Rotating Individual Mosaic Blocks

A user asked us via a tech support query if there was a way to jiggle individual blocks in a photo mosaic. They were specifically interested in some slight random rotation added to individual mosaic blocks. The paint synthesizer pen mode they were using was a Region Fill as Brush pen mode.

So they were doing path start regionization, then generating an outline path for each auto-generated region, and using Region Fill as Brush pen mode to fill in each path as single one off brush nibs generated from the path.

Here's the result of using the preset i generated for them.  

The image folder i am using for the image folder brush is one i have here.  So if you try and use the RotateMosaic1 preset i attached below, when you open it, Studio Artist is going to ask you where that image folder is. You will have to use the standard file dialog that comes up to select your own custom folder of images.

Let's take a look at how this preset was constructed.

A good thing to do first is to run Get Info on a preset you are curious about.

Run Edit : Preset : Get Info... menu command.

or control click a paint synth panel and run the Get info contextural menu that comes up.

So, it tells us it's a Path Start Regionize preset.

It tells us the Pen Mode is Region Fill as Brush.

It tells us there is no interactive pen modulation turned on.

And it tells us it's an Image Folder Brush paint preset, and it's using my custom 'c-new alt photos' folder of images.

If we look in the paint synthesizer Editor, the Path Start control panel is setup to use the

Rect Tile HV Split Regionization path start Generator.

This generator option is one of the path start regionization generators.  What this means is that the generator analyzes the current source image, and then breaks it up into individual automatically generated regions.

A path will be generated off of each start point associated with the different regions.  If we look at the Path Shape control panel, we can see that the Path Type option is set to Path Start Regionize.

The Region Pattern Type is set to Rect Boundary. So, a rectangular path shape is generated based on the maximum rectangular boundary of the region.

If we look at the Brush Source control panel, the Source is set to Image Folder.  I'm using 1 D indexing into the images in the image folder, which is named c-new alt photos and has 135 images in it. 

The index modulation i'm using is RGB Mapping.  This index modulation option tries to select the individual image in the image folder that best represents the RGB color of the area of the source image the current brush nib will be drawing at.

The labeling for image folder brushes is using the old labeling for movie brushes, so MB = movie brush, Frame modulation means image index modulation.  The paint synthesizer thinks of your image folder as a folder of movie frames.

The Brush Type control panel is setup to use the Source Alpha Brush option for the Brush Type.

This brush type is very useful when working with photo mosaics. The alpha channel of the brush is used to generate the brush nib shape, leaving the RGB channels of the brush to be used as what gets filled into the brush nib.  The RGB image filled brush nib will then be placed on the canvas.

The Paint Fill Setup control panel determines how the brush nib gets filled.

The Paint Fill Apply control panel determines how the brush nib gets placed on the canvas.

Our Paint Fill Setup is fairly straightforward.  Fill From is set to Brush ImageFill To is set to Canvas Image.

Our Paint Fill Apply is also pretty simple.

Normally, you use the Brush Modulation control panel to modulate the size and orientation of the brush during painting.

Region Fill as Brush pen mode is unique, in that it circumvents the normal paint synthesizer brush nib pathways by generating a temporary one-off brush nib based off of the current paint synthesizer path shape. This temporary brush nib normally is not affected by any of the Brush Modulation control panel settings.  Because it's over-riding the normal brush generation code pathways.

The trick to getting the individual mosaic regions to have some orientation modulation is to use a specific Brush Option setting in the Region as Brush Mode control panel.  This option lets you use the Brush Modulation orientation modulation parameters to modulate the orientation of the temporary generated Region Fill as Brush brush nib.

Here's the region as Brush Mode control panel settings i used for the attached paint preset.

Note that the Brush Option is set to Alpha Only - BrModOrientRotate.

If you change it to Alpha Only, you get the normal behavior (Brush Modulation control panel settings are ignored).

Here's a variation where i used Image Orient for the Orientation Modulation, with a full 360 degrees of variation.  I also used some interactive warp modulated by the source.

RotateMosaic1

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Replies

  • In windows version I have not  "Region Mask Option"  in "Path shape".

    7628249253?profile=RESIZE_710x

    • That's a new feature (Region Mask Option) you wanted us to add (so it's not in your V5). It will be in the next update.

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