[Photomaster]

You cannot create a realistic oil painting with 3-D lighting effects in Photoshop. You can achieve this look with Deep Paint, a powerful and free painting program. Its major drawback is that it only prints in a proprietarily file format (*.dp2) that is not supported by service bureaus. What this means is that the new masterpiece you have just created, with all the rich, oil painting, 3-D texture and lighting effects can only be printed at 8 ½” x 11” on your home printer. Using the technique described below you can bring that image into Photoshop, at full size, with all appearance effects intact. Now you can refine that image to your hearts content and order wall-size prints on canvas or a variety of other materials. Then, all you need is a gallery to display your work and you can become rich and famous. Of course most of us will have to practice a bit first.

How to Accomplish this Amazing Feat
(See attached images below.)
Image00; Original photo of Pelicans (Shot this week at Goose Island Park on Texas Gulf Coast)
Taken with a 5 MP camera at full resolution

Image01 A painting I created in Photoshop. First I made some image adjustments, then I applied Dry Brush filter. Next I Smudge painted the entire image using a charcoal brush. Finally I used a 50% Grey Overlay layer to adjust highlights and shadows. Saved image as jpg (Image01). Not bad, but read on.

Image02; Opened Image01 in Deep Paint. Set up to clone image (See Deep Paint Tutorial ). Painted Pelicans on one layer and water on another layer. Used Brush Wet and Thick from Wet Materials presets. Under Brush and Paint Settings I selected Clone from lower layer and Pick Color from Layer Below. Saved image as a jpg (Image02). As you can see the painting lacks depth because the Lighting Effects are not preserved when you save a jpg file in Deep Paint. You can also save the image in Photoshop PSD format, with layers intact, but again, the Lighting Effects are not preserved.

Image 03; This is the completed, Deep Paint painting I brought into Photoshop at full size, with Lighting Effects intact. (CLick on last image below to see a full-size detail of the painting.) The transfer is accomplished using Print Screen on the Deep Paint image (while viewing at 100%), then, New File, Image – Paste in Photoshop. Close all Panel Boxes and Bars in the Deep Paint View Menu before using Print Screen. Use the Hand tool to move the image around to get all the parts. Make sure you have overlap for each section. You can paint small, guide marks on the image to aid in positioning for the screenshots. These can be cloned out later in Photoshop. My image took six screen shots (viewing image at 100%) which I then combined in Photoshop.

How to Combine Images: In Photoshop, crop each of the 6 new images, that you have just created, leaving a small border on the top, sides and bottom. Do not leave a border on the edges where the images overlap. Next, create a new, blank file large enough to hold your new composite image. Check the width and height, in pixels, of one of your new images and multiply the height and width by the number of screen shots in each direction. Add 200 extra pixels, to the calculated width and height, to leave room for positioning. Drag the cropped images into the new, blank image space. Each image will appear on a new layer. Number each layer. Drag each image, roughly into position, with the Hand tool. Use the Arrow keys for fine tuning. Here you’ll see the importance of the small outside border for lining up the image pieces. You will find this is relatively easy to do. You may have to adjust the image positions a couple of times for your first few projects. When you are done positioning, flatten the image and crop away the outside border. Now that you have your painting in Photoshop, WITH LIGHTING EFFECTS INTACT, the sky is the limit. You are now able to further refine your painting using Photoshop’s full array of tools.

Image03-Full-Size-Detail: This is a detail-view of the painting viewed at 100% in Photoshop. You now (hopefully) have a realistic looking painting that can be saved as a jpg or tif, etc. Now you can send your masterpiece to a service bureau and get a print made on canvas, or whatever, at just about any size you want depending on the resolution of the original photo.

You are welcome to try your hand with the Pelican picture and post your results here. Good luck and happy painting.

(Deep Paint 2 is available for free at: Download.com (File size: 58MB))

[byRo]

Photomaster, you got me thinking - and I came up with an alternative.

Not sure yet how to fix it all up properly but: seeing as Deep Paint will print the final image with all the effects, and seeing as you can print to PDF, and seeing as Photoshop will read PDF.....seems that there should be a way around the problem.

I printed to PDF with "DPI" @ 1200, and did the finishing in Photoshop (see attachment). Maybe someone with more experience in PDF could give some tips.

Rô

[Doug Nelson]

Not freeware, but http://www.eprintdriver.com will let you save any file (and I do mean any file) as PSD (and a hundred other formats).

[lkroll]

Though I did not use it for this rendering, you can also try ArtRage (have both a free version and paid). Since I do not have a Wacom tablet, I haven't played too much with it, but it does give a very realistic oil rendering effect (and other effects too).

Anyway, for the image attached, I first did some simplication (a new highpass filter technique that I've been experimenting with for creating sketches; here's a link the technique) before feeding the result into Photoshop and using Impressionist Detailed Color Pencil with placement set to on grid. I then duplicated and used Plastic wrap on a separate layer to give a gloss feel. I duplicated this layer and ran Angled strokes on the top layer and adjusted opacity down a bit. I flattened, duplicated the layer and did an autolevel on the top layer and adjusted the opacity again to taste. I then fed the whole thing into GIMP for bumpmapping. I then duplicated and isolated the lighter colors using Cybia's Eliminate Black filter and duplicated this layer and ran a canvas texture on it adjusting the opacity to taste. I then selectively erased around the swans so the you get a white paint feel better for them.

[Kraellin]

i've had deep paint installed for some time now, but i have never really explored it that much. i may have to do so again after seeing some of photomaster's excellent pieces. however, i have it installed as a plugin to paint shop pro. it can also be set as a plugin to photoshop. and, this may be all you need to get around your printing problems. when dp2 is set as a plugin in, it's simply using 'hooks' from Paint Shop Pro (or Photoshop, if that's what you're using) and calling up the program from there. as it does this, it opens up a window for its 'send' mode. this send mode is used to transfer the image from psp to dp2 automatically.

the image is sent and dp2 opens up with the image displayed. you do your work, save your file, and kill the program (dp2). this automatically brings Paint Shop Pro back to the front and calls up a 'receive' mode from dp2. the image is then sent back to psp and does a 'rendering......' cycle. this shld put your image you saved as a .dp2 in deep paint 2 back into psp with the changes you made in dp2 intact. now, there is a HUGE caveat here! be VERY careful to save your image in dp2 before exporting it back to psp! this thing is a bit fussy and quite powerful and i've messed it up at times, especially since i'm still, like everyone else, trying to figure this program out.

also, i looked at the .dp2 file format briefly. this is an interesting format and is NOT one image. the .dp2 format is actually saved as a folder with multiple images. i suspect the various layers and lighting layers are saved separately. the overall folder even has an extension, .prj . i would image this is short for 'project', but that's moot. the point is, this is why you would have trouble taking a .dp2 to a print house and having them understand what's going on. also, you shld understand that with this type of file format, you want to be very careful about 'merging' layers. they may well not merge like you might think. it is actually better to just turn the layers off rather than merge, from what i've seen so far.

but, this also means that you can save in other file formats without loss. you can save in .psd, .tif, .jpg, .bmp and so on and all that happens is that the layers and lighting layers get combined. photoshop has no native 'lighting' layer apparently. so, if you save your image in dp2 as a .psd, all that happens is that the lighting info gets combined with the rest of the image. in fact, if you try this you'll see that you get a banner message as you try to save in other formats that informs you of losing the lighting layer as a layer. i dont believe you lose the lighting, though.

now, take EVERYTHING i just posted here with a BIG grain of salt. i only did some cursory research here and some of my conclusions are speculation based on the way some other things work and it needs MUCH more actual inspection and trial.

also, for those interested in setting deep paint 2 up as a plugin, i think all i had to do was point Paint Shop Pro to the .exe of deep paint 2 in the preferencesplugins section of psp.... i think. it's been a while since i set that up, but it does work, whatever i did

and to photomaster, your work is exemplary. i've not seen such a good rendering in 'oil' from a photo as you've done here before...ever! it's inspiring and the reason i called dp2 up again to look at some of these things. i also took a look at your cloning tutorial. excellent!

from what i can see of the tools in dp2, they programed this program's tools as 'relative' rather than absolute. what that means is that each tool/brush/filter is working interactively with any other tool/brush/filter being used. the power of that is incredible and i can see why you're impressed with the program. i may have to give this thing a whole new respect due to your work and efforts here. so, thanks

craig

[Kraellin]

oh, and one last thing, but certainly not the least important. i believe it was bart hickman in another thread said that Paint Shop Pro's scripting language is python and that in fact, most of psp was written in python and that you could hypothetically use that to make stuff for psp, including the proper hooks to call other programs from psp. well, i did a rather amazing thing today while look at dp2. if you read my last post here you'll see i called dp2 from psp. ok, that's cool. BUT(!), while in dp2, having gotten there from psp, i called up impressionist in dp2! now, how cool is that! psp calls deep paint 2 which in turn calls up impressionist! now, that's power!

craig

[Ken45140]

PM: one quick question. When you do screen prints to take the 100% images from Deep Paint and copy into Photoshop, are you not getting images at 72 dpi? If yes, wouldn't this play havoc with a service bureau printed job? Or do you resample (and what problems does this create)? Maybe I am missing something here with the screen print step. (I have not tried this yet, so am just asking based on screen print transfers of other images.)

Thanks,

Ken

[Diane]

When I click on print for the tutorial all I get is the text printed, not images.
I checked in tools and it should print images..
Diane

[Photomaster]

RO:
When you go to print to PDF in Deep Paint you get the same message that you get when saving to JPG or Tif: "The lighting effects will not be saved."If you save as a PSD and open the file in Photoshop you will see some of the lighting effects, but the image is very poor when compared to the rich, accurate rendering you get following my method described below.

Craig:
I do not recommend using the Deep Paint plugin in Photoshop. I tried it and ran into some nasty "color mode" conflicts when trying to shuttle images back and forth. I think it is easier to just save as a PSD. However, as I told Ro above, the quality of the PSD file pales in comparison to the screen shot composite method. And Craig, thanks for your kind remarks. Yes, I believe this process is revolutionary for I have never seen an image posted or displayed anywhere that shows the painterly effect in this manner.

Ken:
Yes, the screen shots are 72dpi. Once you combine the files in Photoshop and save as a high resolution JPG a service bureau will have no problem printing in large formats. In my case, with the pelican painting, I started with a 2.01 jpg file which opened to a 14MB image in Photoshop. The new composite image, from the Deep Paint screen shots, is the same size: 14MB, 2556 x 1916 pixels, 35.5" x 26.6", 72dpi. When I saved it as a high res JPG the file size was 5.02MB. Magic? I think so. Also, there is no resampling involved. Just combine the images, crop, make your tweeks and adjustments, save as JPG and you are ready to print.

Diane:
If the images won't print with the tutorial, just right click on each image, select "copy" and then paste the file into your imaging program and print. In your imaging program just select "File", "New" and when the file opens select "Edit", "Paste" and the image will be pasted from the clipboard.

[Photomaster]

The first image-detail below is 100% view, in Photoshop, of a Deep Paint painting that was saved as a JPG file.

The second image-detail below is a 100% view, in Photoshop, of a Deep Paint painting, screen shot taken by pressing "Print Screen." If you touch the screen your finger will get wet.

Which would you rather print from or post here?

[Ken45140]

PM: As I mentioned in a post in another thread on DP2, there are hundreds of combinations of the variable "knobs" or settings. I tried the Pelican image after some PS7 preprocessing, and got nothing even remotely like what you displayed.

This is where a little more detailed explanation could go a long way towards helping me (at least and probably others) know a little more about the settings.

I have the Wet and Thick brush from Wet Materials, after setting up Clone first. Can you remember (or recreate the settings you used)

Brush Scale setting
Feather
Strength
(Paint Valley unchecked)?
No Canvas check
Smudge Setting
Mixing Setting
Background loading
Clone from lower layer checked
Layer Below from drop down list
In transparent area, smudge using Current Layer
Finally, any changes to the Jitter,Smooth, Spacing or Brush Stroke settings?

I truly tried many combinations of the above settings and succeeded only in smudging and smearing the image. What was your secret?

I should say that if you used all of the default settings from Wet & Thick, then can you speculate why my attempt just smeared the colors around on the screen.

Thanks for any details you can share on this step in the process.

Ken

[Kraellin]

i wonder also if irfanview would be able to handle a .dp2 image. i'm not currently using irfanview, so if anyone else has it and uses it, perhaps you could check these .dp2 files in it. irfanview is known for file transposes and image viewing, so it might work.

craig

[Ken45140]

Craig: Infanview says "Unknown file format" when trying to open a dp2 file.

So, no go on this idea as far as I can see.

Ken

[Kraellin]

ok, thanks ken.

craig

[Photomaster]

Go HERE to have all (or most) of your Deep Paint questions answered.