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Let's say you have a pic like this:


Does anyone have an accurate workflow (Photoshop filters, .. or a software) which properly (>= 80% correct) detects the cell structure of the pebbles and lets the user define the gradients for the displacement maps ?

The result should be better than Illustrator's Live Trace and actually close the forms, not just detecting the edges.

Any input there ?

There are many ways to get this job done, some routes are complex while others are simple but dirty.

- You can use a automatic software/plugin to generate the displacementmap of these pebbles, it will work 'ok' to some degree but it will not give you a accurate texture of the pebbled surface.
- You can do this manually by masking each pebble, painting or filling each mask with a gradient and then extracting a bumpmap from the pebbles for the finer surfacedetails. It's a bit more work but should result in better more accurate displacement of each pebble.
- You can use a combination of the above methods to achieve a hybridmap, it works fine.
- You can also model this map, as it's relatively simple shapes just modified spheres stacked upon eachother. You match them against the backdrop photo (the one you posted), then you render out a zdepth map of the model you built and use that map as your displacement. It will probably give you your best and most accurate results.

If you need a seamless map, you got a bit more work to do..

/ Magnus

hi Magnus !

Technically, I am familiar with all those approaches.

Though, neither you are aware of a piece of software which would help to automate this - at least a little, right ?

It'd be nice to be able to do some sort of intelligent voronoi network !

I've been playing a lot with PS and here's something quite promising:

1 ]
smartBlur, r = 40, thr = 80
2 ]
(sharpen more)
3 ]
highPass, 45 px
4]
curves, s-curve, darks darker, lights lighter (--> simply put more contrast)
5]
desaturate

* * *

many of the other workflows I tried were to use levels and curves to get the edges as selections, feather them with a certain radius and fill in black, resulting in a decent displacement map, but the problem of course is that that takes many steps and since PS is still not capable to enter values in damn % all depends on the image resolution.

one test with this technique.

certainly not perfect, but at least 20 times faster than many other technique.

Those flat pancakes are not working at all.

Try this http://www.pixplant.com/ and see if it works any better for you.

/ Magnus

What about just putting the photo on a plane in Z-brush and sculpting the displacement map? I't very fast...

Best,
Jason.

with pixPlant ..

not really better.


but painting it manually will definitively produce the best result. painstaking process though for bigger textures with thousands of objects.

with pixplant...

can you comment this ?
was this created using the texture i posted ? .. ?

did you use only displacement here ?

can you comment this ?

yes

was this created using the texture i posted ? .. ?

yes



did you use only displacement here ?

yes





edit:
i've uploaded the image maps used here: http://wanderplay.com/rusteberg/?cat=71 .... you should be able to reproduce what i've shown above with these very same image maps...

cool....

I did some testing a while back using PS with a dual layer image and a PS light rendered across both sides and using the settings at the bottom of the render lighting dialogue to elevate certain channels which produced rather good initial results, I'll see if I can find the tests (which is always the hardest part).

Wow, thanks for the link, Hervé!