Just thought I'd let you know about this new software.
and no I don't have shares in the company nor am i the creator, just letting you know about free graphics software.
It's always nice to get free graphics software'
Let us all know what you think
You could create some huge floors using Mosiacs in Second Life.
Also Pattaizer could be quite useful for creating Second Life textures.
http://www.mosaizer.com/index.htm
Mosaizer is more than just another photo mosaic creator !
"If you want to give your artistic abilities a try, check out Mosaizer – this amazingly powerful application will turn into a real magic wand in your hands!" Smart Review on 3d2f.com
"The ASCII art has been improved for a long time and with Textaizer this art has reached its upper limits. With this application every photo can be turned into a color or black and white piece of art."
What is Mosaizer Pro?
Mosaizer Pro is a photo mosaic creator with and extensive set of exclusive tools to create great photo-art painting effects.
What can you do with Mosaizer Pro?
You can create photo art. Mosaizer Pro is an extensive set of bitmap editing tools such as patterns, colored patches, masks and filters and it basically use a large number of pictures to work with. And yes, you can of course make photo mosaic
From a distance: the full picture and at close-up individual the sub-pictures can been distinguished pictures.
Who uses Mosaizer Pro?
Anyone can use Mosaizer Pro. Although it's a professional DTP tool, creativity is not an exclusive domain for professionals.
Is Mosaizer Pro unique in its kind?
Not entirely. Many photo mosaic creation and bitmap editing software is available, but Mosaizer Pro adds some unique features you can hardly achieve with existing bitmap editors.
Characteristics of Mosaizer Pro
A photo mosaic is a picture which is built from hundreds or thousands of small pictures. Each of these smaller pictures has a certain color impression, and when looking from a distance the original source picture is recognised. If looking from close-up, the individual pictures can be seen. With Mosaizer Pro you can make such photo mosaic pictures. But Mosaizer Pro can do much more that just that. The key features are:
* create photo mosaics (limits: 4.6GB size or 4 million sub-pictures)
* build a pictures from pieces of itself (a unique feature called 'the Mosaizer'
Mona Lisa was rebuilt from pieces of her own bitmap)
* transparency
With transparent bitmaps the boundaries between sub-pictures can be manipulated and masks to create invisible boundaries between sub-pictures and allow for smooth picture overlaps
* extensive pre- and post-processing with filters, masks, color corrections and design settings
* 32-bit alpha-masks to combine overlay effects with transparency and to create 3D true effects
* brush masks to create true painting effects on any source bitmap
* create a photo mosaic picture from only one
John Lennon was made from just one picture where practically only lightness is varied picture
* (16-bit) masks, overlays and source masks to fully control the shape and pattern
Every sub-picture in this Robert Bateman drawing has a black boundary of the photo mosaic
* patterns, such as circles, spirals and hexagons to add that one and only
Ziyi Zhang's beauty cannot be undone by a spiralled pattern special effect
* overlay textures to create a 3D surface effect, for example a burlap or canvas
A painting should have a canvas background look
Some examples from Mosaizer Pro
Examples of the key features are shown on the right. From top to bottom: the use of the 'mosaizer' tool with the madonna of Edvard Munch
The original and mosaized pictures were merged; using an alpha mask for a photo-mosaic
Smooth transitions between sub-cells with masks to create transparency on the edges of each sub-picture; photo-realistic euro's
Only masks are used - and bit filtering with use of an alpha mask and a source-mask; and the use of a 32-bit alpha mask
No real photo-mosaic, but 3D-'art' with 32-bit masks in combination with a shadow effect.
Other features of Mosaizer Pro
* picture Library creation and management (add, merge)
* Mask Manager to fully control the use of all the masks, overlays
This overlay creates a partially transparent watermark effect, 32-bit masks and patterns
* preview functionality to quickly test and evaluate the effect of the chosen settings
* library match
From left to right the chosen library matches better with the source color palette function to quickly assess the color matching capabilities of a certain set of pictures
* a choice of 3 color match algorithms to better tune the choice of color matching with the color palette of the chosen picture library. When a mosaized picture is reconstructed back with the same size settings as its pieces, the match is now 100% accurate.
* the speed of photo mosaic creation: a 6000 picture (16MB size) photo mosaic will take about 10 seconds on the recommended configuration.
* almost unlimited size of the mosaic: max 4.6 GB bitmap size with a limit of 4 million sub-pictures. That would equal a poster of approximately 200 m2 of 72 dpi. We have an example of a bitmap of 420 MB in size on the Gallery page.
* Ini Manager to conveniently manage the settings of the program
What's new with Mosaizer Pro?
With Mosaizer Pro a new level of photo mosaic creation versatility has been achieved. A major addition in Mosaizer Pro is the application of a Genuine Paintbrush
The paintbrush behaves like a realtime pencil and eraser tool. This paintbrush literally paints with pictures. The result of any photo-mosaic picture can be repainted (or painted from scratch) by using the mouse or any other pointer device.
All effects (masks, filters, random settings, etc.) are applied in the paintbrush feature. Even more, any desired change in effect can be applied in the same drawing. The painting takes place real-time (depends on the speed of the CPU) and wrongly drawn lines can easily be erased and redrawn later.
Another great feature is the brush mask. With such a mask any picture can be turned into a photorealistic painting
Brush masks are randomly rotated and resized. Each stroke of a brush can be set for its rotation and size to add to the impression of a real Van Gogh.
Textaizer 2: the other application from APP Helmond
APP Helmond has developed another application, called Textaizer. This application creates pictures from text, a method that is usually referred to as 'Text Mosaics'
From a distance Shakira is recognised, but at close-up the text can be read. Textaizer can also create text from pictures. This is widely known as 'ASCII Art'
ASCII art is widely used as an e-mail stationary.
On the web there are many programs that can make ASCII art, Textaizer however combines both text mosaic creation and ASCII art. Textaizer also offer a unique possibility to make video clips from text mosaic frames, directly taken from video footage.
The key features of Textaizer 2 are:
* create text from bitmaps
* create bitmaps from text
* free drawing ASCII art with eraser functionality
* create video with ASCII art from video clips
* tuning filters to assure a best possible starting picture
Every picture tells a story
Both Mosaizer Pro and Textaizer 2 use this expression very literally. With Mosaizer Pro a picture consists of 1000's of smaller pictures. If these pictures follow a theme, a story can be told (or discovered).
With textaizer the picture is built from text. When large fonts are used and sufficient distance between each line is taken, the reader can easily discover the story in the picture.
Also check out 'Pattaizer'
Pattaizer is a "pattern generator with a twist". It generates several types of patterns, which can be tuned and varied by the user. Each pattern has several control parameters to create that unique effect that the user is looking for. Although many bitmap editors offer similar functionality, we believe that Pattaizer
Pattaizer interface can generate great effects that is not easy to make with e.g. Photoshop plug-ins.
Some of Pattaizer features has also been made applicable in Mosaizer Pro.
and 'Textaizer Pro'
What is Textaizer Pro?
Textaizer Pro is a text mosaic creator with extensive possibilities to also create genuine ASCII art.
What can you do with Textaizer Pro?
You can turn any picture into little pieces of art by re-painting its bitmap from a text. Simply choose a text file and the target picture and press the button. Hide your text in a picture and send it to your loved one as a 'secret'
Just in case you're short of the right words.. message. Or simply create and print balloons from 'happy birthday' words.
Is Textaizer Pro a unique program?
Yes. Many ASCII art applications can be found on the internet and also some text mosiac creators. Textaizer Pro is however one of the few programs that combines these two possibilities and above all it's freeware. And that makes Textaizer Pro unique.