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Thread: "Paint by numbers" inlay work

  1. #1
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    "Paint by numbers" inlay work

    Does anyone know of a program (or a method in corel) to convert a photo to a "paint by numbers" type format? I would like to do some inlay work with photographs.

    Barbara

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Barbara Buhse
    Does anyone know of a program (or a method in corel) to convert a photo to a "paint by numbers" type format? I would like to do some inlay work with photographs.
    Wish I did. I've been doing this kind of thing for about seven years now (using a scroll saw, not a laser). The general problem is what the computer graphics people call "optimal color reduction" and the results from most of the standard algorithms suck when the number of colors gets below about 16, which is more than double the number I want to work with doing inlay. The standard image manipulation programs call it "posterization", and the quality of the results varies wildly depending on what you feed it as input.

    My general method usually involves conversion to grayscale, multiple passes of a spot removal filter, posterize to 16 shades, and then manually merge blocks until I get it down to 5 or 6. Then I start assigning wood colors to gray shades to get an idea what the final result will look like. Repeat as needed.

    Believe me, it's more of an art than a science. Some photos just do not work, no matter what you do to them. It continues to amaze me that human faces are usually easier than dogs...go figure.

    Haven't done much of it yet with the laser, but I'm very impressed with CorelTrace so far for getting the "line art" from my manual process into (semi)laserable form.

    And if you find a better way than what I just described, please be sure and come back and tell me about it.

  3. #3

    Paint-by-numbers software

    Barbara:

    I stumbled across this software. http://www.pegmaris.com/
    I don't know if it is compatable into Corel, but maybe.

    Art

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    Quote Originally Posted by art baylor
    I stumbled across this software. http://www.pegmaris.com/
    I don't know if it is compatable into Corel, but maybe.
    I downloaded the trial versions of their software last night to play around with. Aside from the paint-mixing instructions it provides, there doesn't appear to be anything in there that isn't in PhotoFinish or Corel PhotoPaint. As I noted in my earlier post, if you don't do a bunch of pre- and post-processing on the input image, the color reduction results are rather underwhelming.

    The 'Silhouette' program is somewhat more useful if you start with an input image that is already high-contrast and somewhat abstract. But CorelTrace already does a pretty good job with that kind of image.

    The main problem is that the software does exactly what it says it does: generate "paint-by-numbers" pictures. But filling in hundreds of tiny areas with a paintbrush is a whole different thing than dealing with hundreds of tiny pieces of inlay.

  5. #5
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    thanks for the replies... it sounds much more complicated than I thought, and probably takes alot more time than I am willing to put in... I may just start with geometric style inlays first, they are much simpler!



    Barbara

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    Barbara,

    Contact Pradhan Balter. He is a Corel guru and might know of a way. His email is pradhan@retlabgraphics.com
    You might also want to check out the Corel Draw Users Group (CDUG ) at yahoo groups.
    If I understand correctly you want to place " a grid" if you will over the photograph, number the various parts of the photograph, then cut the photograph into pieces and inlay them? Or am I off base?
    There is a feature in Corel called PowerClip that will allow you to put a photograph into any shape... perhaps that is what you are wanting to do?

    I hope this is of some help
    Chuck Burke
    American Pacific Awards

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    Thanks Chuck, I will definitely check out the yahoo groups... I'm not sure what kind of "grid" you mean, yes, if its a grid with irregular shapes to conform to each color, but now that I've read everyones posts, I think it all may be too compicated for me and maybe I should start with something easier, like marquetry (is that the right term?).

    Barbara Buhse
    Wood Bin Creations Inc.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barbara Buhse
    Thanks Chuck, I will definitely check out the yahoo groups... I'm not sure what kind of "grid" you mean, yes, if its a grid with irregular shapes to conform to each color, but now that I've read everyones posts, I think it all may be too compicated for me and maybe I should start with something easier, like marquetry (is that the right term?).
    Unless somebody changed the terminology and forgot to send me the memo, what you originally described is marquetry.

  9. #9
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    Barbara,
    If you follow this link...

    http://accentonengraving.com/EE/index.htm

    it will take you to a page created by a friend of mine on another forum. If you go to the downloads section you will find a "jigsaw" puzzle download that was created in Corel 8 or 9. I think that you are looking for a "version" of this, that you could use as an overlay on the photograph and then cut out various portions of the photograph to inlay it in a substrate of some sort.
    The question that I must ask however is, why not just inlay the whole photograph? Cropping the parts that you don't want to fit of course.

    Chuck

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee DeRaud
    Unless somebody changed the terminology and forgot to send me the memo, what you originally described is marquetry.
    Lee, my husband is the one that knows all the terminology since he is the woodworker... (of course he's never around when I need him! )

    I guess what I mean is something more geometric and not quite so abstract would be better to start with. The more we all talk about this, the more confused I get

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Barbara Buhse
    I guess what I mean is something more geometric and not quite so abstract would be better to start with. The more we all talk about this, the more confused I get
    Ok, let's see if we can get this straightened out. Is the attached picture the kind of thing you had in mind? I did this one with a scrollsaw before I got the laser. The pattern came from an unlikely source: http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/. By definition, the patterns at this site are already reduced down to at most 3 "colors"...I don't think it would be too tough to pass them through CorelTrace and get the laser to cut the bits out for you. Once you get that end of the process down, you'll have an idea what you're looking for when you manipulate your pictures.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  12. #12
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    [QUOTE=Lee DeRaud]Ok, let's see if we can get this straightened out. Is the attached picture the kind of thing you had in mind?



    YES!!!! Thats exactly what I want to do. I really would like to do it with my own photos, but I see now how complicated the color separation is. So, I will definitely go to this site and practice with some of their files.
    By the way, that "Jimi" is beautiful. My husband's scroll saw hasn't been out in years, and I'm sure he will appreciate the art you have created.

    Barbara

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Barbara Buhse
    Thats exactly what I want to do. I really would like to do it with my own photos, but I see now how complicated the color separation is. So, I will definitely go to this site and practice with some of their files.
    FYI: The "originals" I've done (five people portraits, three dogs, and a big King Tut mask) typically broke down to about 3-4 hours on the computer diddling the image for each hour on the saw cutting it out. The "pumpkin" patterns can pretty much go straight to the saw now that I know what level of detail to ignore, but they'll need some cleanup if I'm going to try to drive the laser with them.

  14. #14
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    Happy Endings

    I just love happy endings....

    Chuck

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    I've been playing with a portrait of Jerry Garcia all day, the pumpkincarving.com site is great... although the image is downloaded as a pdf file which I can't seem to do anything with. I printed it and then scanned it, but I can't get the three colors true enough for any of my programs to pull them apart into separate objects. (Ex: if I ask a program to "cut out" all the black, it also "cuts out" lots of little specs that were in the grey. I need to separate them and then make them a graphic file (making the graphic file is easy, cutting the colors apart digitally is harder than I thought because scans don't give me pure black white and grey). OR I need to find a way to outline all the parts first and then I can separate them.
    any ideas?

    Barbara

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