Found a possible way to "batch" load multiple images in bomber plus

Step 4: Cry because too many images to load.

Ok since this forum thread's about solutions for this batch-loading capability I thought I'd just try something anyway. Back several years ago, SOMEBODY (I bet ThreeDee or Uber) was talking about loading images into FilterForge at once. That solution utilized a grid of images that can be loaded into FilterForge as a single image, which is divided into multiple segments which can be fed into the bomber as separate images.

The thread since has been kinda forgotten and I don't even know where it is. And instead of bumping those old threads up / linking to them and causing a mess of information here on these forums *cough* I thought I'd kickstart the conversation here once again.

The 5.0 method uses the bomber plus which makes life a million times easier. It also utilizes the lovely new map switch component which allows for storing of data which can be called randomly. So basically it's just a lookup table. Each time the bomber makes a particle, it's looking up coordinates set up in advance. This makes this method very difficult to adapt to larger grid sizes so I'll need to make a nice math method of doing this... which at this rate looks totally doable.

The user needs to input an image that's divided into quadrants. I guess we can make ones that are 16s, 32s, 64, 128, 256... etc although this would require larger image resolutions and more time-consuming grid-editing. That might be solved via a script of some kind. I'm pretty sure I can make this method work with Photoshop's contact sheet script.

In short: Thought about old thread that did similar. Uses lookup table. Uses 5.0 components but isn't flexible right now. Works anyway. Can expand. Maybe use math. Probably will continue development. But no promises.

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Skybase wrote: Step 4: Cry because too many images to load.

Yes I agree that surely as I already said, is not at all the best possible way to do it, but at least Photoshop has batch loading of images and so loading the images is not a problem, and you can modify all the source images more easily although I agree that is a lot of work, and also tedious and boring to do, and cry for all the work to be done, but this is better than nothing, and having to load images one by one on the color controls

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GMM wrote: I moved the thread to the corresponding forum.

I did put it in the General part because this does NOT involve making anything with the filter editor or creating something, this is all made only with the settings and preset and modifying all the source images in photoshop, so there is no part of this involving the filter editor

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Skybase wrote: Ok since this forum thread's about solutions for this batch-loading capability I thought I'd just try something anyway. Back several years ago, SOMEBODY (I bet ThreeDee or Uber) was talking about loading images into FilterForge at once. That solution utilized a grid of images that can be loaded into FilterForge as a single image, which is divided into multiple segments which can be fed into the bomber as separate images.

OH! Yes, this is a thread about finding ways to solve this problem, as I do not think that the FF team will do nothing about it

Your idea may be interesting, useful and possible, and better and easier than mine. If this could be possible could be good.

well done

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ThreeDee wrote: I like SpaceRay's idea.

Thanks, glad you like it, specially coming fr om you. I had thought how the external images are loaded into FF and what happens with images loaded already in presets

By the way I like your idea too, seems to be better and easier than mine

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ThreeDee wrote: If you make a preset that has sequential image numbers

OH, Sorry I forgot to tell about this on the first post.

Yes, I agree, to make it easier I already thought about giving the loaded images into the color controls of the preset, sequential numbers so you would know exactly which one you would need or want to change, because if you put a name you would not know WH ERE is that name loaded into the list of FF preset.

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ThreeDee wrote: If you make a preset that has sequential image numbers (image001.jpg, image002.jpg, etc), you can use Photoshop's batch processing to rename a folder of images to match this, then replace the content of the source folder with that new set, I would think.

WOW!! Is this is really possible? Can you batch rename all the folder of images and they will still be recognized by the filter forge preset?

what I do not know if I understand correctly the part of "to match this, then replace the content of the source folder with that new set"

Do you mean that you could rename another different folder of images with the same name of the original already loaded images into the preset, and then replace the content of the second folder into the content of the original first source folder?

this would be good if possible, have to try it

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ThreeDee wrote: I guess that about the best solution until someone makes an app that generates a preset directly in the ffxml file from a selected folder.

Would be possible to do this? I have no idea about this as I have no idea of coding.

This means that it would replace the idea of replacing and batch renaming in Photoshop?

thanks for your idea

Thanks very much for testing and good news to knpw is possible will try it myself

Well spaceray's method doesn't involve making complicated filter forge networks and tables.

Eh no need to be sorry. I'm just pointing out that there's a cost to doing this either or. Each method is tedious anyway and it takes us extra miles to do something.

Additionally, a lot of what I made is "compressed" as in I'm squeezing the node-count down to a small number. It looks simple, but it's as tedious anyway. I'm pretty sure there's a more dynamic way of accomplishing what I made so far. So stay tuned!

SkyBase, I think that your idea of using look up tabLes could be good if it could reduced to 3x3 grids of images

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Skybase wrote: Well spaceray's method doesn't involve making complicated filter forge networks and tables.

Well from the screenshot you did put above it did seem that it was easy to do, and faster, but this may be because is only a table of 4 images, probably using a 3x3 or 4x4 grid for 9 and 16 images would be more complex, I do not know because I do not know how you can define the look up table to choose exactly the wanted image specifically from the grid of images

Could it be possible to reduce the look up to using only different 3x3 grid's of images instead of a bigger images grid?

I mean to use one 3x3 grid for each map switch you may be using so it fills 9 images of the map switch and you can nest them together

Do not know if limiting the images grid to only 3x3 would help to make it it easier and less complex

Also making a smaller 3x3 grid would be easier to make than a larger one, and even could be done manually on photoshop or whatever software

Very nice work. Hopefully this will save a lot of time.

In other news I figured out a dynamic grid loader thing. Turns out the answer was right in my face just as I expected. It's less complex now and more flexible. Party on.

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Skybase wrote: Very nice work. Hopefully this will save a lot of time. In other news I figured out a dynamic grid loader thing. Turns out the answer was right in my face just as I expected. It's less complex now and more flexible. Party on.

Thanks for your compliment.

Did you already publish your solution ("dynamic grid loader thing")?
If yes, where can I find it?

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Skybase wrote: I'm running into minor issues, turns out it's not as dynamic as I wanted it to be. Will seek help privately.

well, if you are having minor issues, it means that it may be possible to make it, and I hope that you are able to do it in some way, and be so kind to tell us how you may have made it

I have just found this grid of flat icons and maybe think that this could be used with a look up table, but really do not know it will would be possible and would be really be made much smaller as it has 11 x 11 icons = 121 icons

Hey Skybase,

Here's the loader modified to work up to 25x25 grid. You were right, you can just divide it, using HDR values (1/X).

TD

BTW, SpaceRay's icon sample image is not on an exact grid, the images are not centered.

Image Loader Rev.ffxml

Note: This post has been edited many times, and added many additional things.

1 - HOW IT WORKS?

2 - USING ELEMENTS WITH ALPHA CHANNEL FOR THE GRID OPENS A WIDE WORLD

3 - MAKING YOURSELF A GRID WITH YOUR OWN IMAGES

4 - PROBLEMS I FOUND WHEN USING THIS FILTER

5 - ALTERNATIVE AND ADDITIONAL USES APART FROM THE MAIN PURPOSE

6 - PROBLEM I SEE FOR USING THIS FILTER IS THAT IS ONLY FOR SQUARE IMAGES

WOW!! This is awesome !


Thanks very much Skybase and ThreeDee for making this possible, I have tested it and it works very well, and it will sel ect perfectly all the squares of any grid square with images or whatever you may feed as source. Clever and well done way to do it, only FF gods (FF experts with lots of experience and knowdlege) could be able to think about this and make it possible

This is really helpful and amazing and can now finally open really a new world of using FF 5 bomber plus, something that Vladimir and FF team forgot to include, and that this will really make bomber plus shine and show its value and usefulness for multiple images

1 - HOW IT WORKS?

As far as I know, it seems that it will take any square images source and divide it in smaller squares according to the number of sel ected rows, and you can either use either a jpg image or a PNG with transparent background that (Grid of images with alpha channel) will work the same

Is very important that you feed a perfect square grid image, and that if you make it with alpha channel the elements inside the square grid are perfectly centered (and not like the grid of icons I have put above, sorry ThreeDee) and also you have to keep a separation between them according to the size of the square grid (as seen on the well done demo tiles example inside the filter)

Is essential for it work that you match exactly the amount of elements that you have on the first row of your own grid with the grid squares that are the image divided (first slider) for it to work correctly and show the right result

2 - USING ELEMENTS WITH ALPHA CHANNEL FOR THE GRID OPENS A WIDE WORLD

Being able to use any square grid that contain elements with transparent background opens a really wide world of possibilities and changes much how you can use this

In the demo included it already includes the dots with transparent background, and I think that this is a very good and helpful thing, and this is really good that you can use any square grid with alpha channel (transparent background) for making grids of lots of different objects that you may have yourself and that you can build a square grid with them

I know that on internet there are lots of already done grids with elements and objects ordered with transparent background (or white or black background that you can easy delete and make it transparent) that you could be able to use. Will put later some examples of this

You can use any image or element that can fit inside a square, for example circular flowers, fruits or vegetables (or anything than can fit inside a square), letters and fonts, any circular shape or element, any triangular shape or element...

3 - MAKING YOURSELF A GRID WITH YOUR OWN IMAGES

For making a grid with your own square images you can use Adobe Photoshop or any of the other multiple and varied software available on internet, and also be aware that there is also a lot of photo collage software for PC or Mac, and LOTS of apps for photo collage grids on either iOS and Android.

Will put later some examples and some tutorials about this for the ones that do not know how to do it.

3.1 ADD A FRAME (OR MORTAR WIDTH) TO THE SQUARES INSIDE THE GRID

I have tried and tested that you can also add an additional square frame to each one of the grid squares. This must be always inside each of the square grids

Also instead of a frame you can add a mortar width (separation between images) as a grid as I have done in the letters example below

The reason for maybe including this is if you want to separate the different squares and make it like it is shown on the letters example shown on the screenshot below, because it may look perhaps bad if you have all the letters with just white as there will not be any boundary limits

For the mortar width effect, Photoshop and many other software and apps, already include a option for this to separate the images and show a grid of variable size

4 - PROBLEMS I FOUND WHEN USING THIS FILTER

4.1 - FLIP - The little square cut results are shown in reverse, but this can be solved easily by adding a FLIP component with the Flip X option checked after the Lookup component, and so it will show correctly.

4.2 - EMPTY SQUARES - It will misteriously make some of the squares feed transparent, I mean that it seems that it feeds some empty square that are NOT included in the source square grid as shown on the screenshot below. I do not know why this happen as has not been able to solve it.

5 - ALTERNATIVE AND ADDITIONAL USES APART FR OM THE MAIN PURPOSE

Apart fr om the main use that this was done, I have also found that there may be additional and alternative uses that may also be cool and interesting to experiment and use

5.1 WITH A SINGLE FULL SQUARE IMAGE AND NOT USING A GRID
I have seen also that it may give a cool and interesting result using a full single image that it will divide and jumble it all over like a grid puzzle, and I like much the effect result you can get, and you can customize how much the source image is divided using the slider

5.2 JUMBLED AND MIXED GRID IMAGE

I told above that is essential for it work that you match exactly the amount of elements that you have on the your own grid, BUT what happens if do not do this? well you still can get a beautiful and offset effect and also you can shatter and break the images avoiding to put the exact match, just move the first slider and will see what I mean.

6 - PROBLEM I SEE FOR USING THIS FILTER IS THAT IS ONLY FOR SQUARE IMAGES

Although I have told above that this filter is awesome and love it, there is still something that is a problem but can not be avoided as it is designed for only square images and grids

I have no idea if this filter could be done also to be able to divide non square grids and non-square images in the same way as it can do for square images, calculating proportionally the image ratio.

Would it be possible in some way to make it also be able to divide non-square grid images in the same way? or this works only for square images only because it uses a square gradient for the "magic" effect?

As told above this filter will work ONLY with square grids, and will not be able to cut correctly any other non-square image or non-square grid

Usually most of the images you may have are not square images, and all the photos you may take with any camera, or found, are not square, and you can not use them to make a square grid, as it of course would not be possible for obvious reasons

so you can only use this filter for only square images or anything with transparent background that can fit inside a square.

6.1 POSSIBLE SOLUTION IS TO USE BOTH WAYS SHOWN ON THIS THREAD


The only possible alternative solution for this I see is to use instead the idea I had on the first post and use the very useful and amazing FF Creator tool to replace the images on the presets.

THANKS VERY MUCH AGAIN TO SKYBASE AND THREEDEE FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE

Here below is the screenshot of the problem told on point 4.2

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Skybase wrote: 4.1: That's a nice little addition, although preferably all inputs should be prepared in advance than done "after the fact" to avoid confusion.

Sorry to say that this is not a possible addition, is a real problem that is with this filter, ALL the images will be reversed by default always if you do not use the FLIP component. I have correctly prepared the grid and is created correctly in the right direction.

Here is a screenshot to tell what I mean

Version 1.02
+ PROBABLY fixed the issue where coordinates were messed up displaying "nothing". This was fixed using the ceiling component instead of the round component. Although I'm fairly certain it solved stuff, I'm keeping a close eye to see if this worked. So give it a test and see if it works or not.

+ Fixed flipping issue. The horizontal lookup gradient was backwards. I was wrong.

+ Cleaned up default preset.

Thanks to Spaceray for drilling at those things.

Overall this filter is merely a snippet that perhaps can be used in a larger filter. Hopefully you guys catch on making more with it and maybe we might see some new things built on top.

Image Loader Rev.ffxml

Good job Skybase & ThreeDee. I was able to come up with an all math no profile version that works, however... it is slightly slower, and it crashes FF5 every time I save it. So I think I'll keep it to myself.

Hi, thanks very much Skyboxes and ThreeDee for making this filter to be able to load multiple images in a easier way, this seems to be interesting and useful, will try it and see what I can do

Thanks very much also to FFCreator for making this tool for replacing the names of the images on the presets, and that is a very good thing to have and to make it much faster and easier

Thanks to Skybase, ThreeDee, SpaceRay and FF Creator for making this thread and trying to solve the bad problem of batch loading images into bomber plus

My version of grid image loading is different in that it only uses math components, no profiles. It is functionally equivalent. Image Loader Rev 1.02 is preferred.

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Sorry to keep on this, but I wonder if it would be possible to have just ONE non-square grid size to choose?

Explain. Do you want an alternative grid size?

Nice, Skybase. I just added calculations with image width/height so we can use non-square grids. But I only tested cases where the grid is the same shape as the final image.

Image Loader Nonsquare.ffxml

Now I can just dump grids of anything. Even my old files.

there seems to be some error with the quotes that they do not work

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Skybase wrote:
Explain. Do you want an alternative grid size?
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to avoid any possible confusion and misunderstanding I will make a image example and show it clearly what I am really suggesting

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Indigo Ray wrote:

I just added calculations with image width/height so we can use non-square grids
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Good, thanks for making this variation, will see how it works and what it can do[quote]

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Skybase wrote:
Now I can just dump grids of anything. Even my old files.
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Beautiful and well done, I think I remember these cool and great round images from your own Labs thread. Maybe a little too crowed but is good anyway.