Glass Software/ techniques?

I'm interested in some software recommendations or (how- to- use techniques)
that will easily and simply let me scan a photo and convert it to a SG
pattern.

My objective is to be able to scan a hard-copy photo of an item....a
handgun, a pet, a flower, maybe even a landscape... and then convert that
continuous tone photo into a line drawing that then could be altered and
resized into a "real" SG pattern.

All without spending half a day with layers and sprites and fussing about
and becoming a PhotoShop jock.

I've searched around in some of the graphics forums looking for tutorials
that might address what I want to do, but no happy ending, yet.

Comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks.

"Moonraker" wrote in message
.. .
I'm interested in some software recommendations or (how- to- use
techniques)
that will easily and simply let me scan a photo and convert it to a SG
pattern.

My objective is to be able to scan a hard-copy photo of an item....a
handgun, a pet, a flower, maybe even a landscape... and then convert that
continuous tone photo into a line drawing that then could be altered and
resized into a "real" SG pattern.

All without spending half a day with layers and sprites and fussing about
and becoming a PhotoShop jock.

I've searched around in some of the graphics forums looking for tutorials
that might address what I want to do, but no happy ending, yet.

Comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks.



Going in search of the Holy Grail next? or the Loch Ness Monster?
Sasquatch?

you don't want anything difficult do you? You want what everybody wants,
and its not out there as far as I know, there are mosaic tile programs, but
they leave alot to the imagination also.

It's called tracing paper. Follow the outline you want freehand with a
sharpie.
Then scan the tracing paper and open in editor program of choice and
scale the drawing as needed.

The real problem is that lines between colors are zero thickness in the
real world and of considerable thickness in stained glass work while colors
are very subtly shaded in the real world and usually not in stained glass.
You have got make choices about line width and color that effect the
result.
I use Paint Shop Pro for my fairly limited image work and two tools you
may find in other software, perhaps with other names, produce interesting
results. Under Effects/Edge Trace Contour makes a black and white image
with lines between the color shades. Perhaps more useful are under
Effects/Artistic Effects where Colored Foil has the effect of converting a
color area of varied range into a flat area like color foil was pasted there
and Contours which has the effect of thickening the edges of colors and
turning the color areas into flat color between the contours - it has a lot
of adjustments to control the loss of detail. I used the Water Lilies image
included in Windows XP/My Pictures/Sample Pictures and was able to quickly
produce several interesting effects.
I have also found the Color Replacer Tool to be very useful because it can
be used to "brush" out one color with white or another color under control
in a way that Flood Fill does not. Basically, you select the color you want
to replace (with the "eyedropper" most conveniently) then switch that to be
the background color and select the replacement color for the foreground.
Then the tolerance of the tool is set to choose what range of tones will be
selected. Then the cursor is used as a brush to paint the new color into
the old areas. I have used it to take colored background out from around
text so I could OCR the text.
I use Undo a lot and save images along the way.

--
Mike Firth
Furnace Glassblowing Website
http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/
"Moonraker" wrote in message
.. .
I'm interested in some software recommendations or (how- to- use
techniques)
that will easily and simply let me scan a photo and convert it to a SG
pattern.

My objective is to be able to scan a hard-copy photo of an item....a
handgun, a pet, a flower, maybe even a landscape... and then convert that
continuous tone photo into a line drawing that then could be altered and
resized into a "real" SG pattern.

All without spending half a day with layers and sprites and fussing about
and becoming a PhotoShop jock.

I've searched around in some of the graphics forums looking for tutorials
that might address what I want to do, but no happy ending, yet.

Comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks.

"Moonraker" wrote in message
.. .
I'm interested in some software recommendations or (how- to- use
techniques)
that will easily and simply let me scan a photo and convert it to a SG
pattern.

My objective is to be able to scan a hard-copy photo of an item....a
handgun, a pet, a flower, maybe even a landscape... and then convert that
continuous tone photo into a line drawing that then could be altered and
resized into a "real" SG pattern.

All without spending half a day with layers and sprites and fussing about
and becoming a PhotoShop jock.

I've searched around in some of the graphics forums looking for tutorials
that might address what I want to do, but no happy ending, yet.

Comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks.



Getting lazy are we? I've done some such with photoshop. You can reduce to
black & white or monotone, and really simplify the photos alot, and then put
in the lines manually. When you get a solution, don't tell the Chinese, or
they'll be offering SG panels of your house, kids, collectibles for $99
bucks in your choice of colors.


--
JK Sinrod
www.SinrodStudios.com
www.MyConeyIslandMemories.com

"Glassman@work" wrote in message
news:sBL4h.3609$Ue.3295@trndny03...

When you get a solution, don't tell the Chinese, or
they'll be offering SG panels of your house, kids, collectibles for $99
bucks in your choice of colors.

That's exactly where I was headed with all this. Stand by.

"Mike Firth" wrote in message
...
The real problem is that lines between colors are zero thickness in the
real world and of considerable thickness in stained glass work while
colors
are very subtly shaded in the real world and usually not in stained glass.
You have got make choices about line width and color that effect the
result.
I use Paint Shop Pro for my fairly limited image work and two tools you
may find in other software, perhaps with other names, produce interesting
results. Under Effects/Edge Trace Contour makes a black and white image
with lines between the color shades. Perhaps more useful are under
Effects/Artistic Effects where Colored Foil has the effect of converting a
color area of varied range into a flat area like color foil was pasted
there
and Contours which has the effect of thickening the edges of colors and
turning the color areas into flat color between the contours - it has a
lot
of adjustments to control the loss of detail. I used the Water Lilies
image
included in Windows XP/My Pictures/Sample Pictures and was able to quickly
produce several interesting effects.
I have also found the Color Replacer Tool to be very useful because it
can
be used to "brush" out one color with white or another color under control
in a way that Flood Fill does not. Basically, you select the color you
want
to replace (with the "eyedropper" most conveniently) then switch that to
be
the background color and select the replacement color for the foreground.
Then the tolerance of the tool is set to choose what range of tones will
be
selected. Then the cursor is used as a brush to paint the new color into
the old areas. I have used it to take colored background out from around
text so I could OCR the text.
I use Undo a lot and save images along the way.

Thanks, Mike.

I have PSP, I'll see if I can follow your suggestions and make something
work. This is a start on what I want to do. Thanks again.

"keithorr" wrote in message
oups.com...
It's called tracing paper. Follow the outline you want freehand with a
sharpie.
Then scan the tracing paper and open in editor program of choice and
scale the drawing as needed.


That is SO 1980's....I've been doing it that way for 25 years. Gotta be a
better way.

Try scanning the photo using black & white document setting. That increases
the contrast so you get black and whites only. If you can use a program that
has a contrast setting just crank that puppy up and it'll help get rid of
those nasty gray areas....m

"Glassman@work" wrote in message
news:sBL4h.3609$Ue.3295@trndny03...

"Moonraker" wrote in message
.. .
I'm interested in some software recommendations or (how- to- use
techniques)
that will easily and simply let me scan a photo and convert it to a SG
pattern.

My objective is to be able to scan a hard-copy photo of an item....a
handgun, a pet, a flower, maybe even a landscape... and then convert
that
continuous tone photo into a line drawing that then could be altered and
resized into a "real" SG pattern.

All without spending half a day with layers and sprites and fussing about
and becoming a PhotoShop jock.

I've searched around in some of the graphics forums looking for tutorials
that might address what I want to do, but no happy ending, yet.

Comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks.



Getting lazy are we? I've done some such with photoshop. You can reduce
to black & white or monotone, and really simplify the photos alot, and
then put in the lines manually. When you get a solution, don't tell the
Chinese, or they'll be offering SG panels of your house, kids,
collectibles for $99 bucks in your choice of colors.


--
JK Sinrod
www.SinrodStudios.com
www.MyConeyIslandMemories.com

There is a "cartoon" filter for Photoshop that might do just what you want.
You will have to search the web for it.


"Moonraker" wrote in message
...

"Mike Firth" wrote in message
...
The real problem is that lines between colors are zero thickness in the
real world and of considerable thickness in stained glass work while
colors
are very subtly shaded in the real world and usually not in stained
glass.
You have got make choices about line width and color that effect the
result.
I use Paint Shop Pro for my fairly limited image work and two tools you
may find in other software, perhaps with other names, produce interesting
results. Under Effects/Edge Trace Contour makes a black and white image
with lines between the color shades. Perhaps more useful are under
Effects/Artistic Effects where Colored Foil has the effect of converting
a
color area of varied range into a flat area like color foil was pasted
there
and Contours which has the effect of thickening the edges of colors and
turning the color areas into flat color between the contours - it has a
lot
of adjustments to control the loss of detail. I used the Water Lilies
image
included in Windows XP/My Pictures/Sample Pictures and was able to
quickly
produce several interesting effects.
I have also found the Color Replacer Tool to be very useful because it
can
be used to "brush" out one color with white or another color under
control
in a way that Flood Fill does not. Basically, you select the color you
want
to replace (with the "eyedropper" most conveniently) then switch that to
be
the background color and select the replacement color for the foreground.
Then the tolerance of the tool is set to choose what range of tones will
be
selected. Then the cursor is used as a brush to paint the new color into
the old areas. I have used it to take colored background out from
around
text so I could OCR the text.
I use Undo a lot and save images along the way.

Thanks, Mike.

I have PSP, I'll see if I can follow your suggestions and make something
work. This is a start on what I want to do. Thanks again.





--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com