Plopp - 2D-to-3D Painting

A place to discuss non-Moho software for use in animation. Video editors, audio editors, 3D modelers, etc.

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Bones3D
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Plopp - 2D-to-3D Painting

Post by Bones3D »

Here's a bit of an unusual app I stumbled across... Plopp.

While the application is seemingly designed for young children to play around in, Plopp could easily be redesigned into a serious pseudo-3D modeling tool intended for artists who might not want to spend months or even years learning how to do 3D modeling and texturing, only to later backtrack to the beginning to make their drawing styles somehow "work".

The app initially starts you out with a kid-friendly "MS-Paint" style interface with what looks like a blank canvas. However, what you are painting into is an empty 3D world. After you've painted something, you then get the option to "inflate" your 2D shape into a 3D object like a balloon, which you can then manipulate like a 3D object.

You can check out the tutorial videos in the tips section to get a better idea of how this works. (Just be prepared for the annoying, condescending narration that comes with it...)

Surprisingly, the app itself does utilize some unusually advanced concepts for a kids' toy, such as it's object-oriented nature and 3D handling tools. There are also some innovative approaches to common actions in serious painting/drawing apps that almost seem obvious to anyone that has gotten lost in apps like Photoshop, such as it's approach to color mixing.

Overall, it's unlikely that Plopp will become the next Moho/AS/Flash style app on the block, but there are some things that many of our more advanced apps could learn from Plopps tools and interface.

Finally, if Plopp seems like it'd be too embarrassing for you to play with, this kind of interface/drawing concept can be found in other areas, such as the video games arena. An older Playstation 2 game, called Magic Pengel, employed similar methods to allow players to create custom 3D characters by painting them into existence.
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p6r
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Post by p6r »

Thanks for the link...
My son had a lot of pleasure to play with it !

The team has used the 3D engine from Takeo Igarashi on a fantastic way !

As you say the interface is very very good and could inspire a lot of creators...

6R
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Bee-ruce2
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Post by Bee-ruce2 »

I had a look at this app but I'm a bit confused........does it allow you to save the 3D objects you create as an obj. file (that you might be able to import into another app such as AS to animate) or as a quicktime movie?
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p6r
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Post by p6r »

@ Bee-ruce2 : No, you can't save any obj file...
It's "only" to draw, to create a cute "world" with 2D pictures (backgrounds) and 3D objects you can scale, turn and paint again and again.

You can export jpg images or gif animations...

An incredible thing : You can draw on paper then scan your drawing, insert it into Plopp to pump it in 3D !?! It works ! I have tried it with a png file you drag and drop then pump !
Sure you can't have a perfect 3D character from a 2D picture because of the technology of the Takeo 3D engine.

Don't hesitate to test the demo and if you can understand german look at the german homepage with al the tips to see how cool Plopp is. (Or you can look at the screenshots or the animations of these tips !)

Here is a screenshot from a Plopp "world" I made within 2 minutes by inserting then pumping 3 2D png pictures :

Image

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red hamster
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Post by red hamster »

Basic (very basic) modelling is very easy to learn , perhaps this could be a more appropriate choice.
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/carrara_basics/-/? with wings http://www.wings3d.com/
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Bee-ruce2
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Post by Bee-ruce2 »

p6r............thanks for the info. I installed the demo. I really like the way you can "pump up" 2D images to 3D......however.....still dissappointed that you cannot export those 3D objects as .obj files to import to AS and animate. You mentioned that you can "export as animated Gifs".........how do you do this? The only export options I found were to export as "a photo" which gives you a .jpg or export as "wallpaper" or ecard. Do you mean that you can export 1 .jpeg .....then rotate the 3D object a little and export another .jpg.....and so on......then put several of them together to create your own GIF? If this is the only way......then I guess you would not be able to export a single object on a transparent background (for example as a .png) to create a GIF with a transparent background?
human
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Post by human »

Bee-ruce2 wrote:export a single object on a transparent background (for example as a .png) to create a GIF with a transparent background?
If you need to do this, and you're running Windows, use GIF Movie Gear. It will allow you to load frames under several graphics formats and assign a transparent fill to a palette color in the resulting animated GIF.

Better yet (and I think it's a significant feature), you can pick as many colors out of the 8-bit palette as you desire, and simultaneously assign all of them to transparency.

If you're running other operating systems or if you want to use free software, you might be able to accomplish some of this using GAP, the GIMP animation package.
Max99
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Post by Max99 »

Thanks for the link.
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p6r
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Post by p6r »

@ Bee-ruce2 :
You can't export a gif animation with transparent background !
The way to create a gif animation is explained here (in german) :
http://www.planet-plopp.de/tipps/tipps_figur15.html
You can see the small animation...
I translate for you : You take a photo with the camera... You move your figure... photo... and so on ! At the end from the scene drawer you only drag and drop the the entire scene on the camera and Plopp makes the gif animation automatically ! (See the Plopp picture folder where the jpg are too !)

On the german pages you have a lot of tips to work with Plopp... I hope they will translate them in english !?! Currently I'm translating the tuts and the speech from Plipp in french...

You can't export in obj format because it's a program to create an entire world in it... but there is a beta version to export the figures for Second Life !!!

Don't hesitate to ask their support if you need help or if you have questions. You can contact Michael Rueger (michael@impara.de) ! Tell him you come from Philippe Cizaire.

@ red hamster :
Yes... Plopp is a very simple program... you can't compare to Wings or Carrara ! Bones3D has explained very well what Plopp is or isn't in the first post !

Something sure : Kids love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Bones3D
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Post by Bones3D »

On the sidenote of games, there's actually another title that might fit into the same vein as Magic Pengel that was just released a few days ago for the Nintendo DS, Drawn to Life.

While the game does initially seem like a Mario Paint clone in platform game format, it appears you do not actually draw a bunch of frames to animate your custom characters. Instead, you draw a default state for each character and the game applies some kind of morphing system. From the screenshots at the link above, it looks like this may actually work in 3D, giving the game a Paper Mario feel.

(I have not yet had a chance to try this one out, but I plan to buy a copy over the weekend after the whole Halo 3 thing blows over.)

Overall, I have to say it's refreshing to see such interactive art and animation toys coming out that are making these once advance concepts available to anyone who's ever had an interest in the field of art and animation, but were too intimidated by the tools to really get into it. Hopefully we'll see more advanced creativity toys and games coming out that will eventually inspire more innovation from the rest of the industry.
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mir
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Re: Plopp - 2D-to-3D Painting

Post by mir »

Bones3D wrote:
....
Overall, it's unlikely that Plopp will become the next Moho/AS/Flash style app on the block, but there are some things that many of our more advanced apps could learn from Plopps tools and interface.
...
Finally, if Plopp seems like it'd be too embarrassing for you to play with, this
Please also check out the other Plopp skins like Aqua, that come without the audio help and look a little bit more grown up :-)

We also just release a version of Plopp that exports the objects as sculpted prims for SecondLife http://secondplopp.com.
We decided to release it as donation ware. If enough interest (and money) is there, we are thinking about adding other export formats and more functionality to the tool.

Michael
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p6r
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Post by p6r »

A quick animation made with Plopp...
We could make animations looking "old" with defaults in the movements to be voluntary not perfect at all (homesickness ?) !!!

Image

6R
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