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How do you create this effect ?


B

beth.m

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I am wondering it someone can show me how to quickly create this 3D like polygon effect from any picture.

Thanks,



Beth
 

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  • Images to Polygon Mesh to Circles, Squares and Triangles SAMPLE - 1.jpg
    Images to Polygon Mesh to Circles, Squares and Triangles SAMPLE - 1.jpg
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Unless there is a program written to do that, somebody took some serious time and played around with selection and a pattern overlay
 
There was a post on here a month or so ago in which the OP essentially asked about placing circles of different sizes on spiral paths. I'm too busy to look it up right now, but this is quite analogous to that request. As I recall SCRTRW (or someone) suggested doing it in Illustrator and stroking the paths with a pattern of circles. If I remember when I get home tonight, I'll try to find it.

Tom
 
beth, I would be very surprised if this effect could be achieved simply and or quickly. Even with the thread Tom has mentioned a great deal of time would be required to figure out where the various circles not to mention the circles of various sizes will go. Think of it in terms of a number of different faces. Say a mans, a womans, and a babys face. I cannot imagine any code that will be able to place the circles in the correct locations for these 3 quite different sized and shaped faces. Of course that does not mean its impossible. I certainly am no expert in this sort of thing, but it seems to me logical that this is going to be real work to replicate.

I hope I am wrong about this.
 
This is a very interesting problem, but unfortunately, I don't know of a simple semi-automatic process that will do what you want.

Possibility #1
I found the thread that I was thinking about:
http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum...t-pattern-following-outward-contour-gulp.html

Unfortunately, my memory was not correct. In that thread, the OP wanted the opacity of the circles to vary, not their size, so the information therein is only marginally applicable to your question.


Possibility #2
Take a look at:
http://www.mynesting.com/flash/mynestingstandalone_overview_800600.html

This type of software is used in industrial applications, e.g., what is the best best way to cut 100 circles (of specified sizes) out of a piece of starting material with a specified shape (eg, a face-shape minus the eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). It currently is being discussed on a different thread in this forum.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the layout of the circles that such software comes up with will have the regularity of the example image you posted.


Possibility #3

You could start by manually drawing a couple dozen paths on the face in such a way that they don't cross each other and contour around the mouth, eyes, nose, etc.

You then could distribute the a variety of larger circles on each of these paths as described here:

http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorial...ze-objects-along-a-path-in-adobe-illustrator/ (scroll to the middle sections of the article)

You could then use the software described in #2, above, to fill in the regions not already filled in by the circles distributed on the various paths.

This technique would give the best of both worlds - some regularity and some fractal-like self similarity.

Possibility #4

This approach is conceptually the simplest but the most labor intensive: Do it completely manually in PS. It will probably give you the best results, but one would have to be very dedicated to see it to completion.

Possibility #5

Finally, you might hear about the famous mathematical problem called: "circle packing", e.g.,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_packing and
http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_12_13_04.html

Like #1 and #2, these algorithms are not likely to give you the regularity seen in the sample image you posted.

Hopefully, someone may stop by who will have a better answer than any of the above.

HTH,

Tom M
 
@Bgood - I was typing when you posted. Unfortunately, I came to the same conclusion as you: No fully automated process is likely to be good enough to replicate this effect, although, if you want to learn the software, some semi-automated process may remove some of the burden of a full manual approach.

T
 
iDad said:
Unless there is a program written to do that, somebody took some serious time and played around with selection and a pattern overlay
Click to expand...
who said that?.................:mrgreen:
 
Well, the artist, Ben Heine, confirms what we thought -- it's almost completely manual.

In http://www.flickr.com/photos/benheine/sets/72157623553428960/ , he states,

"...It generally takes between 100 and 180 hours for a single portrait...", and

"...I place each circle one by one with a sharp round brush, there is no automated process, it's a time consuming method..".

Fortunately for the art world, some things just can not be automated.

Tom M
 
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The process is similar to pointillism. It's called digital circlism. It's created using only a round brush tool.

Here is a page showing how Ben Heine creates the images.

Here is a speed art video showing the process.

Edit: Just found this good video which has some insight to the method.

On some pieces, I also noticed that he creates the circles over photos and sets their mode to overlay. One of his pieces in which he uses ampersands, is a totally different process called vector compositing.
 
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Sorry Tom, I'm guilty again of not reading your entire post. I really should stop doing that!

Thanks B-Man.
 
NBD, Sam. I figured that once I pointed the OP and other followers of this thread to that page, they would be able to pick out whatever they wanted. You fleshed it out nicely.

T
 
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