DaPainter.

[lkroll]

A few months ago, I started playing with a cool program called Arcimbolder. Today someone on DPR's site pointed out a cool new Autopainter called DaPainter. I really was impressed with the quality; even better then Arcimbolder, so I went to Roman's website (Arcimbolder) and he actually linked Mediachances website to this program. Also, based on a few additional things such as the ACP brush set (identical name in Arcimbolder), I pretty much put two and two together and figured that Roman had a hand in this gem. I'm simply in awe with the results that this one gives. Paid $40 for it, and you all know how cheap I am. Will enjoy additional play with this program for sure. Not directly linking Mediachance's site since it is a commercial site, but you all can Yahoo it (or Google; I'm a Yahooligan though; lol). I used the Monet preset for this one (reduced the size too, but trust me, it looks cool; need to figure out how to disable canvas so I can put in my own though).

ref: http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/s...p121806-04.jpg

[amica999]

Sweet little tool. Been playing with it for about an hour and really like the outcomes. Thanks for pointing

[DannyRaphael]

Good stuff, LK. Appreciate the info.

If you have some time I'd be very interested in seeing one of your "before/after" interpretations on a face.

FYI: OK to post links here. You won't get banned like DPR!

[lkroll]

LOL. Thanks Danny. Below's the link to Mediachance's DAP site and below that is a link of a thread that I did something with it (Pastel). I did get an email from Román Cortés who confirmed that he is the originator of Arcimbolder and also the biggest developer of DAP. Cool that he took the time to both confirm my suspicians and tell me why he did so (busy guy and he actually tried to get help from the Open Source community to Open Source Arcimbolder, but couldn't; I see no problem getting paid for an effort with the quality of this gem though; kudos to him).

http://www.mediachance.com/dap/index.html

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=31618476

[Joeven]

Great find Lyle. I've been playing with the free trial and this program is the best auto painter I've ever seen. It's better then Corel Painter's auto feature. Very cool.

Joe

[lkroll]

I think so too Joe. Still haven't figured out how to get a better portrait painting out of it (people are very subjective subjects; lol). Really does do pretty good work on still lifes and landscape/cityscapes.

[sponge03]

does it come with in a mac version? looks great

[lkroll]

I don't believe Mediachance developes for the MAC platform, but I'm not sure. I do know that currently only a PC version exists. I know Román originally intended to develope Arcimbolder for the MAC too, but didn't have the resources or time to continue this project and couldn't find volunteers in the Open Source community to help him. Oh well. Maybe, if really becomes a popular program, they might try to port it to MAC too.

[DannyRaphael]

I'm convinced and took the intro price plunge. Very cool little applcation.

re: people subjects

I'm using the DaPainter program to create multiple versions of a given "look," each saved as an individual .jpg file. Then I use Photoshop to open each and combine them into a layered image. I use Layer Masks to "reveal the best of each layer." To finish up I copy/paste the original (source) as a top layer and use a Layer Mask to reveal a facial detail as needed.

[lkroll]

Yes; that's pretty much what I've been doing for people portraits Danny (and a few other things too). Still, this one's a gem. Joined the MC blog for DAP too and posted a few things their (including my first custom AOP file that I call Paisley).

[mcfly201]

Hey Lyle, great find.

Have you figured out how to turn that canvas texture off?
Just by watching it paint helps me to learn the process of painting.
Are there any other programmes or plug ins that let you watch it paint like this?
Thanks

[lkroll]

It's just an uncheck of a box. I wish the box was unchecked by default, but oh well. Blogged about that on Mediachance's forum. Did find out how you can replace the canvas with something else, but you have to manually replace a file (someone smarter then me gave me the info). If you want to keep the canvas, you will need to back up the original before doing so of course. Not going do this since I prefer to apply my canvas of choice in GIMP.

[Steve Conway]

My only complaint is that you really have to work hard to get detail, at least from the images I have tried.

Here is one I did with the program. Sorry, forgot which preset I used as I was switching around and saved this one.

Steve C.

[amica999]

Steve, I have been playing with this little proggie as well and I noticed that when you move the impressionist slider to the left toward faithful, it starts with better detail, and move the brush size quite soon to the smaller ones...depends on the image though, hope that works a little better :-)

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by amica999

Steve, I have been playing with this little proggie as well and I noticed that when you move the impressionist slider to the left toward faithful, it starts with better detail, and move the brush size quite soon to the smaller ones...depends on the image though, hope that works a little better :-)

Yes...I tried the same thing and with the setting on continuous. I will try moving the brush size sooner after starting the process and see how that works.

Also in the tutorial it states that you should be able to see the stroke number change as it paints. It says you can stop it after a certain number of strokes. Am I blind or is this hiding somewhere. On my copy it tells how many strokes are going to be used, but does not change. Am I looking in the wrong place or what?

Help!

Steve C.

[lkroll]

Stroke number is located in the upper right of the image when it is running. Also, you can adjust the edge detect slider to milk more details as necessary. Still, I concerning this gem a tool; Most of what I've done has (at least I felt it needed it) needed some additional tlc in GIMP; blends with the original and all. All I have to say is that I'm one step closer in getting the computer to do all the work. May not find joy in it when that day comes though.

[sponge03]

Has anyone tried Painters auto paint function?

If so, how does it compare?

[amica999]

Originally Posted by Steve Conway

Yes...I tried the same thing and with the setting on continuous. I will try moving the brush size sooner after starting the process and see how that works.

Also in the tutorial it states that you should be able to see the stroke number change as it paints. It says you can stop it after a certain number of strokes. Am I blind or is this hiding somewhere. On my copy it tells how many strokes are going to be used, but does not change. Am I looking in the wrong place or what?

Help!

Steve C.

It's the red countdown on the top of the image. If you right click into the image you'll pause the autopaint and you can move the point of focus directly to the desired parts...Tried that on portraits, but it doesn't work so well, yet, on landscapes it does nicely, though.

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by amica999

It's the red countdown on the top of the image. If you right click into the image you'll pause the autopaint and you can move the point of focus directly to the desired parts...Tried that on portraits, but it doesn't work so well, yet, on landscapes it does nicely, though.

Same here. It does not add enough detail to do justice to people images. In fact a way to add more detail to the whole image...(if you want it)...should be available. I like the effect presets pretty well, but I ran one image over 1000 strokes and still did not get the detail it needed.

Also I finally found the countdown. Due to size of image, had to run sliders all the way left and all the way to the top to see it.

Thanks Amica.

Steve C.

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by lkroll

Stroke number is located in the upper right of the image when it is running. Also, you can adjust the edge detect slider to milk more details as necessary. Still, I concerning this gem a tool; Most of what I've done has (at least I felt it needed it) needed some additional tlc in GIMP; blends with the original and all. All I have to say is that I'm one step closer in getting the computer to do all the work. May not find joy in it when that day comes though.

Yeah, I finally found that counter by moving the sliders on the image. Thanks.

I tried the edge detect and it does help. But, like you I have to sharpen the image and do some other tweaking on it in PSP to get it good enough for me. Even then I need the great look of the brushwork etc. the program offers coupled with more detail.

BTW...registered on the forum for DaPainter, but site must be down, couldn't get on........unable to connect etc.,etc.

Steve C.

[Alcar]

I've been experimenting with this new tool and the Van Gogh Starry seems to work best. The problem is that, except for a different photo image, everyone's work looks alike.
Alan

[lkroll]

Originally Posted by Steve Conway

Yeah, I finally found that counter by moving the sliders on the image. Thanks.

I tried the edge detect and it does help. But, like you I have to sharpen the image and do some other tweaking on it in PSP to get it good enough for me. Even then I need the great look of the brushwork etc. the program offers coupled with more detail.

BTW...registered on the forum for DaPainter, but site must be down, couldn't get on........unable to connect etc.,etc.

Steve C.

Should have said upper left side; lol

Anyway, looks like the blog works now. For the curious, below's the direct link to Dapainter's blog site.

http://www.mmbforums.com/ipb/index.php?showforum=83

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Alcar

I've been experimenting with this new tool and the Van Gogh Starry seems to work best. The problem is that, except for a different photo image, everyone's work looks alike.
Alan

(Alan, I know you know about the following. It's for those who do not.)

In Photoshop, here's a couple adjustment layers to try to vary colors:
* Hue/Saturation (Hue control)
* Color Balance
* Selective color
* Posterize

For those who have Painter, Effects > Tonal Control > Posterize using Color Set comes in pretty handy for this purpose.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by sponge03

Has anyone tried Painters auto paint function?

If so, how does it compare?

Mainly the ability to have more control over the outcome by specifying setting values, for example:
* Style (from just about any brush category/variant, e.g., oils, chalk, pencil, ...)
* Stroke characteristics, e.g. length, width, size, shape, angle, pressure, randomness

[sponge03]

Are we able to control the output size with this programme?

I notice it has been shrinking down my photos after the auto paint

[lkroll]

Only when you first open the program. Once you import your target image, this setting can not be changed. I suppose they will address this on a future update.

Tools>Settings.

[Steve Conway]

Trying some people images in DaPainter.

Reduction has brought out some unwanted canvas streaking. Would have been better to just leave canvas unchecked.

Steve C.

[sponge03]

nice effect Steve.....how are you finding the program, its quite good being able to watch it paint for you, good way of learning.

Do you know of any other programs/plug ins that give better results on portraits?
(prefer with Auto paint features)

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by sponge03

nice effect Steve.....how are you finding the program, its quite good being able to watch it paint for you, good way of learning.

Do you know of any other programs/plug ins that give better results on portraits?
(prefer with Auto paint features)

Not a bad program, but you need to do a lot of work on the image before processing in DaPainter if you want detail. I like the painterly effect this program gives, but I also like more detail than it gives along with the painterly look. So I work with the original image a little more before using it.

I haven't found one program or plugin that will do great portraits. If you pay enough I am sure there are some. But I usually use at least two and sometimes more, combined to achieve decent portraits. There were at least 3 used on the image I posted, before I even tried DaPainter on it.

Steve C.

[sponge03]

where is the edge detect on this program?