Experiment with pointilism

[ijv]

I've been experimenting with generating pointillist or stipple images for my Shapeoko, using the Stipplegen program from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. This is an example using a test image from that program.

P7130080.JPG (481.79 KiB) Viewed 3396 times

The main effort involved was in writing some software to convert the dots in the svg file that the program generates to gcode, with the size of each dot transformed into depth of plunge for a v-bit. One nice feature of Stipplegen is that teh Traveling Salesman path feature effectively generates an optimised CNC path. Let me know if you are interested in my conversion software, its C# .NET for Windows. I haven't tested it, but it should run under Wine for Linux.

[JeromyReno]

i love this!

[madhatter]

I am definitely interested in this. I can think of a few projects once I get my XXL up and running.

[RoguePirin]

I would be interested in this as well. Was your test image done with a v-bit? It looks more like it was done with a marker/laser. If you did use a v-bit, how did you finish the piece?

[ijv]

i love this!

Thanks, they don't make them like Grace Kelly anymore

[ijv]

I would be interested in this as well. Was your test image done with a v-bit? It looks more like it was done with a marker/laser. If you did use a v-bit, how did you finish the piece?

The bit I used, is a Dremel 125 bit. The reason for the laser look is that it was cut into plywood with a light face sheet and a darker under sheet. I then simply did a light sand and applied a coat of Scandinavian oil.

I'll get the code into shape and look into hosting it somewhere.

[ijv]

I've posted the executable and source for my code in drop box here. It's released under the BSD 3-clause licence.
Let me know if you have any problems running the program or compiling the source. If people are really keen to develop it any further we could look at starting a GitHub project.

[COMarcus]

I did a halftone image of my kiddos, plywood, covered in paint. Sold a few other in the neighborhood...they're very popular.

miles ben halftone.jpg (218.78 KiB) Viewed 3021 times

These were just scrap pieces of plywood and was shocked they turned out so good. If you do use plywood, use the good stuff. You can see the voids in the plywood on my kiddo's forehead on black picture. future cuts on nice baltic birch havent run into this yet.

[ijv]

Nice, what technique did you use to do the half toning?