The back of the Happy Horse Saloon sign wasn't much harder although it was critical that everything was done in a particular order to get the results I was looking for. I started with those same vectors.
I started by creating a shallow domed relief. I started with half that and then looked in the front view to see how it looked. It needed a little more and eight degrees proved to be right.
I then added a 0.3" border around the letters. I would use this later. The center circle was made into a 2" tall flat relief. This is the thickness of 30lb Precision Board I will route the piece out of. The round barrel head will fasten to this circle.
I then imported the sandblasted wood bitmap texture from my TEXTURE MAGIC COLLECTION
Then I created new flat reliefs using the lettering border vectors.
This relief was then modified using the letter vectors. I used the prismatic tool but limited the height. this created a 45 degree chamfer around the edges.
If you look close at the screen capture above you can see the lettering border disappears into the woodgrain where it is raised higher by the dome shape. To fix this I selected the lettering border reliefs and a new vector circle I made by offsetting outside edge of the sign. This acted as a mask to shape the lettering outline relief in a dome shape, the same as the sign.
I could then merge highest all of the lettering border reliefs to the base relief. At this point I decided to lose the horse shoes. They simply added clutter and weren't needed.
I then positioned the barrel relief which I had earlier created to sit on top of the round sign base.
My router is still non-opertional until the new air compressor arrives. In the meantime I'll continue to create our needed files. Then well run it non-stop until we have all of the signs done. Stay tuned for more signs...
-dan
