a bit. enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot, Gonzou! I followed your directions and was able to get it to work with straight lines, but when I tried curved lines, or cul-de-sacs, the geometry that was generated was all askew. Do you know why this would be? I'll try to upload a picture of what I mean. $\endgroup$
    – Banokk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 17:53
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You can use a displace modifier with the texture to get some low relief effects. It will not be equivalent to full 3D model.

There are ways in Inkscape to trace edges, import them into Blender as curves, convert to mesh. (Text objects are often converted to mesh objects) Then extrude and duplicate.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot for the suggestion. Is there a way to project the traced edges to the surface of the model, so that the design is formed over the cheek ridge before extruding? $\endgroup$
    – Banokk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 17:25

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