How to translate foreign characters on 3D models
Lyam
Posts: 137
Many times I see foreign languages on 3d models, on clothes and signs on buildings, that I don't understand. How best to translate their meaning? It's not like I can copy and past them into google translate. I can't type it manually into google cause they could be script character, cool looking ones many times. It's just that I am very wary to render an image with words in it I don't know the meanings to and when I see a product I want to buy, I have to think twice about it. What do you guys do?
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Which languages are you referring to? If you can recognize the language, translation doesn't present that big of an issue -- at least when it comes to romance languages, or languages that use the cyrillic alphabet. Asian languages present the biggest problem because if you don't know the Kanji it is almost impossible to determine. I can read some Japanese so I have a good idea what I'm looking at when it comes to that particular language. If I'm looking at Aramaic languages I'm really out of luck, and just have to ask someone.
Mostly the calligraphy asian or middle eastern scripts are common in models. It' s just that I remember many years back Christina Aguileira did a music video in Thailand, I think, using a graphitti mural as a back drop and it turned out the words on it promoted something very inappropriate.
In most cases, I believe the signs used in models sold here are based on actual real life ones like can be found in various cities with significant populations of specific ethnic groups, so they are what would be socially acceptable.
There are some fantasy items that have random gibberish or hidden in-jokes, typed in a font that is explicitly fantasy, like a "Cthulhu runes" font, explicitly historical, like a "Norse runes" font, or somewhere in between, like a classical alchemist's cipher font.
I'd never use foreign text that I couldn't understand in a render, even if someone else had told me what it said. I'd rather leave that kind of thing to the creators of Fireman Sam, who had to pull an episode after it emerged that the main character had been treading on a page from the Koran rather than what was assumed to be random gibberish, or to Tesco (British supermarket), who had to revamp the packaging of their Finest Meatballs after Italian customers pointed out that the prospect of tucking into 'The B*ll*cks Of Grandad' did nothing to tempt them. Far too much margin for error :)
If you are worried and afraid to use them, you could simply cover them. Paint over them in photoshop with whatever you want it to say, cover them with mud, new paint, a sign, a strategically placed lightpost, bush, tree, fence, passing pedestrian, car, bird, blowing newspaper, etc. Or use a shader instead of the supplied material.
If you can determine the likely language based on the architectural style or comments in the readme, you could find some random stranger on the internet who might be likely to know it (foreign language board maybe, students in a class for that language, I don't really know) to try to translate them for you, obviously with the potential for the answer not being correct, but perhaps better than nothing.
You could try contacting the vendor. Maybe they know what they wrote if it wasn't simply copied from somewhere else.
You could ask here. Other than a few words I personally know no other languages, but we have people from a variety of countries and cultures on these forums who might be able to take a stab at it.
i dont like using any writing in my scifi renders. when fixing lettering is problematic in photoshop, like on top of color gradients,
is easier to replace image. jpg with a procedural shader
I just remembered reading an article somewhere maybe a year ago about somebody working on an application (presumably for a smartphone) to allow foreign tourists to translate images on signs and stuff around them while traveling. Perhaps you could use something like this? Might be an expensive way to satisfy your curiosity if it's not a free thing or owned by somebody you know though. Google "app translate images" maybe?
Never thought about a image translator. Have to look into that. Thanks. And yeah, I usually use photoshop to cover up any words I don't know, but it's a hassle and sometimes I just don't do a good enough job with it. Be nice if PA's include a pdf translation with their products, but that's just my limitation for not learning the rudimentary of other languages.
I should note that in many cases, like a computer readout, PA's can't just include a blank readout. And runes and such usually have no translation - I remember I had one product where the runes basically read "These are runes" in a fantasy demonic rune set.
The Apple App Store has several apps that can scan and translate text on images in many languages (I assume that similar apps are available for other mobile systems). I have not tried any of them but several have free versions, so you could test how they work. Just search for "image translate" and you get a lot of options. This will of course only work if they textures in question use correct real world symbols.
Ciao
TD
The OP has a legitimate concern
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34536434
Well,
, for me, English is a foreign language 
.....
...yeah in looking at the new Sci Fi Black Market Alley set (featured as part of the "Shadowrun" promotion), the signage looks like a mish mash of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese with only a couple props (a phone and vending machine) that have any English on them. I've played the tabeltop RPG since the early 1990s and much of the action takes place in North America, particularly Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Chicago. The set itself is great, however, it would be nice to have some alternate English signage props as some (particularly the neon displays) are actually meshes that cannot simply be painted over.
Why bother translating a Korean sign in Seoul? Just use Google Earth in 3D mode and view available images or Google Street View to see examples of real signs.
The same thought crossed my mind while looking at the Urban Sprawl 3 promo images: It's cool looking, but what do all of those signs actually say? I'd kind of like to know before using them in a render.
...doesn't fit very well when your scene takes place in the Seattle's Hells Kitchen, the UCAS Sector of Denver, Chicago's CZ or London's West End Overground.
Well one of the pictures has a hand with the middle finger up. I would make my own signage to replace that signage if I were to use such models in anything that had the potential to be seen by many innocent people that would be offended by such insults. I know people that can translate for me in many languages but it makes more sense for me to ask them to correct my attempts where I know what I was trying to do than correct the work of someone sneaking insults against unwilling people.
those signs in Sprawl3 are from cgtextures so they are all based on existing signs from China, Japan and Korea,as for the finger sign..well sometimes graffiti is offensive, there's plenty other angles to choose from in sprawl 3 to avoid that sign..also I think that one is just a decal so you could easily select and delete it
...now wIth Urban Sprawl 3 it would be easy to change the signage and even the graffitti to suit a location as they are textures/decals, not meshes like some are in Black Market Ally.
Well I hope they are decals as I've not a target market like comic books or art connoisseurs so I'm not into marketing graffitti so I'd for sure drop that off the model walls just like they closed the Egohaus in Zuerich. Even if the signs are from cgtextures I'd still have the meaning of the signs looked at before I released them. When I release something it has to be rated Everyone+. That's me personal goal. Then again I'm someone that's asked DAZ 3D to instate ratings on their products that promote violence so no surprise I don't like graffiti either.
Indeed!
A sign that translates as "Good Food, Eat Here" would most likely be acceptable. One that says "Happy Endings Massage Parlor", perhaps not so much.