ref image: https://pixabay.com/photos/poinsettia-l ... ed-415531/

I hinted a while back that I would do a tut for how I use Dave's packed ellipses preset. Wasn't quite ready to share at that time (and indeed, still trying to improve), but believe it's at a point that can be shared and maybe one of you folk can get it to be better.

First open image and then dup.

On the top layer run Distance transform per below:



Now dup that layer and run Relief light (set opacity to 50%) and merge two layers (settings for relief light):



Now dup the base layer and then set the top layer to 50% opacity and merge down

Run Local Variance Normalization on this layer:

Now run Circlism on this layer (note, preview times out and indeed this one took over 2 minutes on my PC; lol):



Now extract the Alpha channel to create the mask:



And finally Blend shape average with the base layer for the result:

Won't leave you folk in suspense any longer; below's the result. lol

I know it's a lot of work then just running the preset, but the result is more fluid than the block like result from the plugin itself. The circlism can then be fed into BRL to make marbles and of course, you know I continue to try to find all my marbles. lol

It is interesting Lyle. But my confidence with GIMP is shot and I am trying to rebuild it. Might give it a crack when I am ready but not now.

So long as you haven't given up on G'MIC, Pauline, you should be fine. The only GIMP thing I really used was the extraction of the alpha-channel to create the mask.

Thanks Lyle for your time and tutorial.
Unfirtunately I don't have faves in my GMIC and I could finish my try.

Whoops; I was doing so many circlism renders that I forgot I was using the favorite I created for the preset. Below's the actual path for this preset (with settings used in tut; note those settings are not the defaults for this preset).