Recreating a carved door panel from old photos: paint a heightmap or model it in 3D?

CAD (Design) Software CAD (General)
1

Hi all, I’ve had my Journeyman for a few months now. So far it’s been signs, a couple of cutting boards and some V-carving, all 2D/2.5D.

I’d like to try my first real 3D carve. My grandparents’ farmhouse had a front door with a carved panel, oak leaves and acorns around a center rosette, roughly 10" x 14". The house was sold years ago and the door is gone, but I have three photos: one fairly straight-on, two at an angle, and one where the door frame is visible so I can work out the scale.

I want to carve a version of it into a cabinet door panel in cherry, max depth around 1/2".

Where I’m stuck is the step between the photos and something I can toolpath:

  • paint a grayscale heightmap by hand over the straight-on photo?
  • model the leaves properly in 3D and export an STL?
  • or is getting a depth map straight from the photo good enough as a starting point if I clean it up afterwards?

Also curious about the carving side: for leaf edges that should look crisp rather than melted, would you finish with a 1/8" tapered ball nose, or go smaller? And what stepover do you use on cherry for a finish pass that doesn’t need much sanding?

Thanks, and sorry if this is covered somewhere, I couldn’t find a thread that matched.

2

I don’t have Aspire but I imagine you could take drawing lines tool or the trace bitmap to create 2D sections and then extrude the relief.
I’m pretty sure there are videos on Youtube to do carvings

3

Upload your photo to one of the AI apps and ask it to create an STL or height map from the picture. Tell it how you want it (crisp edges vs melted) and how you’re going to use it.