3D virtual mosaics: Opus Palladium and mixed styles

Abstract

One of the oldest art forms, mosaics are built by careful selection and placement of small pieces called tiles. Although 2D mosaics have attracted attention in computer graphics research, 3D virtual mosaic sculptures are less common. In this work, we present a method to simulate mosaic sculptures using tiles with irregular shapes, a method known by mosaicists as Opus Palladium, or simply “crazy paving,” due to the inherent freedom of mixing the tiles. In order to add expressiveness and emphasize some features, artists distribute the tiles following a high-level design over the shape. We use Voronoi polygons to represent the tiles computed from a distribution of points on the surface of the 3D object. We also address the simulation of mixed mosaics, where both irregular and squared-shape tiles are used on the same object. Previous works on such surface mosaics have used only square-shaped tiles, with fixed or variable size. Special mosaic-like effects are obtained with the help from texture maps, which control the high-level design of the tile distribution.