As some readers may know, one of the programs that I like to use is Serif ImpactPlus 5.0, which is a rather nice, budget-price range, virtual 3D program.
A feature of the program is that virtual 3D objects can be constructed in the 3D Workshop facility. One of the available facilities within the 3D Workshop is the construction of a virtual 3D object from the glyph of a character from a font.
I decided to try to produce a virtual 3D object as if a bronze sculpture were made based upon the design of the Thank you for visiting glyph.
A feature of the program, however, is that there is an 8-bit selection limitation on which glyphs can be imported into the ImpactPlus 5.0 program from a font.
So, wishing to produce the model, I made a special purpose font that includes the nine art gallery sign glyphs from the Localizable Sentences 027 font in the positions of the digits 0 through to 8 of the special purpose font. Once the glyphs are accessed in the 3D Workshop, the identity of the character in the font is not apparent to the user of the program nor in the display.
An interesting aspect of making the font is that I included a lowercase alphabet in the font. This is becuase ImpactPlus 5.0 lists fonts in the font selection list of the 3D Workshop using glyphs from the font.
Here is the font.
LOC3D027.TTF (5.97 KB)
Here is an image exported from the ImpactPlus 5.0 program.
In the ImpactPlus 5.0 program, I made the object 230 units wide, 70 units high and 10 units deep. The width and height were to preserve the aspect ratio of the glyph design. The depth was so that there was a square section to the struts.
Readers with access to any 3D modelling software that can import from a font are invited to try to make 3D models from the glyphs of the font, and, if they wish, to post details of their experiences and maybe outputted images in this thread.
William Overington
6 January 2012