Short tutorial for producing polar patterns:

  0. Draw an image into a circle. Examples done in Inkscape are in src_images/

  1. Export the image as a 640x640 bitmap, from command line:
     $ inkscape -f svgfile.svg -w <newwidth> -h <newheight> -e file.png

  2. Open the exported image in GIMP (examples are in src_images/raster) and
     reduce the colors (e.g. to 4 colors). The Posterize tool may be used to
     reduce the colors. Consider also increasing the contrast.

     Examples of color reduced images are in src_images/raster_post-processed

  3. Create the polar pixel map using either:
      tools/depolar_resample_IMAGEMAGICK.sh
    or
      tools/depolar_resample_PIL.py

  4. Some rough retouching on the polar pattern can be done in GIMP:
      - A full circle is represented by a horizontal line;
      - A radius is represented by a vertical line.

  5. Do the final touches to the polar pattern with PoPiPaint>
     Examples of fine tuned polar patterns are in patterns/

  6. Export the pattern as animation and upload it to the JMPrope.