Easiest way to create and render 3D model by rotating a 2D silhouette

Question

I have a black and white 2D drawing of a silhouette (say, a chess piece) that I would like to rotate around an axis to create a 3D object.

Then I want to render that 3D object from multiple angles using some sort of raytracing software, saving each angle into a separate file.

What would be the easiest way to automatically (repeatedly) 1. get a vector path from the 2d drawing 2. create the 3D model by rotating it 3. import it into the raytracer.

• I haven't chosen a specific raytracer yet, but Sunflow has caught my eye.
• Texturing/bump mapping would be nice but non-essential

Answer 1

The modeling feature you're looking for is a Lathe.

Sunflow can import 3ds files and blender files.

I've never used blender, but here's a tutorial for using the lathe to make a wine glass. You'd replace the silhouette of the wine glass with your shape:

http://www.blendermagz.com/2009/04/14/blender-3d-lathe-modeling-wine-glass/

Blender is FOSS, you can down load it here:

www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ (can't post more than one link, so you'll have to type this one in yourself :-)

Answer 2

I found a pretty cool site where you can do this online, interactively:

http://www.fi.uu.nl/toepassingen/00182/toepassing_wisweb.en.html

No great detail revolution but maybe you can find the code and extend it to your needs.