Combine Tiles script for Gimp

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#1

Hi,

While testing the new particle system I came across a problem that creating a tiled texture from an image sequence was tedious.

Long story short, I found Akkana Peck’s Pandora Combine script (pandora-combine-0.9.3.scm) and modified it to create a tiled image.

I’ve never written any Scheme before so there might be lots of bugs. So, use at your own risk. I only tested it in Gimp 2.4.5.

Instructions:

  • Open first image of the sequence
  • Open rest of the images as layers on top of the first image
  • Filters -> Combine -> Make Tiled Image…
  • Add an integer representing the tile count, 2 means 2x2, 3 means 3x3 and so on…

www.decent.fi/hhoffren/combine-tiles.php

Though I can code, I’ve never written any Python yet. Now that I’d find some nice reference about these kind of functions in Python. I’d love to try creating this one working in Blender. :smiley:

#2

hey dude, nice idea… do you have the script though?

#3

The script is in the link at the first line here: www.decent.fi/hhoffren/combine-tiles.php

Thanks for the comment!

#4

Thanks for the script. Nice job!! Only thing wrong is that I need to flip the image vertically after running the script. I believe Blender reads from the bottom left as image one in the animation. This script starts with image one in the top left?

Thanks again. Very useful for assembling animated normal maps from Genetica into a sprite sheet.

Donnie

#5

Thanks dbigers! But I’m wondering about the order. It used to work like this in 2.46 http://www.vimeo.com/1412840

#6

Not sure. I am using Blender 2.49A, but I am at work at the moment so I am not sure what version of Gimp I am using.

All I know is that when I tried the image as it came out of Gimp, it would not repeat and was real choppy. So I figured it was reading the image differently than the way they were packed by the Gimp. Once I flipped the image vertically it was able to loop and was smooth.

Of course now that I think about it. Genetica has the option to output as one packed image. Initially I tried it from there but it was choppy. I gave up and then I just exported the frames and used your script. It could be that if I flip the image that Genetica packs, it might work as well. If so, then I wouldnt need to use Gimp.

Either way, thanks for your work on the script. It takes a tremendous amount of pain out of the process.

#7

I guess it was changed. In the video link below, in the comment section someone has linked to the thread here. They mentioned that it works great but you have to flip the image. In that video the guy explains that it reads from the bottom left to the top, left to right.

Funny thing is, I found this thread through that video, in the comment section. But I failed to see where the poster mentioned flipping the image. :slight_smile:

It is no big hassle, but at some point maybe you can re-write the script to arrange from bottom to top?

I’m running a test right now in Genetica to pack as one big image, like I did before. This time I will flip the exported image from Genetica and see if that solves the choppiness I got before. If it does, I wont need to use the script or Gimp, but hopefully others will read this and take advantage of your generosity. Because even if Genetica does arrange them incorrectly, your script makes the process of taking the exported sequence painless!! I now have animated water in my environment, color and normal maps.

Donnie

http://www.yofrankie.org/tutorial-animated-normal-maps/

#8

Success!! It appears that Genetica exports the same way as your script does. Arranging the images from left to right, but starting at the top. Once I flipped the single large image that Genetica created, it worked as well.

On a side note, once my post count is up enough that I can attach files here, I will upload a couple of the water maps for others to use.

#9

Glad to hear things are working out!