kubakub mosaic illusion

Cuts a texture photo into mosaic tiles and picks or shades each tile so a target picture appears when seen from a distance. The tiles stay real material; strength sets how readable the hidden picture is.

By kubakubkub·Created 15 days ago·Updated 3 days ago· 9

texture
target

image
tile_values
grid

◄tile_px48►

◄strength0.55►

◄modeselect►

◄quantise_texturetrue►

◄target_fitcover►

◄target_autocroptrue►

◄target_autolevelstrue►

◄target_blur6►

◄target_invertfalse►

◄contrast1.20►

◄adaptivefalse►

◄min_tile_px8►

◄detail0.060►

◄max_depth3►

◄edge_noise0.00►

◄edge_scale12►

◄mortar0.00►

◄mortar_value0.00►

◄jitter0.00►

◄palette_size12►

◄dither0.90►

◄level_radius6►

◄seed0►

Categorykubakub/lab/mosaic

Inputs (25)

Name	Type	Default	Description
texture	IMAGE		The material photo (stone, tiles, bricks) the mosaic is cut from. Sets the output size; a batch gives one mosaic per image.
target	IMAGE		The picture hidden in the mosaic. Only its brightness is used (first image of a batch).
tile_px	INT	482–2048	Tile size in pixels. With adaptive on this is the largest tile.
strength	FLOAT	0.550–1	0 = material only, 1 = target fully readable. Animate to move the resolving distance.
mode	COMBO	select	select picks the tile from the material's own palette whose value the picture needs, the way a mosaicist picks from a tray. Nothing is tinted. multiply darkens / brightens the tiles, mix blends them toward the target grey, lift only brightens where the target is light.
quantise_texture	BOOLEAN	true	Flatten each tile to one colour. Turn off when the texture is already tiled.
target_fitopt	COMBO	cover	How the target fits the texture size. cover fills and crops, contain fits it whole on mid grey, stretch distorts it to fit.
target_autocropopt	BOOLEAN	true	Trim a dark border so a cutout fills the frame.
target_autolevelsopt	BOOLEAN	true	Stretch the target's levels to full black to white, so a flat photo still reads.
target_bluropt	INT	60–200	Soften the target so it emerges instead of stamping a silhouette.
target_invertopt	BOOLEAN	false	Swap light and dark in the target.
contrastopt	FLOAT	1.200–4	Contrast of the target around mid grey. 1 = unchanged, higher makes the hidden picture punchier.
adaptiveopt	BOOLEAN	false	Split tiles where the motif has detail, keep them large where it is flat.
min_tile_pxopt	INT	82–512	adaptive only. Smallest tile in pixels; a tile is not split below this.
detailopt	FLOAT	0.0600.005–0.5	adaptive only. How much the motif must change inside a tile before it is split. Lower splits more.
max_depthopt	INT	30–6	adaptive only. How many times a tile may be halved (3 = down to 1/8 of tile_px).
edge_noiseopt	FLOAT	0.000–0.6	Roughness of the tile outlines, as a fraction of tile size. 0.10 to 0.20 looks hand cut.
edge_scaleopt	FLOAT	122–200	Noise wavelength in pixels. Small is jagged and chipped, large is wobbly.
mortaropt	FLOAT	0.000–0.45	Width of the joints between tiles, as a fraction of tile size. 0 = no joints.
mortar_valueopt	FLOAT	0.000–1	Grey level of the joints: 0 = black, 1 = white.
jitteropt	FLOAT	0.000–0.5	Random change of each tile's target value, so the hidden picture looks less mechanical. 0 = off.
palette_sizeopt	INT	122–64	select mode. How many tile colours are in the tray. Taken from the texture itself.
ditheropt	FLOAT	0.900–3	select mode. Breaks banding at the edges of the hidden shape.
level_radiusopt	FLOAT	61–80	select mode. Neighbourhood, in tiles, whose level gets shifted. Larger keeps more of the pattern.
seedopt	INT	00–4294967295	Random seed for jitter, edge noise and dither. Same seed = same mosaic.

Outputs (3)

Name	Type	Description
image	IMAGE	The mosaic.
tile_values	IMAGE	The grey value each tile was asked for (the target as the tiles see it).
grid	IMAGE	The tile outlines: white tiles, black borders.