Would you know a way to extrude a shape depending on the png alpha channel?
Here is a first playground with a basic png image: Babylon.js Playground
I would like to extrude the logo to have a 3D shape result like the one we have using parametric shape and earcut: https://playground.babylonjs.com/#4G18GY#7
Cheers 
Hi again, double-p. Good to see you.
A user named Nesh108 once worked on this stuffā¦ until he went insane. 
Somewhere in there, https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#9GPMUY#14
His extruded sword is in a playground, too, but I couldnāt find it.
Hereās another he was working-on: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#9GPMUY#16
As you can see, it always needs data:image/png;base64 dataā¦ which is unfortunate.
The capped bird is still laying around: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#1ZAXRO#6
@JohnK has done work in this area, too, so Iāll invite him to comment.
@nasimiasl might know how to extrude the non-transparent parts of a texture, too (heās a shader God).
I think the BJS Decal system has an ear-cutter-from-hell built-into it, too. SOMETHING very complicated is happening in decals. When I saw it, I just got scared and ran away.
SOME folks have done weird things with applyDisplacementMap and applyDisplacementMapFromBuffer, tooā¦ might be worthy of a playground search for those terms.
https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#1CCIP1#6
https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#1VGWP9#4
Ok, thatās all I have. Stay tuned for more comments, and perhaps look for a 3rd-party texture-to-mesh utility/website, too. Lots of people have wished-forā¦ what you wish-forā¦ including me (Iām wanting slightly-thickened hockey players).
Actually, in The Red Green Show intro (timecode 1:05-1:15)ā¦ see those silhouettes? LOVE 'EM! Essentially, transparent gifs/pngs on a plane, but with SOME thickness to them. Yum. But it sent Nesh108 to the mental asylum, so be careful. 
Perhaps the BEST wayā¦ is to create the text in a modeller such as Blender and extrude it in thereā¦ then export as a mesh. Hereās a 3dsMax 2013 versionā¦ https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#31M2AP#76 (steal at will)
Hey! Again @Wingnut thanks a lot for all those ressources, very very helpful. I didnāt expect there was already a lot of test in this area!
Indeed the ground/heightmap kind of does the job except that this is not empty but flat when there is no alpha.
I will dig into this and come back with a playground if I found something cool for my use case.
Hi again. I wonderā¦ hmm. I wonder what would happenā¦ if you removed all the flat areas (after the displace)ā¦ with a CSG boolean-subtract (subtracting a low-height box - similar to a plywood panel ā¦ laying flat on the ground).
In theory, it should work fine. Maybe someone will try it. Hereās a starter PG (with a strange-acting diffuseTexture). May the horse be with you. I think my PG #76 (and #77) is still better/easier, but I am biased. 
Hi @Wingnut, Really nice model you created here. What tool are you using to do that? Blender?
The extruded image looks cool too even if there is a lot of artefacts!
Instead of checking flat area, we can simply add the hasAlpha property on the diffuseTexture: https://playground.babylonjs.com/#Q1XLZ8#2
But we can also see this is not very precise on the edge of the logo and text.
A also tried to remove the flat part of the heightmap by playing with the vertexdata but no success for now
No significant work done by me, but thx. I used 3dsMax 2013.
I used to make band posters (playbills) all the timeā¦ for many bandsā¦ so I got good at textā¦ using the extrude modifierā¦ and then I would often try to map a single picture across the text. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Wingnutt/misc/master/fts01.jpg
It was a popular ālookā, and I got fast at it (mostly Minneapolis area). But 3dsMax makes it real easy to do, tooā¦ it takes me less than 5 minutes to produce some āchunky textā. Your logo took a tiny bit longer, as I needed to do a .obj export from max, and not just the normal .jpg render. 
I once had a URL to a place on-lineā¦ that let you typeānārender mesh fonts, too. It wasnāt āliveā. You use the site, generate the mesh, store it yourself, then import into scene.
@TheLeftover has that meshWriter thing that is pretty fun. https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#XWVXN9#101 / #78 / #40 (and all other PGās in that series). It makes 3d fontsā¦ from SPS particles. It is a BJS extensionā¦ pretty easy to use, and it animates well, and each letter/character/word can use physics impostorsā¦ tested/proved. (for lots of text-movement fun).
Because of the tapered edges on text that is height-displaced (and due-to limited mesh rez)ā¦ the text always looks blurryā¦ and that seems to limit its usefulness.
Oh I didnāt know meshWriter was based on solidParticle! Very good news!
SolidParticle are actually a very good option for image extrusion as you can see here: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#2AF3KM#2
The trick is to play with uvs of each particle!
I am currently using that but as you can see again, there are some artefacts (due to uvs) on some cube when camera moves.
I tried to play with faceColor to avoid that but it doesnāt work: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#2AF3KM#3
Guys!!! Something really cool to show you! I think I created a low poly model generator from image 
I wanted to try faceUVs in order to erase artefact and here is the result I got: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#2AF3KM#4
The image gets transform in low poly and all the cubes are perfectly put. Enjoy it with your image!
@PichouPichou - Super fun! Tried several images and it works great, creates a great retro feelā¦this could be a fun and useful tool for people to generate sprite-like artwork for a Babylon platformer game!
Love it!
