A real mosaic plug-in

[NIK]

I have a client that wants me to take photos and render them out as a greek mosaic. The regular mosaic filters just do a simply grid. Is there anything out there that does the mosiac but follows the contours of the image? My client is willing to buy the plug-in for me. Any suggestions would be nice.

Thank you.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi Nik,
I don't know if this is what you want or not. I have it and it's pretty cool. It creates a mosaic of the image you want to become a mosaic using a library of photos. You can also upload your own photos to use. They have featured these renderings on several fashion magazines recently. You can check it out here. There is also a link to Arcsoft who manufactures the product. It isn't a plugin. It's a stand alone software but it's pretty cool.
The feature about adding your own photos is good if you just want plain colored photos of just one solid hue and tone. It would take quite a few images though to compile that type of mosaic. You would need several shades from black to gray to white and the colors would have to be included in varying shades and saturations as well. But it is possible if not alot of work. The company may offer other libraries of photos to choose from which I never checked on myself.
DJ

[NIK]

not really

Here is an example of what the client is looking for.

[DJ Dubovsky]

I kind of figured it wouldn't be that easy. I'm not sure of any filter that follows the contour of the image like that. I'll look around and see if I can find something though. Maybe others will know where to find this type filter or even create an action to simulate it. The plug in you are looking for would have to be able to recognize the image as a 3D surface and the mosaics in Photoshop see a flat surface as you have discovered. I'll see what I can find.
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

Someone (I forget who) sent in an Art Challenge #1 entry in a style like that Check them out and ask them how they did it (assuming their description doesn't say, which it probably does).

[DannyRaphael]

Procreate/Corel/Metacreations/Fractal Design Painter has this functionality...exactly what you're looking for. Stand alone application, not a plug-in, but what the heck...

It is included as far back as ver 5.0 (maybe farther) = you can buy this software real cheap on eBay, like about $15-$25 (I just checked the current auction.) Pick up a Painter x Wow book for instructions while you're at it.

PM me if you want further info on eBay if that's new to you.

~DannyR~

[Stephen M]

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/PSTV_links.html#P

Scroll down to the 'Photomosaic Image Generation' links section. This is the classic digital photomosaic approach where thousands of different images are assembled to form a totally different image when viewed at a distance.

There is also a crude Photoshop bitmap conversion which can use a pattern (the pattern being a single image), which is shown in the Photoshop WOW books. Basically the image is broken up into tiles of the same image which form the tones. More can be said on this simple mehtod if needed.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh.

[qom]

Originally posted by DannyRaphael
Procreate/Corel/Metacreations/Fractal Design Painter has this functionality...

It is included as far back as ver 5.0 (maybe farther)
~DannyR~

Painter actually introduced that mosaic effect in Version 4, so anything newer than that has it. It is not automatic and somewhat time consuming to (learn to) use. However you can get exactly the look needed using it.

[NIK]

Painter 7

I have downloaded a trial version of Painter 7. This does seem to do exactly what I want. Thank you all for your help.

NIK

[DannyRaphael]

Glad we could be of help. When you get done, it would be cool if you posted your results in the Photo-based Art forum. I'm sure many would like to see this technique.

Good luck and have fun.

~DannyR~

[NIK]

Wow! This Painter 7 does really good. It does take some work to accomplish the final result. You have to lay down each row of tile indivdually.

Here is an example of just working for about 2 hours.

NIK

[DannyRaphael]

Simply magnificent, Nik! I'll bet your client is extremely happy.

As noted in PM, I'll endeavor to start a thread in the Photo-based Art forum using this thread as a basis for content.

Great job.

~DannyR~