Mosaics

[cityhawk 12]

Okay, I'm playing this safe and putting this in the off-topic thread. I have two pic-editing programs with which I can work with: Irfanview and GIMP. Can anybody tell me how to make a mosaic with either two of these programs? Yes, I'm too lazy to go through the tutorials, but you guys and girls are nice enough to help me on this, right? Thanks in advance for any help.

[pickled_pig 7]

From my viewings of CJs, there seem to be two types of mosaics:

First, mosaics made exclusively of 800x600 images that are not seperated by each other with spaces.  I believe this is the "proper" type of mosaic that ST likes but I'm not a fan of them.  I have seen a tutorial explaining how to do a mosaic in this style on ST a long time ago, which I can't find.

This is probably your best solution for large mosaics but I don't know how it's done.

The mosaics that I have been doing (I've seen others as well...) are slightly above 800x600 (Blasphemy!) and I've been doing these entirely in Photoshop (or for you, the GIMP).  If you want the step-by-step technical explanation just ask.

The most important thing, no matter how you do your mosaics, is making sure you took the in-game pictures.  After deciding what you want your mosaic of, take your bottommost picture.  Then, after going through the dialogs, press the up arrow - don't move the mouse at all to adjust  your view - now everything will be aligned better.

[Boggy1 45]

I feel left out...I have no idea what these 'mosaics' are....

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

I can't seem to figure out how to make mosaics either, however pickled_pig's post was helpful

Boggy1: Check out Sloppets CJ... he makes awesome mosaics, and you can see what they are

[sloppet 3]

did some one mentioned my name? , I guess so.. Well yes, you can find some mosaics in my CJ...

[Boggy1 45]

So..a mosaic is just...two or more pictures joined together...?

[KT3 5]

I believe cityhawks question was how to MAKE mosaics, not where they can be found,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Cityhawk

In game, take a screenshot, resize it if neccessary to no more than 600 pixels wide, save it using your GIMP, photoshop, or even MS Paint.

Take another screenshot of the area below  the first, save it again.

Open photoshop or gimp and make a new canvas 800 pixels wide and around 1200 deep.

Paste from your first saved image, then paste again from the second. Line up the second image so it perfectly matches the first and save the "double image".

Open the double image and crop and save again the top half, do the same with the bottom half.

Upload both images to your picture host, then post on the forum, first the top pic then the bottom pic, without line break.

The two images will appear to blend together as one when viewed

Voila!  A mosaic

[pickled_pig 7]

KT3 has explained it very well, but a word of advice:

It's best that when taking pictures in SC that you intentionally overlap the coverage of your pictures - in other words, the bottom of picture 1 may be the same as the top of picture 2.  The last thing you want is to take the pictures, make the mosaic, and realize that you are missing a few pixels between two pictures.

I'll be waiting to see how your first mosaics come out, cityhawk.  Until then, good luck!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You know, that's just too much like work.  Why not just use a Table.  The editor here is perfectly capable of making tables, and if you leave out the borders and get your sizing right (by trial and error if necessary) you can make a collage of any number of cells wide and high.

[KT3 5]

Pickled pig,

I neglected to specify, that yes most certainly its a good idea to overlap the images. That is what I was assuming in para 2 of my explanation, hence the need to align the images using the "move" tool. It is virtually impossible to take 2 screenshots that will be aligned perfectly, and I believe this is the problem that many have had when trying to make a mosaic.

N O Body

I saw the table function in the editor, but haven't really studied its use yet. Thankyou for bringing it to our attention, I personally will certainly take a closer look at this option

[cityhawk 12]

Well, I've taken the great advice provided in this thread and came up with my first ever mosaic!

This is the huge park and some housing around it in Lyon's Gate:

Thanks everyone for your great advice!

Edit: I just realized the graphics glitch on the white sidewalk, so don't pay any attention to it.

[KT3 5]

cityhawk

Its so simple when you know how isnt it !

Glad I was able to help my friend, and I must say, that the result is excellent

You have done a great justice to the creations of Pegasus and Jeronij.

What you have put together here, has taken hours of work, and shows both dedication toward perfection and true artistic talent.

You can rightly expect to very soon be amongst the top 20 journalists on ST

[Micah 16]

Thanks for all the help, kt3!!! That really helped!

Btw, why is cityhawk's photos like that?

[cityhawk 12]

Originally posted by: Micah

Btw, why is cityhawk's photos like that?quote>

Like what? You're the second person that's said that there is something wrong with the placement of it, yet I see no problem with it logged in or logged out.

[Skyfire2275 23]

I see nothing wrong with it either.

By the way cityhawk, do you like the free publicity you are getting for you CJ.

@ N_O_Body: How would tables be useful for this? I do not see what you are suggesting. Also, it seems appropriate to ask here, but I can assume what the answer is.

What about horizontal mosaics composed of images all less than 800x600 pixels? I assume this would be frowned upon or against the rules because it would definitely interrupt the flow of the forums.

[The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz 27]

I think Cityhawk has the wrong idea. Mosiacs are 2 or more pictures (of views of the city right next to each other) placed next to each other. Not just 2 random pictures of different parts of your city put right next to each other. You have to take a series of photos, preferably going vertically (if you do horizontal you get them not matching due to the isometric style view of the game) of an area so that they go together and look as if you were in the game scrolling down the city, seeing each section after the other. Good mosiacs are so fine you can't tell where each picture ends and the other begins, they have to be done just right, so that the picture you take is lined up correctly and doesn't leave any detail out from in between.

[sloppet 3]

Originally posted by: The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz

You have to take a series of photos, preferably going vertically (if you do horizontal you get them not matching due to the isometric style view of the game) of an area so that they go together and look as if you were in the game scrolling down the city, seeing each section after the other. Good mosiacs are so fine you can't tell where each picture ends and the other begins, they have to be done just right, so that the picture you take is lined up correctly and doesn't leave any detail out from in between.quote>

hmmm

And this?

Click Here to View The Real Size Image (7188 x 736 pixels, 1446.25 KB)

is this Horizontal? yes.. hmm..

[cityhawk 12]

Originally posted by: The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz I think Cityhawk has the wrong idea. Mosiacs are 2 or more pictures (of views of the city right next to each other) placed next to each other. Not just 2 random pictures of different parts of your city put right next to each other. You have to take a series of photos, preferably going vertically (if you do horizontal you get them not matching due to the isometric style view of the game) of an area so that they go together and look as if you were in the game scrolling down the city, seeing each section after the other. Good mosiacs are so fine you can't tell where each picture ends and the other begins, they have to be done just right, so that the picture you take is lined up correctly and doesn't leave any detail out from in between.quote>

They're not just two random pics. One was taken, and then I scrolled down a little bit to take another picture that lines up exactly. I don't get what you people think I'm doing wrong. Tell me!

[Skyfire2275 23]

I cannot see majorly anything wrong with your mosaic either. I can see the seam and things are not 100% perfectly lined up. On the right side of the lake on the cement path, you can see two shadows from the streetlights right next to eachother when they are not supposed to be there. It is just a matter of not lining stuff up perfectly in your image editting program before you cut up your image into smaller portions.

[Micah 16]

Are you guys joking?

The mosaic is sideward, not downward... it makes this page go to the right a long way!

I can get a photo of it by printing my screen if you want.

[KT3 5]

Micah,

what resolution do you have set on your screen ? 800 x 600 ?

My screen res is 1024 x 768 and the picture is fine other than the tiny overlap seam which has already been pointed out !

The two images are both within the 800 x 600, so there is absolutely NO reason why your view of them should scroll to the right ! The only way that could possibly happen would be if your screen res was set ridiculously low

[cityhawk 12]

Originally posted by: Micah Are you guys joking?

The mosaic is sideward, not downward... it makes this page go to the right a long way!

I can get a photo of it by printing my screen if you want.quote>

Please get that photo.

KT3: What tiny overlap seem? I don't see one.

[KT3 5]

As skyfire said Cityhawk, look very closely at the 4th lamp post up from the where the path go's off to the left.

There are two shadows cast from that lamp post, thats the seam !! The additional "seam" is barely 3 or 4 pixels deep, but its there

[cityhawk 12]

Dang shadows! And dang you very observant people lol! Oh well, it's not that noticeable, so I'm not going to worry about it.

[Skyfire2275 23]

What browser is everyone using? I see it as it is meant to be and I am using Firefox. Perhaps those that cannot see it as it is meant to be are not? ...and those of us who can see it are?

This is what I see (click to enlarge):

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Skyfire2275

@ N_O_Body: How would tables be useful for this? I do not see what you are suggesting. Also, it seems appropriate to ask here, but I can assume what the answer is.

quote>

Well, a mosaic is usually a set of equal images put together in a regular tesselation.  If you use an HTML table, you can turn off all spacing and put them right against each other.

[MayorTim 16]

Well, I solved my previous problem myself (Thanks everyone ) Jk, but now I can't seem to avoid the line break. Some will work, some won't, and, as far as I can tell, I am doing the same thing for all of them.

[Shiz 0]

This is an old topic but I couldn't find any tutorials on how to make these, and I tried some of the techniques mentioned here, but with no luck... can someone explain in more detail on how to make a good mosaic. I think I also had a problem with taking the pictures in game... i don't know.. but some help would be nice. Thx

[sanantonio 0]

As an advocate of mosaics, I was thinking of making a tutorial on how to make one. Photoshop would be required, though.

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

^^I have PS and a tutorial would be nice. like shiz, I dont know how to make mosaics still lol. Thanks