(via MAKEzine blog)
Hey, it’s LEGOs, I’m a geek, and this is a DIY guide. I believe I’m legally obligated to point this one out. I may try this out with my kids, in fact.
When my oldest son was born in 2001 LEGO offered a cool online “Brick-o-lizer” that would take an
uploaded photo and turn it into a five-tone grayscale grid of 1×1 bricks from which you could create a wall-hanging mosaic. LEGO would send you the exact right amount of bricks in bulk. Putting it together was as easy as paint-by-numbers. I did this for him and for his little brother in 2003.
My daughter was born a few weeks ago and so naturally I went back to the Brick-o-lizer to create her mosaic. Imagine my horror to find out that it isn’t available anymore. How could I deprive my baby girl of her LEGO mosaic? Well. Obviously. I couldn’t.
So, here follows instructions for doing it manually in Photoshop. (But before we begin, let’s be sure to acknowledge the unbelievably talented people who create LEGO mosaics in full color without a grid at all. I bow to your supremacy.)
The one thing I have to point out here is that the author uses Photoshop. Not all of us have access to that application, however. Anyone willing to write up brief instructions on how to do the photo-conversion process in The Gimp instead of Photoshop? That would be hella helpful for those of us using open-source/legally free software when possible.
[tags]LEGO, LEGO mosaic, DIY guide[/tags]