Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Just a quick word

Hi all,

Just a quick word to let you know that I've been very busy at work since the beginning of this year and unfortunately I have not been able to spend as much time as I wanted on FotoSketcher (PC program and future mobile app).

But, I'm still working on FotoSketcher and I will keep you updated here.

In the meantime, here is an abstract piece, made entirely in FotoSketcher 3.20 (click on image for full view):

untitled - March 2016 - made in FotoSketcher 3.20

This was a fun experiment. I first pasted a screenshot of my desktop in FotoSketcher and reduced the size to 1% of the original dimensions. I then increased the size by 300% a few times and ran the Painting 10 effect a couple of times.

Best regards,

David

14 comments:

Casey said...

That's a pretty neat idea - the resizing ultra simplifies the image!
Nice work!

perhaps you could increase the enlargement allowed, a bit, 999? perhaps?

Peter said...

That's a great little trick.
Beginning to look like Impasto!

I'll certainly try it.
How would it work with a more "natural" picture, like landscape?

Casey said...

Peter - the process of "1% then 1000%" turns a photo into something that looks like an under-painting.

If the term is not familiar, painters will often start with broad strokes and areas of the colour they will be putting on top - green for trees, brownish for towns, etc.

This process turns pictures into that:

E.g, original:

http://i.imgbox.com/ywfakwJi.jpg

1% then 2000%:

http://i.imgbox.com/9zIxO8YE.jpg

FS painted, P10:

http://i.imgbox.com/bv4cpXcI.jpg

It's FUN!

(Not the best example - I think the original needs areas of bright colour to reduce to bright patches)

Casey said...

Yes, it works better with areas of colour or contrast...

Peter (BC) said...

Casey: Indeed, you are correct. I tried it with some pictures, and that technique does just that, i.e., create an "underlying" painting.

Which brings me to wonder if Fotosketcher can use that concept. If so, how?
The only way (that I can think of) would be through layers, and I don't think that FS can use layers. Or maybe David is planning something to that effect...

David?

David said...

Hi Peter, hi Casey,

I'm glad that my little experiment spurred your creativity ;-)
Although FS does not support layers, I sometimes use the "merge images" technique to produce a similar result. It is not very straightforward as you have to juggle with the merge effect, the clipboard to save a temporary image, the undo/redo buttons and the F12 key. For instance, you could create an underpainting, copy it to the clipboard and then run the Pencil Sketch 2 effect on the original source. Then paste the underpainting and merge with the black & white sketch. Just remember that both images must have exactly the same size to allow merging (you can resize an image with CTRL+R).

Cheers,

David

Casey said...

I followed your steps.

Do the resize trick, make sure it's back to the original size - copy to clipboard.

Do PSketch 2 on the original
Paste clip back to left side
Merge (I adjusted slightly to the left in the merge)

and:

http://i.imgbox.com/BBnZKlIN.jpg

It works quite well - I suspect that it needs bright colours, balloons and such..

Casey said...

It works on coloured pictures very well:

Same style as above:

http://i.imgbox.com/aVOVHQZS.jpg

And this was the cross-hatch thing rather than painting 2:

http://i.imgbox.com/RkSgiJYm.jpg

Notice - the cross hatch made the canvas look like real canvas!

And this is how under-painting works - a larger than normal broadly splashed area of colour that then gets worked with detail.

Zakir said...

I just can't wait for fotoskeacther android app will defo buy it

George said...

Thank you for the update

Casey said...

While you're working on a new version, can I make a teeny request?

Is it possible to have "Pen and Ink sketch 2" (the one that does black and white) have a variable level of grey?

Instead of stark black:white, how about a slider with 2 4 6 8 10

And the program has a grey-scale variation - so 2 is as it is now, 2 colours B:W
4 = 4 shades - black, 33% grey, 66% grey, white

And so on up to whatever level you think fit - I'd suggest to stop at 16 (black + white and 14 steps... still might be too much)

I do ink, black and white. But I often use a water tank brush to blend the ink out into shades of (ink colour).

http://i.imgbox.com/GalZqvHc.jpg

A small section of the original, reduced to 8 shades of grey - I don't so much want to create this out of an image, I still want to do the inking... but I'd like to have a guide and an idea what the final image could look like.

So i could take a colour picture, run it through the "into 8 shades" and then see what it would look like as an "ink and water wash" picture.

Is there any chance? Not it if going to be complicated.

David said...

Hi Casey,

I'm not sure that the Pen & Ink 2 algorithm can be easily tweaked to deal with 8 different levels of grey. I would probably need to start from scratch, but it is a good idea.
At the moment, I'm focussing on my new responsive website (nearly finished), the Android version (UI is functional, can take a photo, now I need to port some of the filters) and I've just released a new Android game (search "Jewel Djinn" in Google Play Store).

Cheers,

David

Peter (BC) said...

Salut David,

Your Jewel Djinn is incredibly well made! Bravo!
And it's a game any "kids" can play!

The idea of the 8-shade of greys filter is a very good one! I'm with Casey to "push" David in that corner... LOL

David said...

Bonjour Peter,

Glad that you like Jewel Djinn :) It was mainly a way for me to familiarize myself with Android development. Porting FotoSketcher is slightly more ambitious!

As for the greyscale filter, I'll give it a shot... when I can find a little time ;)