POV‑Ray Mosaic: brief description

Converting 2D image into mosaic of 3D objects

POV‑Ray Mosaic project is a set of programs, which read every pixel of source image and convert it into a virtual 3D object, packed side by side with objects created from other pixels, thus forming a grid of 3D-mosaic in POV-Ray format.

Currently POV‑Ray Mosaic spans all three regular plane partitions for Euclidean tilings, namely 3⁶, 4⁴, and 6³.

POV‑Ray Mosaic are free open source Python programs, so you can download POV‑Ray Mosaic from GitHub together with detailed help file and numerous presets/extensions.

POV‑Ray Mosaic is a sort of lab for exploration: while default exported scenes show primitive objects like spheres packed into planar grid, they contain numerous options, grouped into human-editable form, to easily redefine almost anything.

Update: In version 1.14.6.18 standalone programs converted to POV-Ray export module, joined with PNG and PPM reading modules under single GUI. Note that all preset .inc files are self-rendering, that is, you may simply add them all to POV-Ray batch and get some preview of the object defined within this include. Take into account that object color and finish in such a rendering will be dummy grey and dull, since normally the are overridden by main scene file.

63zaika default output example

44zaika output example, object switched from cube to superellipsoid

POV‑Ray Mosaic output scene files contain several predefined 3D objects description, along with finishes and normal modifiers for them. Object properties may be mapped (i.e. linked to) source image pixel brightness via any of predefined transfer functons.

63zaika output with predefined hexagonal prisms, height mapped to brightness via predefined function.

44zaika output with cylinders and predefined iridescent finish, rotation mapped to brightness.

Surely you can not only switch between predefined stuff and edit parameters like rotation and size (although this alone will give you numerous combinations), but also insert your own objects, functions and values. The easiest way to do so is using external "preset.inc" patch files which, upon importing into main scene file, will override all previous settings. For example, preset file "44_dice.inc" (included in distribution) for rendering image below is about only 2,51 kb, yet contains both dice 3D object and all necessary "flip" instructions, and may be plugged into your scene with editing just one line.

Now it's time to download POV‑Ray Mosaic from GitHub and start building your own mosaic scenes. And, surely, once you manage to build something interesting, don't forget to show it to other humans and lesser species.

...or Move back to main page.