mosaics

software that constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs mosaics

Mosaic construction with Blender

A parametric workflow in Blender: draw the flowing double lines of the mosaic, derive tiles from the geometry, repair and extrude them, then render with realistic materials.

1

Curve with splines

Blender curve object with spline control points — 1 Curve_w_Splines

2

Edited spline control points

Spline edit mode with adjusted control points — 2 Curve_w_Splines_EditM

3

Tiles from nodes

Geometry nodes generating tile meshes from curves — 3 Tiles from Nodes

4

Tiles from the side

Side view of the generated tile meshes — 4 Tiles from Nodes from Side

5

Intersections

Intersection handling where tile outlines cross — 5b Intersections

10

Repair with 3D-Print toolbox

Mesh repaired with the Blender 3D-Print toolbox — 10_repaired_w_3DPrint

11

Faces extrude along Z

Tile faces extruded in Z with selected move — 11b Faces ExtrudeZ

13

World environment (EXR)

Blender world environment lighting from an EXR file — 13 World_Environment_EXR

14

Plane with plaster material

Base plane with a plaster material added — 14 AddPlane_w_Plaster

16

Final render

Final rendered mosaic on plaster — 16 Render

rendered video

Turntable render of the constructed mosaic

Mosaic deconstruction

An AI model detects every stone in a photograph of an existing mosaic — each stone masked and indexed, so the mosaic becomes machine-readable.

Original photo of a roman mosaic — original photo

AI segmentation of the mosaic — stone detection with an artificial intelligence (AI) model — each color masks a stone

Stone centroids detected — centroids

Polyline masks over detected stones — polyline masks

Minimum area rectangles and wedges — minAreaRect wedges

Graph masks with few overlaps — graph masks — few overlapping

Rectangles joined around graph masks — rectangles joined around graph masks

Edges and masks joined — joined edges and masks

Graph masks test on a picture scene — graph masks — test scene

Extracted mosaic structure — structure

Full graph of masks and vertices at radius 50 — graph masks, vertices r50

The full pipeline is open source:

🔗 github.com/baerwind/mosaic_deconstruction_sam

3D reconstruction in Blender

Rebuild an existing mosaic as a 3D model. This can be used to place the mosaic in an architectural model which can be shown to clients.

Original photograph of a mosaic detail — original photo

Processing the mosaic in Blender — processing

Animated 3D reconstruction of the mosaic — 3D reconstruction

transform image to mosaic

Turn any image into a mosaic layout: edges, guidelines, stone polygons and cut lines are computed automatically — down to a recolored final layout.

Detected edges (HED) — edges (HED)

Computed guidelines — guidelines

Distance map — distances

Gradient map — gradient

Used up space map — used up space

Filler guidelines — filler guidelines

Stone polygons in chains — polygons & chains

Filler polygons — polygons & filler

Cut polygons — polygons & cut

Final mosaic layout — final layout

Recolored final mosaic layout — final layout, recolored

Mosaic 'Fenster zum See' final layout — »Fenster zum See« — final layout

Hardware — robot

A prototype robot lays the computed mosaic layout. Watch it place the tiles: