Mosaic Art Maker version 2.0

New updated generator and upcoming changes.

Check the new version of LEGO Mosaic Maker here.

or Read 👇🏻 about what has changed and what is coming next.

The History

It is now September of 2023 and almost 3 years ago I went to Bilund, Denmark to visit LEGO House. There I made myself a quite expensive picture in the Portrait Booth. The photo quality was not so good and I had just one shot. After coming home I decided to change the design but I found no alternatives online at the time.

Then I decided to work on mosaic generator to have at least something better than my lego portrait. Month after the trip I've published the first version of the mosaic maker. People started using it and soon after they were telling me about ideas and suggestions regarding the application.

LEGO maker got great reviewes which pushed me to code (and learn) more and more. The market was changing in paralell. LEGO Dots and more LEGO sets came to market. I was adding new color sets to the website and playing around with other ideas and functionalities. Then, due to limitations of my knowledge and technology I paused the development.

The fact that I have scrupulously fulfilled the user's requests made them visit the page more often. Last year I celebrated generation of over 10 000 mosaics over those years. Last month I noticed that there was 1000 generation in just 3 months.

Over the past few years I have learned more things and finally decided to update the program which results you can see now.

The Changes

The old version

Quite simple (but functional!). Interface was difficult to use. Selectors were small, not styled and options were confusing to use (depended on each other in ways that even I did not know).

The new version

Quite amazing (but modest!). Interface is very functional (especially setting the board size), styling is neat and consistent. All the functionalities are preserved and expended. Let's see what is new!

Starting from the top:

It is now possible to set rectangles of any size between 10 and 64. This way you can use pictures in vertical and horizontal ratios (e.g. 2x1 picture of you with your bestie). Board size setting slider allows you to quicky adjust and in case you need rectangle mode - set required size in custom input. This allows you to make mosaics smaller than LEGO square base plates which result in creating frames for your images and portraits.
Pictures can now have more formats to create mosaic even easier! Also file input button has a pulsating reminder that tells you about uploading picture first (in case you are new here or you have just refreshed the page).
Dropdown list allows you to mix colors from multiple sets. You can also see the Lego Art sets photos and description. If you have a set that you use but is not on the list - let me know.

It is possible to use list of customly selected colors. You can now create mosaic in e.g. shades of favourite colors and edit them in both round and square tiles mode. Edit mode is always on in case you want to adjust generated mosaic.
Better feedback in case of missing input is communicated via notifications in the bottom right corner and text colors.

All functionalities of exporting has been preserved so you can generate .png pictures with the results and more. I will soon better describe how you can use other formats. (see below in section 'what is next' )
After generating mosaic there is a list of colors used during generation. Click on a color and edit the mosaic's imperfections with it!

When you convert picture to mosaic tiles, there is information about cost of your mosaic in different currencies in case you want to buy studs yourself!
If you select board size bigger than the amount of pieces available in selected sets, you will get a hint. This way you can be sure that you will have enough brics for the planned mosaic.
The application has been refactored and should work faster, even on mobile devices (it is better to use the generator on bigger screen tho)

Of course entire lego mosaic generator is free and it does not save pictures used for generating mosaics ( works online and offline - you can even switch off the internet and it will work )

What is next

First of all - You! Your feedback. All that would not be possible to achieve without the user's feedback. Some people found bugs, some people told me about new mosaic sets, some about needs for other functionalities.

Second of all - LEGO DOTS. There is plenty of sets available and plenty of creativity. They introduce new shapes and patterns that could make mosaics or portraits even better! New tiles, shapes, colors. With LEGO DOTS kids can learn how to read by playing with letters (!) but what is most important - the adults can mix those sets with LEGO Art sets!

All that opens imagination to new frontiers! So many possibilities. Maybe generating optical ilusions? Maybe adding DOTS names to portraits? Maybe something else?

Here you come in! I have opened a board with tasks that I will be working on. If you want, you can comment on those tasks, like them or just see the current progress on next version. You can also e-mail me if you don't want to create an account there.

Link to the board (to see the progress) or to the card where you can comment and put your ideas.

And finally - thank you!

Sum up

LEGO Mosaic generator is now better, faster and more pleasant to work with. It will have more features over time. You can see this process for yourself and share your ideas with me. Next major release should have functionalities for LEGO DOTS generator so you can create not only bracelets but more alternative builds.

If you want to use your money well - rebuild, have fun, alter, vary. Live!

See you soon and thanks for reading!