Computer Aided Design

1. What is a raster image?

Raster images are generally what you think about when you think of images. Raster images consist of pixels, or tiny dots with unique color information which come together to create the image. The more pixels you have, the higher resolution you get. That's why some images get blurry when we try to fit them in bigger space, because they have few pixels.

You can make raster images using many tools like photoshop, photopea, and gimp. The popular types of raster files are: JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

2. Photopea

You can use Photopea online. It's very much similar to Photoshop interface but free to use. As a big lover of BMW M3, I wanted to start exploring Photopea by making posters for my favorite car. Here's how I did it:

First, grap your elements or layers. I searched for BMW logo, M logo, and a BMW M3 car image.

The car image was JPEG and had background and the selection tools of photopea wasn't that powerful, so I used remove.bg to remove the background easily.

Now, we can drag and drop the files we want to the canvas or first Choose New Project and set the size we want for our image.

I placed my layers in different positions to make different layouts for the poster by dragging the layers in the canvas.

To make the background I clicked on background layer then choose the gradient tool from the left bar then picked the colors from the car color then clicked and dragged on the canvas to apply the color gradient.

I added rectangles using the rectangle tool from the left bar and placed them side by side then picked the colors from the M logo using color picker to color the rectangles.

I added text I took from google search talking about M3 cars using the Text tool from the left bar then changed the color and font size.

I made some blending options for the M logo by Right-Clicking the layer needed then choosing Blending options then choose color overlay and I tried all the blend mode options in it till I was satisfied with soft light. I also changed it's opacity from the layers tab.

Finally, I exported the final output from File > Export As then select the format I need and the file path. And here's the final output merged.

3. GIMP

After exploring Photopea, I moved to GIMP to download and install it. I made different things using it and that's how I did them:

Thumbnail Image: I searched for an image of a Laptop mockup on Freepik and downloaded the image I liked.
I then opened GIMP program and dragged and droped the the image in it. Then added a screenshot I took for my work during the week.
I placed the screenshot on the laptop screen using the scale tool from the left tool bar.
I added some text and changed their size and bold using the Text tool from the left tool bar.
I added guides to place my elements in a good organized way from Image > Guides > New Guide then choose it's horizontal or Vertical and hit ok then drag it where I want or just define the position before clicking ok.
And that's it. I exported the image. "There's a trick to control the size of the file will be mentioned in the compression section later".

Self Logo Design: There's isn't much for me to say here as I followed a great video to make this logo, so I suggest you do this to. Turn photos into logos with GIMP

1. What is the difference between vector and raster?

The main difference between raster and vector images is how they are made and how they scale.
Raster (Bitmap) Images: Made of pixels (tiny squares of color). Lose quality when zoomed in or resized. Used for photos and detailed images (JPEG, PNG, BMP).
Vector Images: Made of math-based paths (lines, curves, shapes). Stay sharp at any size (no pixelation). Used for logos, icons, and illustrations (SVG, AI, EPS).
*This text was generated using ChatGPT*

2. Inkscape

• So After using Gimp to make my logo I wanted to make it as vector so I used Inkscape to do it. I followed this video to use the trace bitmap an convert the raster image to vector image: The complete guide to using trace bitmap in Inkscape.
  I had Inkscape already installed on my laptop but you can download it from Here.
  The only thing I did that's not in the video was that I needed my original photo to have more contrast to trace it better so I did this in photopea first then imported the high contrast image agian to inkscape to trace it.
  Also I made another page in the same file using the Pages Tool from the left bar.

• After that, I wanted to practice the trace bitmap more so I decided to make a vector image for Mario so I searched for a Mario image on google then downloaded it.
  I watched another video for the Multicolor Tracing: Mastering svg with Inkscape. I followed this tutorial but it didn't go very well with the images I chose so instead I traced decreased the threshold when tracing till I traced the main outlines only using single scan then used the paint bucket and dropper tool to fill in the colors of Mario from the original photo.

• I then exported selection as SVG by selecting the vector I made then From File > Export.. then checked on Export selected only from the right tab and chose the format and path I wanted.

3. Generating SVG using AI

To continue exploring the Vector world I tried to generate svg using AI so I used ChatGPT and Deepseek and asked them to generate a code for svg of supermario jumping. Then I copied the codes to SVG Viewer to view them, but they were not even close to what mario looks like. They just kept the colors 😅. ChatGPT said it's a matter of copyrights and deepseek said he did the best he could.

1. A possible final project using Fusion 360

I designed a possible final project using Fusion 360 which I have previous expercience using it. This is not really how I want it to look but I wanted to practice how to make parametric shapes and patterns. This could be useful for designing pen holders, light units, or pots or much more.

I designed it by doing the following steps:

1. Sketching the main base on the top plane.
2. Extruding the sketch to make it 3D.
3. Making a chamfer for the top edges.
4. Sketching on the top surface of the base.
5. Extruding the base of the pot.
6. Making a thread to use it to attach the pot base to the pot.
7. I made the pot using the same extrude and thread features.
8. From construct I chose tangent plane and selected the outer face of the cylinder.
9. I sketched on the plane I made using Fit Point SPline.
10. I used Emboss feature for the last sketch I made.
11. I made a circular pattern on the cylinder.
12. I sketched on the front plane the curve of the bottle and revolved the curve to make it 3D bottle then closed the top of it using extrude feature.
13. You can then apply appearances by right-clicking on the body then select appearance and select how you want each body to look like.

2. Mario automata design

My Instructor, Saeed suggested me to make an automata. I prototyped an automata before during my study in the college but I couldn't find any image or source to design it using 3D CAD software. So I decided to design Super Mario Automata using Fusion 360.

I first searched for automata designs and mechanisms for inspiration and that was my inspiration for the mechanism. Turning rotary to linear movement using cam and follower and to visualize it as 2D like old mario was.

I started sketching from the smallest part which was mario himself and going bigger step by step to the environment where mario is.

At first,it was all about sketch and extrude. And naming each body you make for easy navigation and recognition.

Then I made components from bodies to start making assembly.

I got stuck a lot in this stage as when I try to drive the joint something not supposed to move, moves 😑 but what was important that I think first how I would assemble this in the real world? and then make joints the same way.

So, most of the parts had rigid joints but the cam had revolute motion joint around the center of rotation.

Also the bottom face of the follower had tangent relationship with the outer face of the cam. And the follower itself had linear motion up and down.

3. Motion study

I didn't have previous experience in motion study, so I watched a video first to help me: Creating and rendering a motion study in Fusion 360

After finishing the assembly and watching the video I made the motion study to make sure my automata design will work. The video shows how it turned out.

Note: The screen recording was done using OBS Studio.

1. Setting scene for rendering on Blender

To get to render an image in blender we need to have main multiple things first in our scene: The product presented in the cube, a camera to capture the image, and a light source like an area light. In the next steps I'll explain how I set my scene for rendering.

First, I exported the model as STEP from Fusion and imported it to Blender. But I had an addon that allows blender to import STEP files which a friend of mine installed it for me. So If you don't have one you can save the model as stl.

I prepared some assets for the final appearance from an image of super mario interface from google on Photopea and exported each layer as a separate image

Import Image as plane Follow this video to import the images as planes and place them where I want.

To move things around in blender we click on the part the press G to move it anywhere or press X, Y, or Z after G to define the axis you want the part to move in.

Press R to rotate the part and S to scale it with the same x,y,z thing for more accuracy.

Press Shift+A to add camera or area light and move them where we want.

To split the screen I hold my mouse to the top right corner of the viewport section till the + shows and click and drag to the left.

At the bottom I choose shader editor when adding materials to the parts. I click each part and choose new material or adding a material from Blenderkit.

After adding the materials I go to the render tab and choose the render engine: cycles, and the output path and format. I also reduce the samples of the render output to around 128 instead of 4096.

2. Adding keyframes and settings for video animation

To render a video in blender I render it as images sequence but first I have to make keyframes so, I switch to timeline instead of shader editor.

First I select all the parts by pressing A then I press I to insert a keyframe and choose Location, Rotation, and Scale.

I then click on another keyframe like 10 for example then move what I need to be moved.

To rotate the cam correctly: I select it then press shift and select the rotating center part then press Ctrl+P to set parent to object. And I right click on the rotating center part and set origin to geometry.

I rotate the cam around 45 degrees each time and move the follower to touch the cam then Insert the keyframe till I'm done.

In the output tab I choose frame range start 1 to end 80 and steps to 2 to render fewer images which means it will render every 2 frames.

Now, I can press Ctrl+F12 to render animation or images sequence.

3. Video editing

I used Kdenlive to edit my video and imported image sequence from the project tab and chose the folder where the images are then defined the frame duration to 00:00:00:01.

I dragged and dropped the image sequence to V2 and made some cutting and adjustments.

Then I added the audio I downloaded from The Mushroom Kingdom to the audio track and made some cutting and adjustments to it.

Finally, I exported the video from the project tab by clicking Render and chose the format and path I wanted.