Besides that, there needs to be a easy way to delete those shapes... probably a list down the side. This is going to be crowded, if I continue to use the same "popup" method I have been. Those who have not checked it out lately, should take a peek, instead of opening new windows for each of the various wizards, it opens in a floating modal div on top of the page.
Trouble is with this one, sizes for the SVG applet below 400x400 seem too small to be helpful. Besides that, we need another (smaller) instance of the image itself, sitting next to it as a comparison. Let's assume it has a portrait aspect ratio. Even then, even scaled down, it's going to be about 200 pixels wide, maybe. Since they have to be side by side (probably), that's 600 pixels of screen real estate there. That's before the list of shapes, before any of the other miscellaneous widgets. Going to be a tight fit.
I've finally gotten a little used to Blender3d. And, I've even managed to wrestle it into compliance. 3 lousy steps though, to get a decent mask of the model. That took a couple of hours. You need to render the image in PNG RGBA format. However, the background is transparent, with the model. Open in gimp, select the model, invert the selection, paint the background black again. Invert the selection, delete. Then you can import into inkscape, and do bitmap tracing. Sounds simple now, but took awhile cause I was still looking for a step to generate the raster mask directly.
I won't even bother to bitch about Blender's interface, others have done it more, and better.
What else? Well, though I've not figured out the interface yet, you will be able to change the angle on the guy. Maybe a dial? But you'll be able to see him from front, sides, back, and the 4 intermediate angles. Also a few closeups of certain important parts... and no, not that. Specifically the face, the hands. Probably oughtta do the bottoms of the feet too, but who the hell gets tattoos there? Maybe closeups of the chest too. Stuff like that. Figure, say 20 different angles total.
Then, somewhere, I have to find a decent female model. I'm worried about texture map distortions, if I use an asexual 3d model in the chest. Does anyone know where to find one? (Particularly if it has a male 3d model in the same style)
Then, using the blender model (saved in the blender format which is supposedly open, for each angle), I've got to write backend code to somehow figure out what texture map would match the shapes you guys paint on the picture. Not going to be fun at all.
But, when done, an applet that will take care of the following: tattoos, tanlines, body hair, freckles, any fluid, piercings (if in an unusual location), and just about anything else where the location on the is the data we're trying to collect.
How exactly though, do you reconcile 3d model texture maps with a database? The idea is, you can literally pick any location, even past the mesh triangle resolution, down to the pixel level (though, just how fine-grained there will be hard to say... this applet will only allow so much fidelity). You want to see who has tattoos 3 inches above and 2.7 inches to the right of their bellybutton? Have at it. Those are probably going to have to sit outside of the database somehow, or have their own specialty db engine for it.
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