John,
Maybe you want to try this found in PSE 2: Filter>Pixelate>Crystallize
Play around with the various Cell Sizes. You can select sections of the picture using the Lasso or the Selection Brush and apply the filter to those areas only. Always duplicate your layer prior to working on it, so you always have an original intact. Also, you can apply the filter to one layer and lower the opacity if you want the crystallize effect lessened some so the unaltered image shows through.
Barb
Hi Barb, I’ll give your suggeation a try.
Thanks,
John
Hi Barb,
I tried this effect, and it’s not bad. I’d love a beige grouting but one can’t have everything. The trending of the tile directions is not there as well. I think that such a plugin would need lots of "artist’s" direction before the effect is rendered in each section of the picture.
John
Hi John,
Glad that helped a bit. Another one you may want to try is Filter>Texture>Stained Glass. This one has a few more options to choose from. Use the Selection Brush Tool on the area you want and then apply the filter.
Barb
Hi Barb,
I tried the stained glass effect. After selecting a portion of my picture, I added some noise, then blurred it a bit. I then used the stained glass. I adjusted the "grout" width and then color (by selecting it)as suggested. I finished by adding some noise to the grout for realism.
This doesn’t address my concern about tile directions but the effect looks more like a tiled picture than does the PE2 mosaic effect.
John
Hopefully, this is a final note (from me) about tiling. The stained glass effect consists essentially of horizontal rows of color shapes of varying sizes. To change riling direction, I tried rotating my picture so that a prominant edge was horizontal. I then selected a portion of the picture in the area and "stainedglassed"and adjusted for tile size. I then rotated the picture to do another section of tiling, etc. This worked fine but it’s very labor intensive though.
John
Hi John,
Sounds like you solved your dilemma, rotating and applying the filter is a great idea. Yes it’s labor intensive, but I’m always amazed at how much you can change an image instantly by just adding a filter, it would take forever if it had to be done by hand.
Barb
John, email me and I’ll send you some graphic templates that will give an awesome tiled effect. One is a puzzle effect that simply adds appropriate shadows and has the illusion of depth and edge shadows. The other one has individual puzzle pieces on separate layers. Requires that you copy and paste your image multiple times. Then you can drag the pieces around to separate the puzzle pieces. At least I think I still have it! It took me long enough to make!
Best regards,
Walt
