How to create mosaic custom brush

[Tamara95]

Hi!
I`m new to TvPaint and realy excited for using it on my project. It`s a great software
My questions are about custom brush settings. I`m trying to make a brush with which I can draw mosaic tiles.

This is what I got so far.
However, in creating a mosaic which replicates Roman mosaic style, there shouldn`t be any overlapping in the tiles, they should fit perfectly. Does anyone have an idea of how I can create something more like this in TvPaint?

cp_brush.jpg (62.87 KiB) Viewed 11924 times

Thanks!

[slowtiger]

You already did it right by including the groove as an outline around each tessera. Unfortunately there's no collision detection in the brush engine. You will always have to correct certain areas later.

Some ideas:

• Have the brush duplicated with different settings: one with rotating tiles according to direction (that's what you already have), another without rotation, so you can use them alternately.

• Don't do small curves like in your 2nd image with this brush.

• Don't do everything in one long stroke. Instead work like the real mosaic workers do: outline all curves first, then go along in parallel to each curve as long as possible.

• Do large flat areas line by line.

• Once you filled the image as far as possible without conflicts (odd looking shapes), fill the remaining holes on a layer beneath. Often it's easier to just draw the grooves.

[Tamara95]

Thanks! That is pretty much how I planned to work. Just had to check if it is possible to improve it even more
Do you maybe know a way how I can easily erase individual squares? That would speed up the process of correcting a lot

[slowtiger]

Not really. Can you give some more details as what do you want to achieve in the end? Is this an illustration or some animation?

What I did once was creating a brush with a black outline and a white fill, create the "mosaic", then scan-cleaned the result so I only had black lines, which are easy to erase and redraw. Then I used this line layer as the source for filling the tiles with different colours. In your case you could also apply some smudge to that, to give the appearance of natural tiles. (And do the same with the grooves.)

[Tamara95]

It is animation. I have to paint somwhere aroud 1.5 min of animation in mosaic. Crazy I know.

Here is an example of one frame.
That is a good suggestion, but it`s too much of work to have to fill individual tiles. Cause this is also one of the frames in the movie:

[slowtiger]

Ugh. In the 3rd image I suppose the characters will move while they're made of tiles? And it's all going to be smooth? In that case my solution would be to create body parts in TVP, but rig them in Moho and move them there (as long as it's no X or Y rotation). Maybe even a 3D solution?

Or do you want the effect of a character movement being rotoscoped in mosaic? In that case TVP is the tool of choice. I could imagine that some specialist would be able to code this in Processing (a programming language for manipulating/crating images). In either case, you've chosen a hard way to walk! This would be a task where I definitely had insisted to be involved in the storyboard stage already.

(The 1st image doesn't load.)

Beautiful designs, by the way, this is the kind of project where I love to be production designer, to find a workflow for making this happen. A nice problem to tackle.

[Tamara95]

Thank you
All the characters are already animated (drawn), now i want to rotoscope them in mosaic. Trying to find the best tool for doing it. TvPaint is the best solution for now that I know of. Corel Painter has also a handy tool for creating mosaics, but it`s video and timeline options are so quaint, I can`t even load my animations in high resolution. My friend tried to make it in procedural workflow, using Houdini software, but it looks so obviously computer generated. As I want it to be the ancient Roman mosaic style, I insist in drawing by hand.
Anyway, thank you for your tips. If some ideas pop up in your head, you can contact me here or via email: tamara.maksimovic31@gmail.com

[slowtiger]

Thank you for the details. Well, that's definitely the hard way. I assume the characters' movements are slow and smooth? Or is it animated on 3's or 4's? So how do you avoid the flickering of the tiles from frame to frame - or is that a desired effect (this would make it much easier)?

[Tamara95]

They are very slow and smooth and animated on 1`s
Flickering is desirable in some extent. It looks good as long as there is not much color variation in the tiles. They also have to be precisely drawn on the contour lines

[slowtiger]

Meeting contours - have a copy of your brush with the center set to a side or corner so you can follow the line with the tip of the tool. (Only trad-off: you can only draw in one direction like this. But that'swhat the rotating canvas is for.)

[Tamara95]

Handy!