Any way of converting a real picture into a CGI-like image ?

[redle]

Isn't CGI though taking it more away from cartoonie as you put it, to more realistic and more I don't know life like or true to life?

Not even slightly. CGI = Computer Generated Imagery... It just means it was made by computer. That's why I said, "how do I make this image look CGI?" isn't really enough information to go on. Obvious cartoons can be CGI just as much as CGI can be inserted seamlessly into a live-action Hollywood movie where everything is supposed to be real. If you want to take it to extremes... ...is CGI. People often associate CGI with imitating a photograph or live movie, but that's a very small subset of what the term actually represents.

[Squeeky]

When I look at the city block which you have given I understand what you have in mind.

None of these are specifically going to achieve your intended stated goal. However you might get there with the use of Vector graphics (SVG) by creating your image from scratch (naturally I cannot see your map and therefore how complex would be your layout.

Quite some months back I began to use InkScape as a javascript editor for designing simple mathematical objects since it creates editable functions. I realise that it has the potential to go deeper than that.

Pay
http://www.kiyut.com/products/sketsa/

Freebie(?):
http://www.janvas.com/site/home_en.php

Freebie:
https://inkscape.org/doc/basic/tutorial-basic.html - this seems easier to use than the first few mins I had with that immediately above.
In some respects this is rather like using MS Paint (and not the desired outcome[?])
If you able to code in javascript then you can go in and modify before saving your image.

[PinkVendetta]

....

[redle]

It's always subject to opinion who likes what best. Here's a few quick and dirty examples of some simple edits with gimp. They all have some pluses and minuses (in my opinion), although you can always spend more time and combine multiple filters to better achieve what you want.

Cartoon: with relatively high settings (the actual gimp filter called "cartoon", in case that wasn't clear)


Cartoon 2: same as previous, but excluding the ocean from the filter


Dilate: used dilate to wash out some detail


Softglow: ran a softglow over the image, then increased contrast and decreased brightness. Washes out a lot of color, but removes a lot of detail.


Green: broke the ocean out and blurred it, then Stripped out a lot of the low level green colors to minimize all the trees


Tiered image: the front has been softglowed to lessen detail and reduce some of its image dominance; ocean and background blurred out; middle section heavily contrasted... makes the whole image a bit more surreal, but also changes the default eye-focus to be split in 3: ocean, front building, mid-complex (the original is ocean heavy, with front building secondary. Makes for a better game map when there are several distinct areas on an image)

[PinkVendetta]

....

[Squeeky]

Let us go back to what Dragonmaestro wanted.
See his second image @: viewtopic.php?p=79715#p79715 as compared with that which he posted above.
Obviously the second is not quite what he wants in comparison with his above, so we have a benchmark.

[PinkVendetta]

....

[Squeeky]

Oh My God!
Do you want to go in and edit it pixel by pixel?
The man wants something that is a Computer Generated Image not a "photoshop".

[redle]

I wasn't really trying to give him a finished product. I don't know that he's only looking to modify a single image. What he asked for was tools that would let him alter pictures. I also tried to only use modifications that came initially with GIMP. It was just an attempt to give him some ideas to making his own images. I tried to avoid things like posterization (which is the color-variation reduction I had mentioned, but was clearly already used in his "good-enough" version) to give additional options to get him started.

Also kind of wanted to make obvious the possibility of breaking the image up and running different effects on different areas of the image. (The last image is the only one that took more than a minute or so to create. Even that one, where I went into a bit more detail, maybe took 5. Sounded like the request was for quick and easy over perfect likeness)

As for the example image, yes, I asked for it, and a good starting point example was offered. I will say though that the example only has man-made structures in it. The hardest part of image manipulation generally comes from nature. It's all that forest, trees, and ocean that make the original clearly a photo. (although from my mind, having a mix of both worlds isn't necessarily a bad thing)

All that being said, CGI often makes use of quite a few actual images as part of its input blocks. Most people wanting clouds will actually put a plane or dome in the scene that has an image of a cloudy sky. Images are often used to texturize skin, clothes, buildings, trees, whatever. My point being that even fake-looking CGI often has large helpings of photograph-quality realism mixed in. Just as backgrounds are often actual images, you can try to find an image that only serves as the backdrop and create your scene in the foreground. Or, same thought different process, take an image and photoshop a few CGI buildings into the scene.

[shark]

10 posts deleted - off topic.