Pixopedia 24 Alpha11 is available. Here are the news in version 2.0 Alpha11:

1. "Acquire immediate" and "select source and acquire" options added. You can acquire image from scanner or any other TWAIN compatible source.


2. New stroke style: "Moment based strokes" added in autobrushing (retouch action-ABSet). Two options available "Stroke width fixed (brush size)" and "Adjust brush size according to stroke width". This stoke style is based on articles "Moment based painterly rendering" by Diago Nehab and "Image Moment-Based Stroke Placement" by Michio Shiraishi and Yasushi Yamaguchi.


3. A new plug-in engine: now you can open more then one plug-in in the same time.


4. New "Image Infector v.1.2" is packed with P24 distribution. A lot of new rules and features: moment based stroke placement rule, track backround canvas, attract, repell, closest color, implode, explode, new infecting color options, new seeding options, etc... For more in-depth view, check the latest article Painterly Rendering Using Cellular Automata on Paperology page.


5. Some P24 bugs corrected.

Alpha11 will be available soon. Work done so far:

1. "Acquire immediate" and "select source and acquire" options added. You can acquire image from scanner or any other TWAIN compatible source.


2. New stroke style: "Moment based strokes" added in autobrushing (retouch action-ABSet). Two options available "Stroke width fixed (brush size)" and "Adjust brush size according to streoke width". This stoke style is based on articles "Moment based painterly rendering" by Diago Nehab and "Image Moment-Based Stroke Placement" by Michio Shiraishi and Yasushi Yamaguchi.


3. A new plug-in engine: now you can open more then one plug-in in the same time.


4. New "Image Infector" version is almost finished. A lot of new rules and features: moment based stroke placement rule, follow backround canvas, attract, repell, closest color, implode, explode, new infecting color options, new seeding options, etc...


5. Some P24 bugs corrected.

Pixopedia 24 2.0 Alpha 10 is out.  Here are the news in version 2.0 Alpha10:

1. Plugin engine modified (p24 plug-ins). Now, plug-in can work as a non-modal window. It can stay oppened, so that user can work with all Pixopedia 24 actions without need for closing plug-in. Currently, only one plug-in can be up and running. When other plug-in is started, it will shutdown the old plug-in and take it's connection with Pixopedia 24. New and very important feature in Pixopedia 24 plugin engine is possibility to pass mouse controls to some plug-in. This is very important and opens new possibilites for plug-ins development. Lot of drawing and painting experiments can be implemented as plug-in without modifying Pixopedia 24 core.


2. A new version of Image Infector 1.1 plug-in is packed together with Pixopedia 24 distribution. A lot of new features with this one. For more technical view on what's going on inside this plug-in read my article: Image Effects with Cellular Automata on Paperology page on this site. Image Infector is non-modal type plug-in. You can work with all P24 actions while plug-in is running.


3. A new version of Morph Editor 2.1 plug-in is finished, compatible with Pixopedia 24 2.0 Alpha10 and ready for download. ME is not packed with Pixopedia 24 distribution. It can be separately downloaded from this site (Add-ons page). Unpack it and installin "plugins" subdirectory. NOTE: Morph Editor work also as P24 extension. It can be started from animation panel control (green face icon) when animation mode is ON. NOTE: This plug-in is modal type plug-in. You can't work with any other P24 action before you close it.


4. New plug-in Image Dislocator 1.0 available for download.It can be downloaded from this site (Add-ons page). Unpack it and installed in "plugins" subdirectory. Image Dislocatorr is non-modal plug-in. You can work with all P24 actions while plug-in is running.


5. Some bugs corrected.

NOTE: All Pixopedia 24 plugins have extension ".ppi" and must be installed in "plugins" sudirectory under Pixopedia 24 installation directory.

Development of stand alone Morph Editor is discontinued and stand alone ME is no more available for download. From now on, Morph Editor is available as plug-in only.

Ok, here it is: a brand new verison of Pixopedia 24. It's still in Alpha phase,
but is quite stable and operable...and this version is totally free for all.

Here are the news in version 2.0 Alpha9:

1. Possibillity of executing Pixopedia 24 plugins. One such plugin (Image Infector 1.0) is distributed with Pixopedia 24, all others will be posted on this site and will be available for downloading. The new plugin system allows more flexibility. There is no need to close plugin to do some other actions on image.
NOTE: All Pixopedia 24 plugins have extension ".ppi" and must be installed in "plugins" directory. Old plugins will not work with new Pixopedia 24 version. Do not copy them to plugins directory.

2. Possibility of executing Photoshop plugins added (8bf filters). Not all filters will work, but a large amount of them will work quite ok. Also, filters that use alpha channel will not work, but I'll try to fix that issue in the next version.
NOTE: a bunch of free (I hope so) 8bf filters I've found on the web are packed with new Pixopedia 24 distribution. You can find them in "filters8bf" directory.

3. Bugs in undo system corrected. It still saves complete image.

4. Some bugs in various actions corrected.

5. PixelLook ZL Analyzer (various image analyzing tools) added under Miscellaneous menu item.

6. Image Infector 1.0 plugin, which is distributed with Pixopedia 24 is acctually cellular automaton. Image is seeded with active cells and they'll infect complete image under some rules. There is no help available,  but I'll put some hints on SIgmaPi site. Anyway, just play with various parameters and you'll get the picture.

Tutorial? Well, I'll try to put some video tutorials on YouTube.

Ok, here we are. A little bit earlier. A new version of Pixopedia 24 2.0 Alpha 8 available.
So, here is a brief explanation about changes, corrected bugs and new features:

New action added: image nozzle. Now, you can paint using some transparent image as a brush tip. You have seen this feature in other programs and now it's available in Pixopedia. It uses transparent png containing evenly spaced objects I call it cells. In other words, one png image contains one or more evenly spaced subimages. 

All images are placed in nozzle directory and are loaded first time you select image nozzle action.

Image nozzle action uses selected image as a matrix of brush tips (subimages/cells). Select an image from image container and click settings button. You can use single cell for drawing: only selected cell/subimage will be painted on canvas, or you can use cell sequence: while you move cursor over canvas, cells/subimigase will be painted in sequence: sub(i,j), i=1,n; j=1,m...and over again. The deafult style setting is random cells order, where cell is selected randomly. I prefere this way of painting. 

Further, you can specify nozzle capacity, scale and spacing. When you click on spacing button, spacing will be set to (cell_widht*cell_height/4). When image is scaled, you can also select resampling filter. Rendering opeation is similar to rendering operations with layers: various methods of combining pixels from image nozzle and background canvas.

NOTE: settings window is a tool window: you don't need to close the window in order to proceed with painting.

Where to get image nozzle and how to use it with Pixopedia 24?

I have downloaded some free png images from freetubes.com
and prepared a set of image nozzles and put it in nozzle directory. Of course, you can search and find lot of such images on the web. Download them, create a new nozzle directory, prepare images, save them...play a bit.

Now, how to prepare PNG images so you can use it in Pixopedia 24.
Just, open an image in Pixopedia 24 and then go to file | save as image nozzle. You'll see a window with one input field and two spin edits.

Enter description and number of horizontal and vertical cells...actually number of subimiges in one row and number of rows: sub(n,m). Click on save button, choose your nozzle directory and save image. That's it. Click on reload button in image nozzle action and your new nozzle will be loaded,  if placed in currently active nozzle directory (go to file | preferences if you want to change directory).

Saved image is not altered in any way, only description and number of columns and rows are added to png text fields.

Another new feature...under file | segmentation mode, I've added a possibility (for some decomposition modes) to select a way of reconstrucition (propagation/reconstruction rules). There are two modes of image reconstruction (where it's available): First method is getting the difference between level L3 and L2. If difference is lower then limit specify, pixel from L3 will be propagated to L2. The same method is applied on next level (difference between L2 and L1) and so on, up to L0.

The second method gets the difference between L0 and L3. Again if difference is lower then limit specify, pixel is saved to some L0' (modified L0), then the same differnece is performed on L0' and L2, the result is put in L0'' and so on.

This is not hot and fancy new feature, just my experimentation.

Other things...well, some bugs in masquerade action correctred, much faster autobrushing (20 times faster) when "Draw over prevoius brush stroke" or "Perform stroke hard masking" options are checked (explained in previous post), added a new noise method "PixelVary" and new undo system.

Well, I'm not pleased very much with new undo sytem ether, but it's better. It saves image after drawing (on mouse up) and not befor e drawing (which could lead to deley on mouse moving). Again, it saves complete image, not modified part, but I just did not want to bother with more advanced undo system at this time.

Of course, I will add a possibility to select undo system to use: saving complete image after some number of strokes, or save a part of modified image after every stroke drawn. In first version (now available) you can select any saved image/layer from "undo stream" and call it back to canvas. In second version (not available) you'll be able to undo only in sequence.

That's it...Happy New Year!

Well, here are some news in Alpha8 develpoment stage:

• Bug in undo stream: In some cases program crashes with "access violation" when undoing. It was quite stupid error, just one line of code. Corrected.
• Bug in SMUDGE brush in Retouch action: Large smudging always goes to black. Corrected...added some biasing.
• Bug in Autobrush: When "Draw over prevoius brush stroke" or "Perform stroke hard masking" is checked autobrushing slows down. On big images it can take a while to perform. Corrected. Now, on test image of size 1024x768 with same brush and grid size it works 20 times faster.
• Addition: new noise method added "PixelVary". Variation of pixels intensity. Similar to "Pixel variations" in "channels" panel, but now you don't need to perform four-five steps just to vary pixel intensity on image. This feature is important for autobrushing with contour tracking and will be soon explained in Tips & Tricks page.
• Addition: added posibility of shaped text in vectorial objects.
• Bug when drawing on transparent background with drop shadow on: Shadow is not created. Resolved and corrected.
• Added "save as image nozzle" in file menu. Use it to prepare transparent image for image nozzle action: just add desctiption and number of horizontal and vertical cells.
• Added "image nozzle" action. It is possible now to paint with transparent images, previously prepared for use with Pixopedia 24 (similar to PSP tubes, or Corel Painter Image Hose). You can select nozzle image from nozzle directory, scale it, specify opacity, paint with random cells, cells in sequence, etc...
• Alpha 8 will be ready at the beginnig of 2010.

Here is an example of image nozzle usage:

...to be continued...

BTW, many thanks to all you guys and girls that informed be about bugs and all that things.

Ok, here it is, a brand new verison of Pixopedia 24. It's still in Alpha phase, but is quite stable and operable...and this version is totally free for all.

Here are some news in version 2.0 Alpha7:

• 
  Transparent image feature added: Now, you can open and create transparent image.
• Multilayer images is now supported. Now you can move, resize and rotate selected layer. Also, you can perform all actions (drawing, warping, etc..) on selected layer.
• PSD format (Photoshop) is supported. You can load and save images in PSD format. This support is limited as some images are not rendered correctly.
• LYR format is supported. You can load and save image in LYR format. This format is recommended   when working with layers inside Pixopedia 24. You can always save image as PSD lately.
• A new mode of operation added: File->layers mode. This mode gives possibility of selecting layers using their thumbnails and also gives a possibility to add new blank layer or to load some image as new layer. You can also merge layers, export selected layer as new image (right click on the thumbnail), etc, etc...
• Two new tool button added: move and resize layer and rotate layer. When one of these buttons is clicked current layer is selected and actions grips are shown.
• Masquerade action redesigned and now it works pretty fine.
• New preferences parameters added in Misc. tab: you can now set IMA background color and background style.

Some notes regarding multilayer images:

By default, selecting layer with mouse is disabled. You can select layers only in layers mode by clicking on desired thumbnail image. You can change this behaviour in program preferences (also available in layers mode).

Version Alpha7 is maybe the last freeware version of Pixopedia 24. All succeeding versions will expire after 6 months.

As I said, this version is quite stable. However, there may be some problems with undoing action in multilayered images as undo buffer doesn't know what layer to undo...take care of that. Also, there are still some inconsistency in few functions that apply some actions on complete image and animation stream. Those things will be implemented and corrected in next version.

Also, undo stream must be reprogrammed and optimized as currently, before drawing, complete image is saved in undo stream which results in stroke delay, especially when working on big images. Well, I can not put everything in freeware version...right?

Tutorial? Good Lord...to much work...any volunteers?

Well, after months and months of inactivity (regarding Pixopedia 24) I've steamed up a little and began to work on new Pixopedia 24 2.0 build (alpha 7). Done a lot of internal restructuring because of some new features: transparent images and layers. Also, a bunch of reported bugs need to be resolved, especially "masquerade" action.

Now, about transparency: transparent images are introduced in new build. Images with alpha channel (opacity channel) are loaded correctly and also there is possibility of creating a new image with transparent background. This opens a possibility to introduce image hose/nozzles and other features to free hand painting. Image nozzles will be introduced after stabilizing version 2.x.

A new mode is introduced: layers mode. Switching to this operational mode gives to user capability of adding layers to some background image. So far it's possible to add a new layer from an existing image or appending a new layer as a blank image.

In this mode of operation, user can select desired layer, move it and perform resize and rotate operations. Transparency and layers option opens a new chapter in Pixopedia 24 development, but also opens a new work to be done in order to keep upward compatibility and to keep image processing features consistent, for example: resizing complete multilayer image now envolves resizing all layers (and all apha channels)...etc, etc..

I've mentioned "masquerade" action...well I'm thinking to completely reprogram this feature using hidden layers. Currently I'm using one offscreen bitmap and IPL functions to manipulate selections.

That's it for now...oh yes, I forgot . I hope that new build will be available within a week or two. Anyway, I'll keep posting about progress and problems in Pixopedia 24 development on this quasi-blog.