Hi.

For my new HTML-based game, I decided to add a little feature : a map (like in most Flash-based games). As I am no graphic artist, I decided to use a standard picture (I found the perfect one on a touristic site) and convert it into a CGI-like picture by using an online "picture to drawing" program (as it would look odd to have a real picture in a full-3D game... and it would also help against copyright claims ). The results were awful... It did really look like a pencil drawing, but that's not the effect I was looking for.

What I wanted was a 3D-like impression... Like if the image was taken from 3DSexVilla (the program I'm using to make my games).

So, can anyone of you help me ? Here is the picture in question (click on it for the full-size version)...


Or, if there is some generous graphic artists on here, could you do a 3D plan of the place for me ? It's supposed to represent Naughty Island, So I need a big city, with buildings of every sizes, and a beach... longing the city and going far out. May be even woods in the background. I'm taking images of any sizes (as I will most likely resize it anyway) starting from 800x600 pixels and up.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help me.

do a search for cartoon conversions from real images. There are some online ones I believe. They should be easy and give you what you want.

In photoshop there is an option called "Poster edges" That might be what you are looking for.

simarimas wrote:do a search for cartoon conversions from real images. There are some online ones I believe. They should be easy and give you what you want.

Thanks. I found some, but the result is not really what I'm looking for.

rabbie wrote:In photoshop there is an option called "Poster edges" That might be what you are looking for.

I don't have Photoshop. Too damn expensive.

But thanks anyway.

You can get the full Photoshop for like $9.95 a month now it is a pretty good deal.

Cheers

Sy

Still a lot of money for a hobbyist and it's a persistent expense. It wasn't so bad when it was a one off cost, even though Adobe have always known how to charge to the max.

It might be an idea to see if Gimp with a suitable plug-in could do the job if you are on a strict budget, although I understand there are standalone programs that can do something like you appear to be wanting. I have vague recollections of something really clever that was a work in progress a couple of years ago that could manipulate real images extremely well -- I'll see if I can find it.

There's food for thought here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oie1ZXWceqM (it's called 3-Sweep) but I'm not sure that there's anything available outside a research environment yet.

There's also http://www.3defy.com/

Many moons ago I ran across a program, that had a really cool filter. The filter was called "etching", with took a color image, and turned it into a golden-chrome 3-D looking picture. Perhaps the search you might try looking for, is the right filter, not program. Find the filter, then find the right program to use it.

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It's a bit of an interesting question, given that the point of a lot of CGI is to look as real as possible. Sometimes it can be very hard to identify what isn't "real". Either way, there is a very large range of what sort of end result you might be looking for. Maybe post an image of the type you are trying to create?

For the most part I would say it is lack of detail and too much consistency that gives an image away (although as I said, depends how much the creator went for realism to begin with). A bit of blurring and color reduction may make it "fake" enough. Although your toughest challenge is likely going to be how complex that image is. Different parts of that image are likely to need different manipulations to get the look you want. Might be better to find a less busy photo as the base.

The really, really, really long way is to user layers. Like say a valley, between two mountains. Then creates layers, that represent altitude. Apply a filter to each layer. So the higher altitudes are sharper/brighter, and the lower altitudes softened/darker. I just don't know if it's work all the work to do it.

Not sure if I got the effect you were looking for, but you can check this out.

I have it bigger if you are interested.

Or did want something more cartoonie?

Well, yeah... I think a little bit more cartoonie would be good...

That's a totally different picture, but here is a good idea of the effect I want to get...



But I got something good enough using a totally different picture with an online program called "BeFunky". It's not what I hoped for, but it's close enough to use in my game.



That's the best I could manage to do with my limited skills, anyway.

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