Vector drawing on a 3D model

I just played with the AvPainter earlier today. That is program that let's you paint bitmaps on a 3D model.

Are there programs that let you do vector drawing on a 3D model? In other words, programs that are to AvPainter what Illustrator is to Photoshop?

I have a feeling there are but are all to expensive for me to have looked at much.

That's a good question. If one exists, I've never seen it. For that matter, I've never seen a program that even lets you use existing vector images as textures, let alone create new ones.

Maya does allow you to paint strokes on surfaces, but that's not really the same thing. The strokes are EP curves, and they're for controlling things like paint effects and hair, or for cutting holes and such. Maya can also import .ai files, but again, only for use as curves, not as textures.

Vector-based texturing is certainly an interesting idea, though.

My hands are shaky drawing with the graphics tablet in AvPainter.

I just spend at least an hour playing with the AvPainter demo. I forgot it was the demo. No save. No way to register it from within the program, so far as I can see.

Minimized one panel of it to clear off this monitor, and it crashed.

I was fun though. Fun enough to make we want a better one. A better one would not have controls sort of like Second Life, though.

It only costs 2500 or so Lindens. I pay about that much when I go to good live music event. It's certainly worth that much if it gets you moving along the path from doing zero to doing something.

A vector program would be good for dealing with the shakey hand.

I use AvPainter for touching up things I've made in Photoshop (which sometimes contain vector things I've made in Illustrator). I wish the AP tools were a little finer grained but for making things match across seams, it's a very good tool.