Do you remember when you had to pull out your photographs, scissors, paper, and glue if you wanted to create a photograph mosaic or collage? Those days are over, thanks to some of the wonderful programs and applications I am sharing with you today. Create some interesting desktop wallpapers, PowerPoint backgrounds, and bulletin boards using the images you create with these mosaic and collage-type generators. Remember you can enlarge these images when you use the Block Posters site. (Refer to my Graphic Organizers: It’s a Wrap (for now) posting to learn more).
PicArtia – this application helps you create a photo mosaic online for free. Simply upload the photograph you would like to turn into a mosaic. Once your image has been uploaded you will select a gallery to use as the “pieces” to the mosaics. I chose the flower gallery to create a mosaic of my grandmother and the bird gallery to create a mosaic of myself. You will be asked to provide an email address. You need to use a valid email (remember, you can use one of the temporary email accounts I mentioned in my Poof! Now You See it, Now you Don’t post). You will receive an email with a code that can be used to download your mosaic. I have included a sample of the original photograph of myself and the mosaic version below so you can get a feeling for what a PicArtia mosaic looks like in a reduced format. If you click on the mosaic image below you will link to the full-size version of the mosaic where you can click again and see the bird photographs that have been used to create the mosaic. Please note…these type of mosaic images are very large (and will always be large..no matter what generator you use)…you may have trouble printing them or inserting them as objects because of their size.
Pictosaic – I was very impressed with this online application. It was straight-forward to use, provided various options, and I thought it was interesting that you could choose to have your original image included as a mosaic image. You can also set a transparency configuration that could help clarify your image. Check it out!
Image Mosaic Generator (v3.0) – I love the quote found on this site…”If an image is worth a thousand words, an image mosaic is worth a million.” I also really enjoyed the easy interface of the generator. Simply upload an image and click a button to download the image. It couldn’t be simpler. Images that create the mosaic are random…click on the smaller image below to view the full-size image.
Big Huge Labs – although I have blogged about this suite of photo imaging generators before (see Big Huge Labs = Fun + Easy Integration) I did want to point out three specific generators that create interesting mosaic/collage effects. To use any of the generators in this suite simply upload a photograph of your choice, tweak settings (if you wish), and download the generated image. I have posted samples below, along with the names of the genererators used to create the images. If you like the image effect of the samples shown below, simply click on the image to go to the generator that was used to create the image.
Created with Hockneyizer Generator
Created with Warholizer Generator
Created with Mosaic Maker
Megacollage – “Image, photo, picture collage generator, maker, creator. Free 5-megapixel (2500 x 2000) image collages in ready-to-use .jpg format. Custom-made from those images of ours that you select, or your own images that you upload. Use as desktop wallpaper or make into a photo gift.” The final image is sent to your email.
Collagr – this application is not as impressive as PicArtia, but it might come in handy if you wanted to create some smaller images of a larger image. You need to use images from a Flickr or PhotoBucket account if you want to use this application. This might be a neat application to use if you wanted to use the same image as a background. You could use the Collagr to create a tiled background and then insert other image on top of the tiled background image(s).
Shape Collage – this is NOT an online generator, but it is a free download that is very cool, easy to install, and intuitive to use and it does allow you to use your own images to create shape collages that pretty cool. Usually, I don’t recommend software, but hey this is really neat! See the sample I created below (click on the image to see the full-sized image).
Some related links you might enjoy include…
- National Gallery of Art Collage Machine
- National Gallery of Art Collage Machine II
- Collage Art – a site dedicated to the art of collage…nice links for artists and art teachers
– there is not option to personalize or upload images, but there are wonderful images available, as well as transparency options, sizing options, etc.
– there is not option to personalize or upload images, but there are wonderful images available, as well as transparency options, sizing options, etc.
Saturday, 7. November 2009
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Thursday, 13. May 2010
Wow, your blog has really put some ideas in my head. I would like to know some more on this subject. Please keep writing.
Monday, 24. May 2010
Hi, I am studying graphic arts and your post is very inspirefull for both rookies and advanced designers. Thanks !