MosaicManiac

The first one looks like a bug.You bring an interesting issue in your second point I've wandered about. Technically, you do need a background to match the right image and apply color correction. What happens if there is no background? Currently I ignore transparencies. It seems to me like it's the right thing to do and it allows for some interesting compositions, like this one: Notice none of the photographs in this photomosaic are clipped as they would be if area selection was used. This was created by selecting everything in the picture but the palm tree with a magic wand and making it transparent. Rendering the photo mosaic using "Effects -> Collage Paint" and then resetting transparency back to opaque (255).

Good suggestion.I added direct links in my original post. More images used in my examples can be downloaded from http://mosaicmaniac.com/?c=TabDownload (bottom of the page)

Update: Yet another version - 1.0.0906.08 is up for grabs. Here is another creation using this single image

Here is another update - version 1.0.0906.07. This release include fixes for the issues Simon talked about yesterday. Is it a release candidate?

Thank you Simon for "kicking the tires”! You found a couple of good issues. Clicking OK during surface preparation is really not OK, you'd get some errors. I'll have to disable that. SubmenuNames.Artistic is a very good suggestion. I wouldn’t know it's there if you hadn't told me. How did you find that anyway? :o New release is coming soon. Thanks!

Thank you for all your suggestions. I think I addressed them all. Please do keep them coming. The latest changes include: - PDN Alpha 3.5 support - Simplified UI - Moved to Effects -> Artistic - Repeat Effect - Several bug fixes Yet another creation using Collage Paint: All images used in the examples on this page can be downloaded from http://mosaicmaniac.com/?c=TabDownload under "Rendering packs"

By all means 3.5 and all future versions will be supported. I'll do what it takes. I just released this plug-in. Who's talking about dying? :wink: I've spent some time already working on it and I see there are some significant issues to be resolved. I'm hoping 3.5 Alpha is just that - Alpha and the final release will not divert so much.

This is a known issue. It does not work with PDN 3.5 alpha and will not anytime soon.

I'm probably doing something a plugin is not intended to do. Probably the best way I can explain is on an example. Run the plugin http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30254 Once the initial scene has render, move the "Hue Adjustment" slider. At that moment I start rendering new scene, spawn a new work thread and present a progress dialog. I could hold on to UI thread but the "Hue Adjustment" sliders becomes abnoxiously useless. When the work thread is finished and progress dialog goes away, I'd like to notify PDN to redraw. Currently to see the new rendered scene you have to interact with the dialog, for example move the Transparency slider. I hope this explains it. Thanks Simon for trying to help.

Thank you Simon. This looks a lot like what I'm doing already. It still doesn't solve the issue how to notify parent to redraw itself.

Use Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 This is not a Paint.NET problem. I see it all the time with Windows installer packages.

Blocking a UI thread for long times is not an acceptable solution. In fact this was my first implementation and it was not usable. Custom threading seems to be the only way. I've looked at pretty much all event notifications and I'm using some. Which one did I miss? Do you have a code sample? Thanks

I'm working on a "collage paint" plug-in. http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30254. The plugin requires some intensive processing and sometimes can take minutes. I don't want to block the UI thread but instead do the work in the background. So, I spin of my own work threads to do additional UI and processing. I haven't figured out how to notify the parent to redraw the client once my thread is done processing. This is quite evident when you use "Hue Adjustment" slider. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks, Peter

Thanks for the bug info. I'll take a look at it later today.

MODERATORS NOTE: this plugin is incompatible with paint.net v4.2+ I'd like to introduce a new plug-in I call "Mosaic Maniac Collage Paint" This is an early release and I still know of a couple of bugs, but do let me know if you find some. I'm interested in your comments and suggestions. Peter Lukaszuk (Original text found at http://mosaicmaniac.com/Ajax.aspx?c=TabPlugin) Did you ever want to paint using more than a single color or image? Now you can paint with whole collections of images. The plug-in creates a unique non repeatable pattern that closely tries to match the background. Image distribution is based on latest pattern recognition and image matching techniques. Shapes, colors, brightness, as well as many other factors determine where the image is placed. This is an example of pattern collage. The main image of a Jukebox is painted over with collection of music album covers. Notice how the dark images cover the dark areas, yellow cover yellow etc. Tutorial: Step 1: Select an image we will paint on. Using Magic Wand, select an area to paint on. Step 2: From Effects menus select "Artistic" and "Collage Paint" Step 3: You will see a "Mosaic Maniac Collage Paint Options" dialog. Browse for the folder containing your images. All images in the folder will be used. If you want to use only certain images you'll have to create folders and copy only the images you want to use. All images are sized down and only their thumbnails used in pattern painting. "Maximum image size in pixels" textbox specifies that size. Leave the "Rotate images" checkbox checked. All images used will be rotated randomly. Uncheck this field if you are painting a photomosaic. Step 4: Adjust Hue and Transparency for the desired result. Hue Adjustment requires reprocessing and takes some time. Step 5: Voila! Put some leaves on the road and we really managed to mess this nice picture up. Images used in the example can be downloaded from: http://mosaicmaniac.com/download/Flowers.zip http://mosaicmaniac.com/download/Fall%20Leafs.zip Installation: PDN 3.5 Alpha should work now! To install Mosaic Maniac Collage Paint plugin for Paint.NET download the MosaicManiac.dll and copy it to C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\Effects directory. Get the latest one right here. Version 1.0.0906.08 MosaicManiacPaintDotNet.zip