Gimpdome

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to do this PS Mosaic Effect Tutorial in a much simpler and faster fashion.  In fact, it's so fast and simple, you might want to wear a seat belt while doing it!    BTW, I will not be held responsible for whiplash or other speed-related injuries that may result!    Our tool of choice is the GIMPressionist plugin, which can be found under the Filters Menu > Artistic > GIMPressionist

Our results will look like this:



I've also attached a modified brush GIMPressionist brush to the bottom of this post, which you can use, if you want to try out one of the final screenshots I've posted below.  Just click on the attachment at the bottom of the post to download, unzip the file and save the brush to your GIMPressionist's Brush folder (somewhere on your hard drive like this: C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.4\share\gimp\2.0\gimpressionist\Brushes)  When you open up GIMPressionist, the brush will be available to you with the name Shape03a.pgm.

Also, I recognize this isn't a true mosaic.  I'm just using the same name as referenced in the PS tutorial.

The board will automatically resize images above a certain size.  If the image you are viewing looks bad, Firefox users can right-click on the image and choose View Image to view a full-size version.  I believe IE users can just click on the image and the full-size version will open.
Let's begin!

Step 1

Open up the desired image in GIMP.  I'll be using this one:



Step 2

Go to Filters Menu > Artistic > GIMPressionist



Step 3

In GIMPressionist, you'll see several tabs.  I'll show you which ones I'm using and the settings.....you adjust to taste.  Don't close GIMPressionist until I tell you! 

On the Brush Tab, choose the shape02.pgm brush:



Next, click on the Orientation Tab and set the Directions to 1, Start Angle to 0 and the Angle Span to 0



Now, click on the Size Tab and set the Sizes to 1, Minimum Size to 7, and Maximum Size to 7 (Your minimum and maximum sizes may need to be adjusted to fit your image)



On the Placement Tab, Click on the "Evenly distributed" radio button and set the Stroke Density to 3.



On the Color Tab, Choose any option you wish.  I've chosen Average Under Brush...



And, lastly, on the General Tab, Pick a Solid Color (I've chosen white) or, if you want a Transparent Background, you'll need to Add an Alpha Channel to the original image (can't do that in GIMPressionist) and then, click on the Paint Edges check box....



Step 4

Click the Update Button below the preview image to see what the results will be (no screenshot here).  If you're happy (and you know it  ), click the OK button.

Here's my results (I've scaled these images down a little bit)



Here's another version with all the settings set the same as above, but with a brush size of 12.



Here's one using brush shape03.pgm with a size of 7.



The same brush as the image above with a size of 12.



And, lastly, one using the brush I've attached to this post.  Notice that the center is not completely open, but not completely visible either.



Step 5 - Optional (No screenshots)

You can save these settings as a preset by going to the Presets tab, and selecting Save Current...  You'll add a name and description (optional) and then you can do this same thing as described above, just by choosing your preset from the dropdown and selecting Apply.

Obviously, you can use any of GIMPressionist's brushes (or your own for that matter).  These are just the ones I wanted to show you.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful.  More importantly, I hope you didn't sustain any injuries along the way!    Cheers!

I also have used patterns to create masks, which is really quick as well, but since the GIMPressionist has everything built in, I figured, "why not go with it?"  Thanks, you'll have to share your way as well.  Always more than one way to skin a cat!

nice effect. i esp like the last one.

As always Fence great job and a wounderful tutorial. The effect is really cool.