Lego Mosaic Software

[offsky]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the self promotion, but I think this will be interesting to you guys. I have created some software that can turn any image into a Lego Mosaic. I am trying to build a website around it so that anyone can use it. Right now, its a prototype and a Kickstarter project, but it can be a reality soon. Please check it out http://kck.st/1seNrR2

-Jake

[Superkalle]

Hi, and welcome to the digital section here at Eurobricks - always interesting to see some new LEGO related digital tools.

About your kickstarter project. One thing I'm not sure I fully understand is the business model. There are already several brick mosaic tools out there that will convert images to mosaics for free. Some of them even allow you to open the image in a LEGO CAD 3D-tool and even subsequently order the bricks on-line. What it is that one will get for backing your kick-starter program?

[offsky]

Hi,

Yes, there are several brick mosaic tools out there. We tried them all when building our software, and we think that our software does a more accurate job because it uses both current and retired LEGO colors. Most of the existing tools ignore the retired colors, so the final mosaic is less accurate. We also have a very good posterization and dithering algorithm that produces better results that the other tools we tested.

Also, we will stock all the bricks, so you can purchase the kit with one order instead of piecing it together from several smaller bricklink orders, which can be annoying.

But most importantly, our target audience is not necessarily LEGO experts who already know how to use CAD software and make bricklink orders. We are trying to make this a one-stop easy website for the proverbial "Grandma" to use to make LEGO mosaics of her grandkids.

[Classicsmiley]

My first thought is that $50k seems like a huge goal for a project like this. My second is that your demo site doesn't seem to work. I've tried it in Chrome, Firefox, and IE, and haven't been able to get a successful mosaic.

Also, what do you consider to be "retired" colors, and why?

[Calabar]

The self promotion is not a problem, there are many developers here that have a topic where they introduce their software, insert news, answer questions.

Maybe you will consider to use the first post of this topic to provide a summary of the software's features, important news and some screenshots?

I've not understood a thing: do you release a software or you will offer the mosaic as a service (the client send you and image and you will send him the image, the instructions and the bricks)?

If you will release the software, what are software and hardware requisites? System compatibilities?

The software will be able to create images such as the one above?

[offsky]

Hi guys. Thanks for the feedback.

A "retired" color is one that is not currently available through LEGO's official Pick-a-brick store, but is still available through bricklink, or other 3rd party retailers.

I am sorry that the demo site isn't working for you. It is still in beta and uses some bleeding edge browser technology. I will look into it.

Our goal is to create a website ( brickapic.com ) where you can upload an image and purchase the kit including instructions, bricks, etc. So, the software will be server side and available via any modern web browser.

Some of the important software features.

There are a few steps to creating a good lego Mosaic.

1) Scale and crop. This is pretty basic, but the software will provide a way to crop and zoom into an image so that people don't have to do this ahead of time in an external image editor.

2) Posterize. This is the technical term for taking a true-color image and decreasing the number of colors that it uses (44 in our case) in a way that preserves the most details. This is where we really shine compared to the alternatives, because we use some good dithering algorithms and perceptual color math to get a really good effect.

3) Brick placement. We could use all 1x1 bricks, but that is tedious and more expensive than it needs to be, so we have an algorithm that intelligently places the bricks to maximize the size of the brick and minimize the total number of parts, to save on cost.

4) Instructions. We are still working on this part a little, but we will have some software that will produce some easy to follow instructions for assembling the mosaic.

I hope that helps explain the project a little more.

-Jake

[Lasse D]

I have first discovered this topic today, but want to weigh in on the research done on other software. I have also researched the software on the market and have come to a very different conclusion. If we take the four bullets from the previous post in particular.

1) Scale and Crop is supported in software like Bricktilism with live-updating of the final mosaic. It is, however, a function which I understand if users would like performed before importing into mosaic software.

2) "Posterize" is a central component in most mosaic software. You choose your colours on a palette (and most software supports discontinued colors) and the software makes the mosaic. I don't understand the obsession with discontinued colors. If you want to sell a product and ship bricks, then why focus on these colors at all?

3) Minimizing number of parts used is an interesting addition. I am currently working on this for my export to building instructions in my own software.

4) Software like Bricktilism exports to .ldr and .mpd files for building instructions.

The main difference between your software and what you see elsewhere is that your competitors offer the software for free.

I see now that the goal was not reached, and I'm sorry to see if that has put an end to the project. I just can't help but think that a more fair assessment of the currently available software might have resulted in a better approach to the project.