Sunday, July 19, 2009

New beta version is available - with watercolor and impasto effects

Hi all,

After long months of researching, coding, debugging, optimising (then debugging again of course), a new release of FotoSketcher is near. Thanks to all who bought me some well needed coffee!

If you wish to test the beta version, you can download it directly here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/FotoSketcher_beta.exe

I have added two new painting effects: watercolor and oil paint (or impasto). Both are based on the same segmentation algorithm, which breaks down an image into regions of similar color and then adds brush strokes textures (sounds simple, does it not?).

Here is an example painting:


Have fun with FotoSketcher!
As always, I welcome your feedback.

All the best,

David

12 comments:

chris said...

hi David

Thanks for this new version

from a french watercolorist

Anonymous said...

Is the beta suppose to have only one parameter , the pencil ?

David said...

Hi,

To Chris: Merci ! FotoSketcher n'est pas encore au niveau de tes aquarelles...

To Anonymous:
The beta version is not supposed to only have the pencil sketch effect, but I have noticed that some users (usually on Windows XP) cannot see the whole list of filters.

However, if you look closely to the right of the text 'Pencil sketch' you should be able to see two very small arrows, which allow you to go up or down in the list.

You can also use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate.

I am currently in the process of rewriting this menu, so the problem will hopefully disappear.

Thanks for testing.

David

Unknown said...

The two new additions really turn this software into something special.

Thank you ever so much for this great tool!

David said...

Thank you, Gene!

I'm glad you like the beta version.

Cheers,

David

David said...

*** Update ***
A new beta version is available http://www.fotosketcher.com/FotoSketcher_beta.exe

I have corrected the effects list menu for Windows XP users, tweaked the watercolor effect and vastly improved the performance of the pencil sketch 2 and 3 filters.

Thanks for your feedback.

Regards,

David

Barry Ayton said...

Those new ones are truly beautiful!

That was probably the one thing I wished fotoSketcher could do (strokes), and now you've done it!

(As an aside, have you seen/used Impressionist plugin for Photoshop (and others that do PS plugins) - this is 100% stroke related, and might give you some ideas.)

David said...

Thank you Barry!

Yes, I have played with the Impressionist filter (which works with Paint Shop Pro) and it gives me some ideas for some more effects...

Anonymous said...

Still having a ball using the two new segmented painting styles in 1.9 beta. Is it possible to stop the auto painting on these mid-way (at 80% for example)? MediaChance's Auto Painter allows this and I found that capability useful. Keep up the good work.
Alan

David said...

Hi Alan,

It is indeed possible!

This is exactly what the 'strength of effect' parameter does. If you put the cursor on 127 (max 255), the segmentation will stop once 50% of all pixels in the image have been treated.

Anonymous said...

Salut,
Un grand merci pour ce logiciel que je trouve vraiment formidable!
Je l'ai téléchargé sous Windows7 et tout fonctionne très bien.
Bravo pour cet excellent travail. Bonne continuation.
Camille.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camille4307/

David said...

Merci Camille :-)