So here we are about a week later, and the vast majority of the line art is now complete.  I guess Mica has been putting in a bit more than fifteen minutes per day!  Some elements are not yet placed (pipe, shirt details), and some things will change slightly (tree and rib details), but it looks like this tedious process is coming to an end.  Mica tells me she needs to work on the pelvis bones a bit more, but she feels as if she’s really close to finishing that off.

Once I approve the line art, Alembic will immediately begin mocking it up with a proposed materials simulation.  Mica will add color and texture to approximate the wood, shell, and/or metal choices determined to give the best look.

I’m told that they might begin actual cutting in about 3-4 weeks, so I’ll probably have the color mockup in relatively short order!

With the basic scene hand-drawn by her mother, Mica can now get to work on turning it into vector art.  The original images get scanned into the computer, then Mica converts the lines into vectors (by hand and with a mouse – a painfully long procedure).  Where traditional computer graphics represent images as pixels (raster graphics), vector-based graphics rely on primitive shapes and mathematical equations to display images.  Basically, that means that as you zoom in on an image, it doesn’t start to look blocky and pixelated – it always stays smooth.  Since we don’t know the exact size of this inlay yet, we will be able to scale the images up or down to get just the right size, and the artwork will always look smooth.

The other thing that needs to happen during this process is line thinning.  Susan draws with (I believe) a .3mm drafting pencil, but that line is still thicker than the actual saw blades that will be used to cut the various materials.  Once the drawing is turned into vector graphics, Mica can thin the lines to create an ultra-precise guide for the cutting process.