Help With Creating Mosaic Tile With Border Effect

[rnbluvva]

Hi All!

Long time since I've been round the forums. Hope you are all well

I am trying to create a poster graphic and came across this really cool mosaic style pattern that I'd like to try to re-create, but I'm stumped.

I first created a black background and then put splashes of color on a top layer. Then I merged and tried 2 things to re-create this effect
1.) Filter > Texture > Mosaic Tiles (that does not work)
2.) Filter > Pixilate > Mosaic (that does not work)

I can't seem to find how to get the black lines in between the tiles.

Does anyone know how to do this or would I have to create the lines? Or is there some plugin that does this? Or some method that i could learn? It's really cool.

The first image is my source image I am trying to emulate. The second is my lame attempt!

Thanks to anyone who can help me figure this out.

Happy New Year!

Peace,
Nat

[lkroll]

Can always cheat and download Xero's Fritillary filter (free). I did add some GIMP Lighting effects w/ bumpmapping to it too.

http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/set4/fritillary.htm

[0lBaldy]

1.) Ctrl+J (copy layer)

2.) Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic

2.A ) Ctrl+J (copy layer)

3.) Filter > Stylize > Find Edges

4.) Image > Adjustments > Threshold (make lines black)

5.) Change Opacity of lines layer to multiply

6.) Repair any lines as needed (Which I did not do)

[rnbluvva]

Thanks guys! I'll try these. I was also fiddling with a basic grid overlay. That seems to work, however lighting needs to be tweaked. I will attempt it again tomorrow when I resume.

Thanks for the help!

[FranS]

Lyle and OlBaldy,
Thanks for posting the info. Though I wasn't the person originally requesting the help, I think this technique could be lots of fun when done on the right image.

Thanks,
Fran

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Nat:

Nice to see you! Happy New Year!

Here are a couple more ideas:

1. Impressionist plugin. See attachment for example output of four custom presets I rolled just for fun. (unzip, install .set file in \User settings)

2. Go here: http://thepluginsite.com/resources/lotis/index.htm

Mosaic Toolkit is a nifty (and free) plugin (PC only).

Stop in anytime.

[lkroll]

This one caught me by surprise Danny. Did not have the mosaic toolkit or lighting toolkit (now how did that happen; lol). Thanks for the info. Mosaic toolkit is pretty cool (haven't played with the lighting toolkit yet, but I will).

[MiningArt]

Great tips and links, thanks. The plug-ins and Impressionist #set are nice additions to the toolbox.

[unimatrix001]

I did this by making a pattern using a 15 x 15 pixel square filled with gray (i used 454545). Used the rectangular marque tool made a fixed size of 13 x 13 pixels inside, use the arrows to center the box in the middle press backspace key to delete the area inside the box. Then choose Edit>define pattern.
choose layer style pattern overlay select the square you just made, set blending mode to linear light, click ok.
create a new layer
edit fill pattern
choose the same pattern you just made. set blending mode to linear light
reduce fill opacity to around 6%
select the move tool move image to the right 2 pixels and down 2 pixels
I came up with this

[mistermonday]

Hi Natalie, nice to see you back. For the light beams I have an action I created. If this is the effect you would like let me know and I can post it.
For the tile effect, this can be done easily in any version of PS: Filter > Stylize > Tiles; Select the number of horizontal / vertical tiles and keep the offset low - I used 1% here.
Regards, Murray

[mistermonday]

Natalie, This is your attempt image with the Filter > Stylize Tile with the foreground color set to black (but it can be any color foreground or background) and 50 tiles and 1% offset.
Regards, Murray

[ahutton]

filter forge one step effect. Can change the width of the borders.

Filter called Photo Mosaic.

http://www.filterforge.com/filters/377.html


Amy Hutton

[Doug Barber]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Hi Natalie, nice to see you back. For the light beams I have an action I created. If this is the effect you would like let me know and I can post it.
For the tile effect, this can be done easily in any version of PS: Filter > Stylize > Tiles; Select the number of horizontal / vertical tiles and keep the offset low - I used 1% here.
Regards, Murray

This is very effective Murray, did you say you had this in an action? I would have a use for this as an underlay background for a piece I'm working on

Cheers
Doug

[rnbluvva]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Hi Natalie, nice to see you back. For the light beams I have an action I created. If this is the effect you would like let me know and I can post it.
For the tile effect, this can be done easily in any version of PS: Filter > Stylize > Tiles; Select the number of horizontal / vertical tiles and keep the offset low - I used 1% here.
Regards, Murray

Hi Murray!

Great to see you.

If you have the light beams action, I'd love to try this with that.

Thank you!

Nat

[mistermonday]

Hi Nat. The action is attached below. For this version of the action:
- Start with a 72 dpi resolution background (try 5 x 7 inches to start).
- Fill the background with black (Alt Backspace if you color swatch is already on default)
- Click the add new blank layer button twice to add two blank layers on top of the background.
- Ignore the blank layer directly on top of the background and select the top blank layer.
- On that top blank layer add some really large text, as in the example I posted above, or add a shape as I have attached below. The fill color and text color should be black. Try to approx centre the text / shape to start with.YOU may need to temporarily turn off the visibility of you background to see (you have black over black) or just view the layers palette.
- Ctrl + Click on that top layer's icon to select the shape or text you have on that layer.
Now you are ready to run the action. To confirm before you run the action: you should have a black background, on top of which is a totally blank layer on top of which is a blank layer with you text or shape which is selected and that top layer is active.
Click the run button and sit back for a few seconds.
The effect uses two colors currently set to green and blue. If you wish to change those colors just go to steps 26 and 28 in the action - they are called Set Foreground Color and change their values to whatever you like.
You can also modify other steps in the action to vary the effects.
Regards, Murrau

[rnbluvva]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Hi Nat:

Nice to see you! Happy New Year!

Here are a couple more ideas:

1. Impressionist plugin. See attachment for example output of four custom presets I rolled just for fun. (unzip, install .set file in \User settings)

2. Go here: http://thepluginsite.com/resources/lotis/index.htm

Mosaic Toolkit is a nifty (and free) plugin (PC only).

Stop in anytime.

Hi Danny!

This is really cool in combo with Murray's action. Only thing is I can't seem to load in the custom preset. How do I install the .set file. I unzipped the plugin to my external plugins folder, but I don't see a User Settings folder? Or is that folder somewhere else?

Thanks for the welcome back. Haven't had as much time for design lately as I've been working on music. It's nice to pop back in when I can!

Hope you are doing awesome!

Thanks,
Nat

[rnbluvva]

Originally Posted by ahutton

filter forge one step effect. Can change the width of the borders.

Filter called Photo Mosaic.

http://www.filterforge.com/filters/377.html


Amy Hutton

Amy,

I actually have FF, but I can't find "Photo Mosaic". Do I have to buy this as an extra filter add-on?

I went to download it and it says I don't have Filter Forge installed, but I do. I am wondering if it is because I don't keep my plugins in the default folder in PS? I have them in a seperate drive.

Thanks!

[Kraellin]

hi natalie,

how's the music going?

there's another FF filter you can take a look at. it's a bit of a different mosaic. it's called 'lego mosaic' by gollo. quite fun.

as for FF saying it's not installed, have you kept it up to date with all the version updates? FF is up to 1.0019, i think it is and there's also now an FF2 being beta tested, though that shldnt affect your original version at all. and also, did you just have the demo and no product key or did you have the product key for the full pro version? as long as FF is installed ok, it shldnt matter where you installed it. the registry keeps track of all of that.

i'm also fairly sure there are quite a few more mosaic filters within the FF library, so look around and good to see you back

[rnbluvva]

Hi Kraellin!

The music is going great, thanks for asking. Hope you are well.

I may have to update FF. I've not been doing so much in PS lately as I've been doing music and not had time for my hobbies!

I can't even remember if I bought FF or had the trial version. I will have to check today.

That logo effect looks cool!

Peace,
Nat

Yup, turns out I had an old and now expired demo version. Not sure I wanna buy it right now since I don't have that much time to tinker....

[Kraellin]

excellent on the music! you know i'm a fan, right?

well, FF is half price right now, but not much longer and version II is in beta. we're doing some pretty cool things with the new toys they've installed. so, you could always get the beta and a product key and test things out

(visited the site. hadnt been there in a while. listening now )

[rnbluvva]

Hey Craig!

Awe thanks for appreciating my music!

I will look into FF. I just know that with this years planned activities that money might be better spent on other things since I won't have so much time to play with PS. But I will try out the Beta.

Did you hear the latest album Random Thoughts? Hope u enjoyed it.

Thanks!
Nat

[Kraellin]

hi nat,

i had heard one or two of those before, but most were new to me. are these all of your own composition? are you distributing only online or do you also have retail outlet sales?

[rnbluvva]

Hey Craig,

Yes two were from single releases I did in 2004, but all the rest are new. Jeremy and I wrote all the songs together. It's only available through online retail such as Amazon.com, CD Baby and iTunes (the links are all on the music page for each CD). Independent artists are not able to get CD stocked at bricks and mortar stores (offline) for the most part, so the CDs and downloads are only available through online order.

Hope you liked the new songs!

Peace,
Nat

[Kraellin]

thanks, nat

hon, you shld go on american idol! i'll vote for ya

[rnbluvva]

Thanks Craig! AI is a fun TV show, but not for me and my goals with my music and career.

You can still 'vote' for me tho... tell some friends about my music and CDs and get them to buy them... that's a vote for sure!

Thank you!
Nat

[Janet Petty]

It took me a while but I finally remembered where I put the tutorial on how to do tiles. I hope this helps.

To create individual tiles, put a one pixel selection between each row of tiles and fill with the color of your choice. After you create the lines, you MUST have the selection active or the effects will only work on the outside frame of the picture. The rest of the instructions are included in the picture.

Janet