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How to solve a maze with Photoshop

taint.org — Use photoshop to solve a maze for you, in just 9 easy steps

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brondsem 1 year 37 days ago, made popular 1 year 36 days ago

1953 diggs
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harvinator24, on 10/11/2007, -20/+2By the top i do that, i could i have gotten myself out of the maze of corn fields and crop circles.
- ch4os1337, on 10/11/2007, -20/+4*****! its down. anybody got a mirror? duggmirror missed it
- bestfilmofthe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16have to be sure to give "explorers" photoshop, and access to google maps...
- BugMeNot2, on 10/11/2007, -2/+66How to solve a maze with Photoshop
  
  June 19, 2007 at 12:15 pm
  
  wow, this is cool. ‘lod3n’, confronted by this heinous puzzle, wrote:
  
  ‘2 minutes in Photoshop. All too easy. So, where do I pick up my cake?
  
  1. Increase contrast.
  2. Select the right wall of the maze using the magic wand.
  3. Select > Modify > Expand 4 pixels
  4. Create new layer.
  5. Fill with Red.
  6. Select > Modify > Contract 2 pixels.
  7. Delete. Now you’ve got a line tracing the solution.
  8. Manually clean up the outer edge, and connect the dots.
  9. Cake!’
  
  Here’s the result. Seriously nifty!
  
  http://taint.org.nyud.net:8090/2007/06/19/121541a.html
- kryx2, on 10/11/2007, -2/+34Result mirror:
  
  http://i9.tinypic.com/6fj3ajl.jpg
- al28p, on 10/11/2007, -14/+2How is this story gaining diggs with the site down and zero mirror?
- al28p, on 10/11/2007, -3/+36video : http://ibloggedthis.com/
- myfanwy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+28people digg it as a bookmark, then come back later
  
  digg has many problems, not having a bookmarking option is one of them
- dasilva333, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4does anyone have any links/sites/resources to mazes one could do when he/she is bored ? they look extremely complicated but fun
- BMANZZS, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Solved:
  http://i18.tinypic.com/676yyv4.png
  
  Warning: Image is 1202x802
- IAmRoot, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8I find it easier just to fill the walls to each side of the beginning with red and blue. Then the path is the area between the two colors. If there is any unfilled areas, you can just choose any path around them. You also can do it with any image editing software, even paint.
- templest, on 10/11/2007, -5/+10"taint.org" ahahahahaha
  
  "taint"... ahahahaha
- slicedoranges, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I'll have that delicious cake in no time.
- gfixler, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1@al28p: Whoa, my Rubik's Mario Mosaic is right under that video. Good times.
mattmcm, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11Clever stuff.
MKautz, on 10/11/2007, -6/+2Interesting Idea. I'll have to try it sometime.
xerus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+131You win this round, Photoshop.
- sk8ngame, on 10/11/2007, -10/+2hahaha
- bryceman111, on 10/11/2007, -9/+2My head asplode.
  
  ...sorry, I had to do it. I saw it on another Digg story and it actually made me laugh out loud.
- rompom7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@bryceman111: origins: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbzone.html
dyslexicsUNTIED, on 10/11/2007, -30/+3site is down already??
- f3l1x, on 10/11/2007, -6/+45maybe.
  
  nice avatar.
- rabidg00se, on 10/11/2007, -17/+6a few comments up is a copy of the article, it's not too long.
  
  i like my avatar more.
NuclearBlast, on 10/11/2007, -4/+55Too bad Photoshop can't help them out with the digg effect.
- NuclearBlast, on 10/11/2007, -14/+113I'm pretty sure the slashdot effect only happens on slashdot you useless sack of filth.
- jeffeb3, on 10/11/2007, -39/+3I thought it was the web 2.0 effect?
  
  Or maybe the *cough*reddit*cough* effect. lol
- tw0bit, on 10/11/2007, -15/+2i thought you were an idiot...and i was right
stealth45, on 10/11/2007, -2/+78taint.org? Dugg.
- praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -2/+11It's insane this guy's taint!
- zephc, on 10/11/2007, -3/+48the server is on a rack mount, located between balls.com and butthole.net
- Jo9100, on 10/11/2007, -11/+1no, it's only tainted love
Peterix, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18It's a delicious cake, you must eat it!
Endies, on 10/11/2007, -6/+13So whats the point of solving a maze with photoshop?
- InnateEvil, on 10/11/2007, -1/+35obviously solving it just using the brain is not the right of way in modern society...
- spudnic, on 10/11/2007, -1/+25@Endies (#7292168)
  What are you, a monkey? We have tools now
- rheaume, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Thats like asking "whats the fun in wall hacking"
- BevansDesign, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9Holy crap, I've got this huge stack of mazes I've gotta solve. What am I gonna do?
  
  Seriously though, I think this person is missing the point of doing mazes.
bradwilki, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12The sites not down its just really slow.

I praise the person who discovered this for answering a question that I never knew needed to be answered.
zachninme, on 10/11/2007, -4/+17It works in GIMP too, its just called "Grow/Shrink" instead of Modify>Expand/Contract. Its in the Select menu though. And if you've never used GIMP before, to "delete" a section, its Edit>Clear.
Also, for me, after following those directions, it only cleared off 1/2 the red splotch. To fix this, I selected it, shrank it by 2 pixels, and then deleted that half of it.
- bmxboy661, on 10/11/2007, -21/+8shut up
- wooptoo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yep, tried this in GIMP too and it didn't take more than 2 minutes. Nice stuff.
GREEDOnvrFIRED, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8I tried that on 3 mazes and it worked every time. Bravo! I would expect more diggs for this ingenuity.
archistudent, on 10/11/2007, -7/+0bugmenot posted the 9 simple instructions. Here's the maze used in the example: http://taint.org/x/2007/cake-maze.jpg
- Anonymous3, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1or the mirrored version:
  http://taint.org.nyud.net:8090/x/2007/cake-maze.jpg
TremorX, on 10/11/2007, -4/+40This is kind of stupid and pretty common-sense.

Now, the real trick is to make it so Photoshop automatically finds Waldo.
- zachninme, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11@TremorX (#7292391)
  I'm sure theres this automagical way to search for pixels, if you know the pixelated pattern of Waldo.
- Tryleph, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Hehehe, yeah sure
- fatpads, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I guess one way to make it easier would be to pull down the saturation for everything that wasn't red.
antdude, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Google Cache without images: http://209.85.135.104/search?hs=sUq&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Ftaint.org%2F2007%2F06%2F19%2F121541a.html&btnG=Search
Lanage, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3google stolled the answer :(

original:
http://jerric.myweb.uga.edu/project/maze/maze_200x200.png
IpHa, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Wow, that's awesome.

Here's one I made: http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9381/mazezf6.png
evanfrey, on 10/11/2007, -3/+19Directions for doing this in Gimp

1. Choose Tools > Color Tools > Brightness-Contrast. Increase contrast
2. Select the right wall of the maze using the magic wand.
3. Choose Select > Grow > Expand 4 pixels
4. Create new layer.
5. Fill with Red.
6. Choose Select > Shrink > Contract 2 pixels.
7. Delete. Now you’ve got a line tracing the solution.
8. Manually clean up the outer edge, and connect the dots.
- squidy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2then export the red line to Inkscape, and use the "Numbered dots" effect!
  
  Enfoy!
DarkXanthos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Anyone else see the enormous implications of this on computer science? It'd be interesting to see how this could be applied to a pure data model.
- melonhedd, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3I'm sure computer scientists never thought to look at the most known technique for solving a maze programatically.
- protohiro, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9This is the wall follower algorithm. Look it up on the internet for how this is applied in the realm of computer science.
  - DarkXanthos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Thanks!
readams, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Note that this is, in general, not guaranteed to work. It will work always if the entrance and the exit are both on outside borders of the maze. It wouldn't always work if, for example, your goal is somewhere in the middle of the maze.

This is equivalent to the "right hand rule" of solving a maze.
digitalArtform, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Yep. readams has it right: Same as putting your right hand on a wall and never removing it. Solves many mazes - but NOT ALL MAZES.

Won't solve mazes where the solution is its own 'island' with no connecting walls
Simplogic, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12how ***** cool is that! here's a maze generator to play w/ http://www.billsgames.com/mazegenerator/
riesdepies, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1@dasilva333:

Maze Generators galore: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22maze%20generator%22
kibblesnbitz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8The "impossible Maze" suddenly becomes not so impossible:
http://www.mazes.org.uk/impossible-maze-01.htm
alperea, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Wow, that trick is aMAZEing!
fragile00, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4That ***** hurts my eyes x_x!!
deeboe, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Pfft! That was totaly photoshopped... err... wait....
cinder, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6In Photoshop Action form: http://element94.org/MazeSolution.atn

That assumes your foreground color is already set and you've done the selection with the magic wand.
levyjl1988, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Totally brilliant! But this indeed takes away from the fun. Dugg!
veeshy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7i would just use my chainsaw
manofaction, on 11/02/2007, -6/+13Can't you do this with paint like this:

1. Close off both exits using a line
2. Use the fill tool
3. Get an A in Kindergarten!
(4. Profit?)
- Azdak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18uhh, that would fill in every possible fork as well...
m00dy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3who solves mazes?
- dbr_onix, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You won't be mocking them when you end up trapped forever in a maze..
Fairly, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1I can't get in at the link. I think I'll go find some less trafficked links. At Slashdot. LOL
mcbigham, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1absolutely "a maze ing"
rubbers0ul, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9you know, pencils also work well for solving a maze, but that's just my personal experience
they, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Step 1: mspaint
Step 2: "Paint dump" red on one wall of the maze, turning that side of the maze red.
Step 3: "Paint dump" blue on the not red side of the maze.
Step 4: Draw line through center of red and blue.
- maffiou, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I reckon this a more optimized version than what is described in this photoshop trick...
  The right hand tricks, which is what it is at the end of the day, guarantees that you'll reach the exist (provided there aren't any possible loops in the maze) but may have you to explore extra sections of the maze...
- dbr_onix, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"I reckon this a more optimized version than what is described in this photoshop trick... "
  It's more or less identical, but the Photoshop technique automatically draws the line along the path..
  ..I still think it's easier just to use the eraser and make your own path though the maze, but apparently that's considered cheating
wiitarded666, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Try doin that to this maze?

http://www.astrolog.org/labyrnth/maze/theseus.gif

i didnt try but u can
kajer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9why not simply go around the maze?

after all, you and the cake are on the outside of the maze, so why go in?
kajer, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1this was on a well known imageboard site not too long ago... I solved it the hard way...
ShaggyStyle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Now I know what I'll do the rest of my life...
http://www.onebillionmazes.com/

Lol
jbarget, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Whoever made these absurd mazes is an *****.
KoKoSNOOT, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0http://digg.com/videos/educational/How_To_Solve_Any_Maze_In_Photoshop

Video for the people that still don't get it :)
chobbney, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0It neglects to say you need to have 'Contigious' on the Magic Wand.

But that's a very revealing link.
pivovy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1The word "maze" will never sound the same... especially the phrase "solve the maze". I was asked to do that once...
Ruzil, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Photoжоп. nice dig
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How to solve a maze with Photoshop

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