Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/2D Image (logo) to a 3D Model Part 2

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[edit] Tracing an Image With an Interior Cutout

n00b note. This is a other way (faster) add a open circle, make it right size, extrude + esc, scale, mark them both and press F for fill, and rotate it so 4 vertexes are the corners of the line over the lightning, make edges with 2 vertex and F, I think u know the rest so ur done now :D

Tracing the No symbol is somewhat more complex than the lightning bolt. The reason is this symbol is hollow and requires additional planning to trace than just following an outline of an object.

I'll be back to explain the difficulties in the near future, so stay tuned.

One way to do this is outlined below:

• The first thing to do is add a mesh circle. Hit SPACE and select 'Add -> Mesh -> Circle'. (This circle is mostly for measuring purposes, and will ultimately be removed.)
• Scale (SKEY) and move (GKEY) the circle so that it's sides are even with the sides of the logo circle, and the top and bottom are an even distance from the top and bottom of the logo circle. (The logo circle is not perfectly round.)

• Make sure you're in object mode (TAB), add a cube (SPACE, 'Add -> Mesh -> Cube') and place it (GKEY) on the right edge of the circle so that it is centered on the right edge.
• Scale (SKEY) the cube so that it is the same width as the wall of the circle and touching each side of the wall.
• Now, we want the 3Dcursor at the center of the logo circle. To do this, go back to object mode (TAB), and select the circle that we added earlier (RMB), then press SHIFT+SKEY and choose 'Cursor -> Selection'. (This is the main reason why we have this circle here.)
• Reselect the cube (RMB) and TAB to edit mode.
• Choose NUM7 for the top view, and use RMB to select only the front face of the cube. (Before this you have to make sure that you are in 'Face select mode'.) In the image below, I've used MMB to rotate the scene slightly so that you can see that only one face is selected (Note: In this picture there are two faces selected. The one you should select is front one in front view NUM1 or the bottom one in top view NUM7 - it's the same face).

• Press XKEY and choose Erase Vertices. This will reduce the cube to a square

(User note: Erase Vertices will erase all the vertices connected to the two faces selected. In this case this is all the vertices in the cube and will completely remove the cube. I think "Erase Faces" would be correct.) (Another User note: Only one face shall be selected, not two as shown in the picture.)

• Press NUM7 to go to the top view then select the Editing panel (F9).
• Press AKEY to select all, and then make sure that the rotate settings are set to degr:360 , Steps:50 , Turns: 1. (Actually, Steps can be whatever number suits your fancy. You may want to play with various values.) This is just like we did for creating the man's hat.
• Click on 'Spin' to extrude the square into a ring.

(Another way to do it is to create a ring with 2 Tubes (SPACE -> Add -> Mesh -> tube). Scale one to the size of the outer border of the ring and one to the size of the inner one. Then in edit mode select 2 Vertices next to each other on the inner and outer tube and made a face (FKEY) which covered one segment of the ring. Then you have to spin it like described above (the number depends on the number of vertices you choose for your tube tube = 32 Verticles -> 632 rotationsteps). Same on the other side. If your faces are not in the right place go to object mode select the tubes an press SHIFT+SKEY and choose 'Cursor -> Selection' to center the 3D cursor.)

Next we will create the bar.

• Staying in Edit mode, hit SPACE and select 'Add -> Cube'. If you haven't moved the cursor since the ring extrusion, it should appear in the middle of the ring.
• Expand (SKEY) the cube so that it just encompasses the inside circle of the ring

• Scale (SKEY) the square in the Y axis (YKEY) so that it is approximately the thickness of the logo bar.
• Return to object mode (TAB), and rotate (RKEY) the ring together with the just designed bar so that it is parallel to the logo bar.
• In Edit Mode (TAB), squash the ring in the Y direction (SKEY, YKEY) so that it fits the logo ring.

• In edit mode, reselect just the bar. To do this, choose 'Face select mode', and do an area select of the face selectors near the center of the bar (use the BKEY, or SHIFT+RMB methods).
• Re-rotate (RKEY) the bar (in Edit Mode) so that it is parallel to, and in the middle of, the logo bar.

• The next thing we need to do is scale the bar so that it is precisely the same width as the logo bar.
• To do this, choose scale (SKEY), and press YKEY twice. This will go to local scale mode (local to the object). This is why we were rotating the entire ring, since the ring and bar are part of the same object.

• We no longer need the original circle now, (it should be sticking out from the top and bottom of the ring), so select it (RMB), and delete it (XKEY).
• If you hit NUM3 You'll see that the bar and the ring are at completely different heights than the lightning bolt. Select and scale them so that they are all roughly the same height (the bar should be slightly higher than the bolt, and the bolt slightly higher than the ring so that all the proper parts are covered.).
• You can use the trick above to select (RMB) only the bar, scale it in the Z axis (SKEY, ZKEY) and then hit SPACE and choose 'Select -> Inverse' to select the ring (all but the bar).
• When done rescaling, press NUM7 to look at your handiwork.

• There is one last bit, which is to slightly rotate the whole ring around the X axis so that it is below the top of the bolt and above the bottom.
• Once that's done, all that's left to do, is color in the ring.