Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Close to release...

Hi,

A quick word to let you know that I've finished debugging and tweaking the new painting algorithm (Painting 8 - expressive brushstrokes). I've used a softer brush than previously and have improved the brushstrokes' placement.


As usual, the beta version can be downloaded here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/FotoSketcher_beta.exe

I still have to add some new languages and will then be ready to release version 2.10.

All the best,

David

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, David,

Having problems with this release. It appears to be 'draw'ing, but upon completion it shows an unpainted image.

David said...

Hi Gene,

Thank you for testing the beta. Unfortunately, I have been unable to reproduce your problem. Can you tell me if it happens everytime, with different parameters? When exactly does the painted image revert to the original? Is it at the very end (when the progress bar reaches 100%)?
If you wish, you can mail me at contact@fotosketcher.com for more testing.

Best regards,

David

Skip said...

Hi David

First let me add my thanks to you for a great program.

Downloaded new beta version and did not have the problem Gene did. It works well and does process the pictures a lot faster.

I did notice that the default parameters for the Painting 8 (expressive brushstrokes) were very different from the previous beta version, but do work well on larger file sizes.

I'm curious as to the file size you used for the flowers in your example?

Thanks again

Skip

David said...

Hi Skip,

Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you didn't have any problem running the new Painting 8 effect.
The image I used for the flowers example was around 800 x 700 pixels (the resulting image was not resized).
To give a more painterly appearance, I ran the Painting 8 effect twice (press F12 after the first run) and also increased contrast a bit and sharpened.

All the best,

David

David said...

@Skip: small correction, I've just remembered that I did resize the flowers image. If I recall correctly, it was probably 30 or 40% larger than is shown here.

Merv said...

Nice job David!

I'm very impressed with the latest brush effects. Speed seems satisfactory on Pentium 4 2.6 given the heavy processing necessary,

Thanks for your unrelenting efforts, listening and follow thru.

Sincerely appreciated,
Merwin

David said...

Thank you Merwin :-)

Anonymous said...

It just gets better and better...

Thanks for the great work David!

Regards
BobMc

David said...

Thanks BobMc! Appreciated :-)

PixelPusher said...

You have an AMAZING program and the new "Painting 8" preset is very cool. The one drawback I would say I would have with the new #8 preset is I am am wishing I had the ability to specify a "Minimum Brush Size" as I can in the "Painting 7" preset. This came in VERY handy when using larger images 2k-4k in size. If the brush used is too small on a large image, the overall painted affect can be sometimes nearly unnoticeable. This still can't be a true complaint, as I said, your program is just amazing, imo! Thanks for making this!!

David said...

Thanks PixelPusher. I'm glad that you like FotoSketcher. As it happens I did have a minimum brush size at first in Painting 8, but I had to modify the algorithm. The way the algorithm works now is in 4 different phases: first, I place the large brustrokes (top down, this is the slowest phase). Then, I smooth the brushtrokes (from bottom to top). Finally, I start over with smaller brushstrokes (2.5 times smaller than the maximum size), which adds the details to the paintings.