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Turning a brick wall pattern into circular shape


rilleax

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Hello everyone!

I have been searching around for a solution or tips for this without success, but maybe you can help to guide me in the right direction :)

I have a brick wall pattern, looking like this (magnified):
struktur_forstorad.jpg
And I want to turn this into a circular shaped brick wall, something like this:
35523200_7330e7a511_z.jpg

The thing is, my brick wall pattern is very small, each "brick" is only a few pixels. I have tried to use polar coordinates but the vertical lines get blurred away. Is there maybe another filter or plugin that can be of use here? Or can it somehow be scaled?

The bricks are allowed to be bent and stretched, but not too much. Lets say that a brick should not be stretched more than twice the length or so.

I am using Photoshop CS version 8 and GIMP 2.8

Thank you in advance!
 

Tom Mann

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I think you already know one answer: If your starting pattern could be scaled so that each brick occupies a lot more than just a few pixels, then extreme transformations like polar will retain sufficient resolution to make an acceptable final product. What holds you back from doing this?

My second thought is just do it in a vector program like Illustrator, and you can make it any size you want.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M
 

rilleax

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First of all, thank you for the very quick response!

The reason I am struggling a bit with scaling is because of the memory it uses. The end picture should be 2197x2197 pixel to get to right accuracy. The picture will be used in laser processes, so I cannot change this image size.
When I scale the original image four times it does not turn out well enough and when I scale it six times I cannot perform the polar coordinates due to that the RAM memory is not enough (I have 8GB on this computer).
However, when I re-did this to double check I noticed that the original file i BMP, are other filetypes maybe more appropriate?

Regarding Illustrator, I have to look this up, as I have not used this program before. I will get back when I know more about this.
 

Tom Mann

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There are lots of possibilities here, but we need to have more information. For example, you mentioned that this is for some "laser process". It would almost certainly help us if we know more about the intended use.

For example, by any chance, is this to be used as an optical shaft encoder, or possibly a Fresnel zone plate?

If it's for a shaft encoder, do you realize that there is a Matlab m-file available to produce the pattern automatically and Photoshop would not be needed at all: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcent...y-code-optical-shaft-encoders/content/gray1.m .

The same goes for the design of optical zone plates, although I couldn't immediately find the reference to that.

If it's for neither of the above purposes, but for some other technical purpose, then there are likely to be constraints on the design that we need to know about because these could dramatically influence how it should be designed. For example, in the final product,

a) is the radial spacing between successive layers supposed to be constant (ie, more or less as shown in your sketch)?

b) Your sketch seems to show the aspect ratio of the bricks goes from being like slices of pie in the first layer, to almost square in the 2nd layer out from the center, and then becomes progressively more and more elongated rectangles the further away from center that you go. Is this observation correct? Is this necessary? How accurate does this progression have to be? For example, does this follow a mathematical formula? What are the tolerances?

c) How thick is the "grout" or mortar layer supposed to be relative to the bricks? Is this supposed to stay constant as one moves radially outwards?

Cheers,

Tom M
 

rilleax

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This image is to be used in laser ablation process. The input for the laser ablation machine is a grayscale picture where the dark part of the image are the parts which will be ablated. If it is fully white nothing will be removed and from there it is a scale to full black which is a pre set depth value. So basically this image is a picture of what to remove in the laser ablation process.

I am sorry for the lack of information in the first two posts, I was thinking that there was some simple filter or plugin that could be used to achieve this apart from polar coordinates. I am not involved in the machine or laser parameters so I should not be necessary to to do any of the above mentioned purpuses (and here I must that I am really impressed of the information provided, it exceeds my knowledge:redface:)

The design restrictions (or well, more like design suggestions) are that the radial spacing should be kept as constant as possible. The length of each "brick" can be extended but not more than double the original length, so it is necessary that each sucessive layer have more bricks than the one before. The bricks are allowed to be bent. The very middle of the image is not important and will probably be a white filled ring, this can be maybe 20 bricks in diameter. The "grout" is as thick as each brick, and a third of it's length in between.

There are no mathematical formulas which needs to be considered as it is by now. However if this is necessary I can try to provide this.

I hope I am not to confusing in my questions and I am very grateful for the responses Tom!
 

IamSam

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On the final image (2197 x 2197), what should be the final "brick" dimensions approx width and length?

How wide should the spacing be? (1 px)
 
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rilleax

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In my draft on the original picture the bricks are 9 pixel wide and have 3 pixel in height. My first thought is to keep the height of the bricks as close to 3 pixels as possible (+2/-1 pixels) and the length up to 18 pixels. The spacing between the bricks are 3 pixel and can also be extended a few pixels if necessary.
 
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IamSam

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OK, thanks. Working on something, give me awhile.
 

dv8_fx

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Hello everyone!

I have been searching around for a solution or tips for this without success, but maybe you can help to guide me in the right direction :)

I have a brick wall pattern, looking like this (magnified):
View attachment 57857
And I want to turn this into a circular shaped brick wall, something like this:
View attachment 57858

The thing is, my brick wall pattern is very small, each "brick" is only a few pixels. I have tried to use polar coordinates but the vertical lines get blurred away. Is there maybe another filter or plugin that can be of use here? Or can it somehow be scaled?

The bricks are allowed to be bent and stretched, but not too much. Lets say that a brick should not be stretched more than twice the length or so.

I am using Photoshop CS version 8 and GIMP 2.8

Thank you in advance!

Polar Coordinates won't do to achieve what you want. The further a brick is from the center will result in a longer and larger brick.

Using your brick image as a pattern fill, I filled a 2000x2000 pxl document to create the brick image and used the filter on it.

brick.jpg


I was about to suggest to do it manually - that is to create an image with concentric circles as a guide and laying the brick along the lines....lol .... but that's gonna take a while to finish..... :banghead:
 

IamSam

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This is 100% a job for Illustrator!

Even using shape tools, at such a small scale, too much is lost to aliasing in Ps.

This is a 9 x 3 brick in the center of a 2197 x 2197 square........

Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 9.37.32 AM.png

If you can see it! That's a lot of little bricks!
 

MrToM

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I don't have the time to do this properly at the moment but what about a series of concentric circles, (shapes), with a dotted stroke?

I did this quickly but with a little time and effort it could possibly work?

concentric_circles_MT_01.jpg

Regards.
MrToM.
 

dv8_fx

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I don't have the time to do this properly at the moment but what about a series of concentric circles, (shapes), with a dotted stroke?

I did this quickly but with a little time and effort it could possibly work?

View attachment 57865

Regards.
MrToM.

Looking Good, MrTom :thumbsup:....... just what I had in mind. The only way to get that center would be a whole sliced Pan-Pizza like brick....

Maybe use shorter bricks as well?.....
 

MrToM

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Yeah I didn't really concentrate on the very center but with a thick enough 'stroke' and a small 'gap' in the dotted line it could possibly work.....it should create that 'wedge' shape.

The above just demonstrates that different stroke widths and gaps can be used to create a variety of patterns.....in a circular shape.

I'm busy at the moment so can't really experiment with it.....just throwing ideas into the mix.

Regards.
MrToM.
 

Paul

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All i did was make a wall but leave the top and bottom empty of any pixels, then did a polar and reshaped oval into a circle.

wall.png
 

rilleax

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Wow, I am overwhelmed with all the quick answers, thank you all so much!

The suggestion from dv8_fx and MrToM is a really good one, I didn't think of that. Of course it will take some time to finish but since it is part of a student project that is how it should be, right? ;)

However I am also curious about IamSam's work, but I cannot really see the result in the image. For me it looks like a one colour blue image. Do I need Illustrator to view this image?
 

dv8_fx

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Wow, I am overwhelmed with all the quick answers, thank you all so much!

The suggestion from dv8_fx and MrToM is a really good one, I didn't think of that. Of course it will take some time to finish but since it is part of a student project that is how it should be, right? ;)

However I am also curious about IamSam's work, but I cannot really see the result in the image. For me it looks like a one colour blue image. Do I need Illustrator to view this image?


There's a tiny white speck in the center of Sam's image..... I believe the image was resized down to fit the post and that the original show's a 9x3 pxl brick and how it will look in a 2197x2197 document.

Try create a work document at your needed size and at 72ppi with no background and fit to actual pixel view....... the PS default blank background will give you an idea of the approximate size of the bricks if it were 20x20pixels.
 

IamSam

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Thanks dv8 for helping with the explanation.

My point here is that this effect is impossible to achieve in Photoshop. It is the wrong program. I'm not even sure that Illustrator can do it.

A 9px x 3px brick is very small. The radial interpolation of something so tiny will result in massive aliasing (stair stepping). The only way this will work is if you place the bricks in straight horizontal or vertical lines so that the aliasing is limited to the edges of the circle.

This is the 2197 x 2197 image at 16.67% zoom filled with horizontal 9 x 3 bricks. I'm not going to do the math, but that's a ton of bricks!
Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 7.53.48 AM.png

This is a screenshot (section) of the same 2197 x 2197 image at 100%
Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 7.54.46 AM.png

This is a screenshot (section) of the edge of the same 2197 x 2197 image at 800% zoom.
Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 7.56.10 AM.png

Notice the aliasing.
Imagine this level of aliasing if these bricks were in a circular configuration.

The aliasing would grow more intense (distorted) as the circles or rings of brick grew exponentially smaller as they approached the center of the image.
 
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