[Shareware] Dynamic Auto-Painter

[mhwarner]

This may not be the correct place for this posting so the moderators can feel free to move it to the "Slideshow" forum if they feel that is a better place.

I just wanted to share a link for some really amazing software I have been playing with for the last month or so. It's called Dynamic Auto-Painter and can be found here: Dynamic Auto Painter website. I know there have been tutorials and links to various Photoshop actions to give photos a more painterly look for intros to slideshows and even to entire slideshows, but this software can be a one-click solution to some pretty interesting and amazing "painted" results. It has been evolving over the last month and there is a forum where the author (like our wonderful Igor) participates frequently to hear ideas and requests which are promptly incorporated into the software. The software is not really dependent on the original photo resolution so it can be a great solution for older 2-3 mp digital photos (but it also does a great job on 10 mp photos as well). There are a number of included templates and the website contains details on how to create your own if you are wanting a special or unique look.

There is a free trial download that is only limited in that it puts a banner across the bottom of the photo, so you can easily see the results which can be achieved. In my opinion, the results are far superior to what can be achieved by the autopainting feature in Corel Painter or Painter Essentials and the price is significantly lower. There is a pdf file included in the download. Be sure to read it first to understand some of the controls which are available.

The only downside to the software is that is extremely habit forming. I have spent many hours playing with it when I should have been doing other things. Here are a couple of "paintings" I created with it:

This is apparently the last week for the low introductory offer, so if you are interested, you should probably get it now at $35 US before the price goes up. Lifetime updates are free. I have no association with the software, but I just wanted to return the favor of a heads up on it to my friends here who have over the years shared links to other software which can be useful in creating PTE slideshows.

[Ken Cox]

Mary, i moved it to the tutorial articles section

as there were no replies I did not supply a fwd'ing link

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the reminder!

Actually, this company also produces what I believe is the finest HDR software available. A trial can be downloaded here:

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

Thanks again,

Lin

[Ed Overstreet]

THANK YOU FOR THIS TIP, MARY!

One of my favourite tricks in some of my AV shows is to morph an image into a canvas on which I tile other images. In the past, I've usually created the canvas with a 50-pixel Gaussian Blur on the original image, layered in Photoshop above a black background and fading the opacity to darken the image so it doesn't compete with the images I'm about to tile above it. Auto Painter gives me some MUCH more interesting options for a background canvas than Gaussian Blur (as well as providing some options for presenting "paintings" of images in their own right as the main image). Love it. I can see this could become a spiralling black hole for my time if I let it, though, must remember to ration my time with this software

Thanks again for the tip. Neat software, reasonable price. Love the option to save the result as a layered PSD image for further tweaking. Just in time for a big project I'm starting, where I'm going to need a lot of textured canvases.

And this is such a great tool for someone like me who nearly failed Grade Seven art class due to his lack of ability to work a brush or pencil; I hate using brush tools in photo-editing software except for very mundane clean-up operations. Being able simply to pick a template, click "start" and then click "stop" when I see something I like, then play with opacity and blend modes in the layer in Photoshop, is a wonderful tool for a paintbrush-challenged failed painter like me. Love it love it love it.

[mhwarner]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the reminder!

Actually, this company also produces what I believe is the finest HDR software available. A trial can be downloaded here:

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

Thanks again,

Lin

Thanks Lin. I actually tested the software a while back and ended up purchasing the stripped down "Redynamics" version, which I use often to create HDR images from single exposures. It does a really good job on many of my southwestern "rock" photos (Monument Valley, petrogyphs, etc.).

[mhwarner]

Ed,

Glad you like the software. You may also be interested in the forum: DAPainter forum. One person posted some very cool results which had been obtained by taking the layered file into Painter and into PS to add some finishing touches. There are also a couple of interesting threads on the AOP templates and how to create your own. I have been experimenting some and am looking forward to having a bit more time to get into it.

These threads over at DPReview have some neat examples to give you some inspiration as well:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat...thread=31991231

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat...thread=31960463

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat...thread=31977950

[Ed Overstreet]

an update and a word to the wise, based on some more experience with this software

I still love the software, but ... on my system (four years old, 1 GB RAM, no dual-core anything) this software is a real memory hog. The RAM monitor shows me that even with nothing else running, this program ties up about 99% of available RAM while it's executing. Trust me, you don't want to be multi-tasking with any photo-editing or photo-browsing software, especially any of Adobe's memory pigs, when running the Auto-Painter. Something will likely crash, in my experience almost certainly the Adobe stuff -- which in my experience and my system has been flaky at the best of times. Auto-painter hasn't crashed on me once, but it's ground Adobe Bridge to a crawl and then to its knees several times today.

Close other software before running this application, unless you have a lot more RAM than I do. Even then, test it carefully with a memory monitor before trying to run it or something else in the background, particularly anything that's doing something you care about

I could post all the details about my system, but there are so many variables that can affect this sort of thing there probably isn't any point. Just tread cautiously and gently if you're thinking of multi-tasking with this software. It won't crash, I think, at least so far it hasn't on my system, but it will sure clobber other stuff At least Adobe CS3 stuff. Which is unstable on my system at the best of times.

Haven't tried multi-tasking with PTE in the background behind this yet, don't know if that would be a problem.

In particular, don't start the auto-painter running on a photo, then swap out and try to do something else in other software with auto-painter running in the background. It's tempting, especially if you leave the "continuous" button off and let it run with the default number of brush strokes, because it can take a few minutes to finish. It's better to be patient, or to go make a snack and come back to the computer, than to multi-task while this runs. At least on my system that is true.

[jfa]

Thanks for pointing that out Ed, on my old PC P4 2.27 GHz with 2048 Megabytes of memory everything runs like a snail when Auto-Painter is doing its magic. I will go and do something else for 5-10 minutes then return and see how it is progressing, (although it is mesmerising to watch it working up the painted image).

Keeping this in mind I would still agree with Mary that it is well worth a look at least the demo version and then decide.

Here is one of my first attempts with it.

[Hemjr]

Mary, Thanks for the link. I downloaded the trial version today and have already done several pics. As you said, it can be additctive. The price has already gone up to $48.00 though. Probably will just live with the trial version.

Howard

[Ed Overstreet]

it is mesmerising to watch it working up the painted image

Yes it certainly is! Now I am beginning to understand what "underpainting" means and is all about. Have you tried the different colour palettes with various "painters"? For most of my AV purposes I'll probably use the Photographic palette. But playing with these settings can make for some interesting differences and results. I'm still trying to figure out the effect of some of the other sliders by trial-and-error, and while "painting" to bring out more fine detail as described in the manual can be interesting, I find that one can do a nice blend of detail and impressionism by having the program generate a layered PSD and then just play a bit with the Opacity slider for the painted layer, to taste -- it's quick and easy to bring out detail that way (or maybe also use a wide low-opacity Photoshop airbrush on a layer mask applied to the painted layer, but as I think I've said I'm a bit of a klutz when it comes to using brushes Probably thanks to my Dad "correcting" my innate left-handedness when I was a young lad (I'm now right-handed but clumsy).

Nice result BTW John, like the simulated wood frame around it too. So far my favourite "painter" is the Benson module with Photographic palette and the Expressive slider moved a bit to the left ... And I am intrigued by how the program uses colour when you apply it to a monochrome image (try it!), though you can also use the monochrome palette to keep the image monochrome if you prefer (or go into photoshop and de-saturate the colour version, not sure if that's any different from using the monochrome palette must check that soon).

BTW for my AV purposes I have to remember when using some of the "painters" to uncheck the default "natural border" that comes up, which results in a white border around the edge of the painting, which I find distracting for AV use even if that's the way water-colourists actually produced their work. If you leave that setting turned off, the painting will completely cover the image canvas evenly.

[Ed Overstreet]

Thought I'd share my first effort, a few days ago, with Auto-Painter. I'm attaching the original (a scan of a black-and-white 35mm negative) as well as the "impressionist" rendering, in colour. The two images are of different aspect ratios, because of the way I'm using them in an AV show. The first is cropped the way it was shot, more or less, because I think it looks best that way. The second is a 4:3 crop from the lower-right corner of the original up to the top of the frame, and the painting becomes a canvas on which I then tile lower-resolution (generally 600x400 pixel) images on top of the canvas, which is at reduced opacity. So the sequence runs as follows: 1) the original image comes up and is on-screen for about 6 seconds, 2) the painting pans-and-zooms up from the lower-right corner of the original image in a three-second transition and is held on the screen for another three seconds, and then 3) the painting fades to about 30% opacity while other images tile on and off it for a minute or so. Then I segue into a new image, which then morphs into a painting of that image, then some more tiling of smaller images. Etc.

I love what the software did with the monochrome image. The windmill itself I had to work a bit with the detail brushes, because with the default treatment it pretty-much got lost in the ground clutter, and it's an important part of the image (but I like it small in this composition). The extra brushwork gave more brown haloing around the windmill than I might have preferred; if I were to re-do this, I'd probably just do the default Benson with photographic palette (which I believe is what I used here, at least it was the Benson) on a layered PSD then on a layer mask very slightly paint back the windmill from the original image with a low-opacity, low-flow fine feathered airbrush in Photoshop.

[Barry Beckham]

Tip

Try blending a filtered version of your image with an unfiltered one. (layers in Photoshop etc) It often allows the effect to be tempered for a much better effect or tempered in isolated places.

[jfa]

Barry

If I recall correctly you were using a software tool to produce artistic effects on images some time ago I think the show you made was "Artistry of Balloons" or similar.

What was the software called?

Are you still using it?

Happy with it or found something better?

[Barry Beckham]

Jfa

Yes, it's Alien Skin Snap Art and I am quite happy with the effects it gives and there are loads of sliders and options that should keep me busy for ages. To be honest there are so many of these filter programs around that if your not careful you can almost give over your life to trying them all.

The thing with filters in my view is that you rarely get a result straight out of the box and if you do, so do a 10,000 other people and our images then all look the same. I think the trick is just a little work with the filters of your choice and Photoshop/Elements. After all any filter will have a different effect depending on the resolution of the image used.

Most of the time I use filters it is with a greatly reduced resolution because they just don't work well on high resolution images, unless your intention is a 6ft by 4ft print.