Resynthesizer/Heal Selection for "Content Aware Fill" in GIMP

[patdavid]

I wasn't sure about posting this here, as I'm fairly certain most of you are already familiar with the subject matter.

It occurred to me though that many of you likely know more than I do about it, and as such could possibly either correct any of my mistakes, or add some other cool things I might have missed...

I basically revisited the Resynthesizer plugin with the Heal Selection script for filling in selections on an image based on surrounding textures. I really am amazed at some of the results that the plugin manages to produce (especially on random nearby textures like grass/sand, and skies).



I know things tend to break down on boundaries, but depending on the orientation, and the sequence you heal selections, many of those limitations can be overcome quite easily, I think.

Anyway, if you have a few minutes and wanted to check it out:

Getting Around in GIMP - Heal Selection (Resynthesizer)

[PhotoComix]

very nice tutorial

[Odinbc]

Excellent tutorial Pat, you have a knack for useful information.

[Rod]

Nice tutorial and it explains in great detail how the filter works.This should be very helpful to those who do not know what the filter is used for.
Thanks for sharing it here.

[lylejk]

Nicely done tut Pat. Resynthesizer has been around long before Content aware fill. GIMP has been on the cutting edge for a lot of stuff. Even liquid rescale became available to GIMP users as a plugin before Content Aware was given to Photoshop. GIMP will soon allow for higher bit depth edits too and that will be the game changer. A lot (and I mean a lot) of PS folks are not too happy about Photoshop's upgrade policy and I am no longer going to upgrade my version of PS (use to do so every 3rd version; went from CS2 to CS5 for instance). CS5 is my last upgrade. I only keep and use CS5 for RAW file processing since I've yet been happy with any of the opensource programs that can process RAW, but I'll just have to grim and bear it when I get a new camera that will require it since ACR won't have the ability to work with that particular camera. Anyway, that won't happen for a long time. lol

[PhotoComix]

Nice tutorial and it explains in great detail how the filter works.This should be very helpful to those who do not know what the filter is used for.

Well the only thing i found questionable in the tutorial is that doesn't explain much about the filter is totally focused on how use the Heal selection script that use the filter

It explains very well , and for sure that remain the most commune use

yet there are many other possible use of the filters and several other scripts using resynth for other operations that may be worth a look...or maybe another tut

[lylejk]

Agree with you PC like creating Crop Circles and Corn Mazes.

[Erisian]

Even liquid rescale became available to GIMP users as a plugin before Content Aware was given to Photoshop.

And liquid rescale is a far more comprehensive tool than Photoshop's.

[PhotoComix]

Agree with you PC like creating Crop Circles and Corn Mazes.

yes !

and enlarge images extending the borders (easy one, seascape at twilight: resynth.may extend the sky, the sea and the sand in all directions... )

Anyway even if is a very good plugins it has its quirks, that why i actually have 2 versions, the old one where for some reasons Heal Selection works better and the newer version

[Esper]

next: GIMP Resynthesizer in Stealth Technology Shocker

cloaked.jpg (65.7 KiB) Viewed 10197 times

[lylejk]

I agree with you about the old; does a better job with with seamless textures too. I use both since now, thanks to the efforts of some cool folks, compiled both to work synergistically and I do have both in my plugins folder.

and you just ninja'd me Esper.

[PhotoComix]

yes i know..
i included both in my Gimp_PhotoComix_Lab with all the scripts and even Texture Ops..
Well i adding now Texture Ops to the version on the server but was already in my local copy

[patdavid]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I figured that possibly the most common use of the plugin would be around Heal Selection (for image retouching), so that was my primary focus.

I did try to link to one of lylejk's neat (recent) tutorial on seamless textures to kind of show what other things could be done... (Honestly, it would probably be worth it's own tutorial for using Resynthesizer bare without the Heal Selection script).

yet there are many other possible use of the filters and several other scripts using resynth for other operations that may be worth a look...or maybe another tut

I honestly wasn't aware of other scripts that made use of Resynthesizer (well - geared towards photographic retouching). Any chance you could point me in their direction (I'd love to see some other cool uses!)

[PhotoComix]

you just posted a message in the place where are a group of scripts for resynthesizer all in python, from Bootchk, and his version of Resynthesizer

Because actually are 2 version, the original that anyway still work,(and was recompiled not long ago to work with gimp 2.8 ) and that of Bootchk that decided to maintain the plugin that was no more maintained from long and was risking to die, and each cannot use scripts written for the other

that why me and lylejk have both the version installed the older seems work better for the use you did in the tutorial, the newer anyway is also interesting even if don't give exactly same results

[patdavid]

you just posted a message in the place where are a group of scripts for resynthesizer all in python, from Bootchk, and his version of Resynthesizer

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in my response - I guess I meant scripts other than the packaged ones (enlarge, heal trans, fill pattern, sharpen, etc) that bootchk had bundled up.

Of course you're right - these probably deserve a look all on their own (and might be helpful to see them in the context of other options as well ie: enlarging methods and the results from each to compare).

And to be honest, this is kind of a bummer when trying to track down which version of Resynthesizer + scripts to install for the average user. It's not really clear which way to go from the registry...

What would be nice would be a package maintainer for GIMP plugins/scripts (like apt/yum built into GIMP directly). A GIMP "App Store" if you will. I wonder how hard it would be to put something together?

[Oregonian]

Had to give it a try. Before and after.

[molly]

Nice job O. I was playing around with it last night. It works very well.

[charlie34]

Lylejk mentioned an old and a new version of the Heal Selection plugin. How can I tell which one I have, and is there a link where I can download both the old and new scripts? (I'm assuming that it's only a difference in individual scripts and not the Resynthesizer plugin/executable itself).
Thanks
(added) Gimp 2.8.2 Portable, Windows 7 64bit

[patdavid]

Well, if we're going to be sharing our fiddling around with this - how about a rejected image that I was originally going to lead the blog post off with?




To be fair, I cheated by using a clone tool to fix the ropes, but only for the top two ropes - everything else was pure Heal Selection. (And only took about 2 minutes to do!)

[patdavid]

Lylejk mentioned an old and a new version of the Heal Selection plugin. How can I tell which one I have, and is there a link where I can download both the old and new scripts? (I'm assuming that it's only a difference in individual scripts and not the Resynthesizer plugin/executable itself).
Thanks
(added) Gimp 2.8.2 Portable, Windows 7 64bit

I'll let Lyle/PC answer, but I believe the problem is that the difference is actually the compiled resynth.exe/resynthesizer.exe and not the scripts (though they may need to be modified to point to the correct version).