Friday, August 9, 2019

Back to the Windows version of FotoSketcher: new 3.50 release in the works

Hi all,

I'm taking a break from porting FotoSketcher to other platforms and I'm currently experimenting on a new algorithm for the upcoming 3.50 version for Windows.

Here is an example of the new painting effect that will be added (click on image to view in full size):


Disclaimer: this is a work in progress and the released effect might look different.

I'll keep you posted when a beta version is ready for you to play!

Best regards,

David

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! One of the best! I'm very excited waiting to try the new 3.50 beta version! Congratulations, my friend!

mematron said...
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David said...

Thanks! I'm in the process of optimizing the speed of this new effect and will release a beta version soon. I wish you success with your videogame :) Don't hesitate to post a link if you wish.

Unknown said...

Looking forward on new release.
David, how in the world do I make custom brushes and import them?

David said...

Hi, you can use any black and white image as a custom brush. I suggest a max size of 200x200 pixels. The white parts will be transparent and the darker parts will be opaque. You can load the custome brushes from the parameters window (when the effect allows it, a button will appear automatically).
I use a freeware called ABR Viewer to turn ABR files (Photoshop brush format) into .png images that FotoSketcher can use. That way you can find thousands of free brushes.

TomCSC said...

Hi David,

I just discovered your program a few nights ago and really enjoyed trying it out on some photos. Was wondering if there are any plans to improve the crosshatching preset (Pen-and-Ink-Sketch 1).

Right now the results tend to be a little bland and flat. I think this is because the hatching doesn't really allow for white areas/zones (bright spots) and darker black areas (shadowy areas).

If you add something similar to Photoshop's Levels sliders (3 sliders, to specify the darkest, brightest and medium) then let the user move each slider around to adjust the concentration of hatching. So if the initial results are that the source image's brightest zones are being hatched too much for my liking, I move the slider higher to space out the hatch lines farther and farther apart until maybe at the extreme end, that region just becomes white.

Conversely, if an area of the source image isn't being hatched enough, I move the darkness slider so that the hatch lines are getting closer together (or thicker, or whatever would make that region seem darker) until at the extreme end it becomes black.

The medium (middle) slider would let the user dictate the concentration of hatching that the user wants to represent an evenly-lit area.

I hope that makes sense? I love cross-hatched images, still haven't seen software that can help automate or speed up the process of doing nice cross-hatched imagery, it's still a very manual process. I know software, without the help of AI, can probably never do contour hatching, but maybe a 3-slider Levels control would at least let the user create more hand-drawn type output.

mark34 said...

Hi David,
I like Fotosketcher a lot. You did a fine work there. :)
I was wondering is it possible to save .png with alpha channel?

Tnx, and keep up the good work.

David said...

Hi Mark34,
Unfortunately not at this time, but support for 32bit images with an alpha channel is something I'm looking at for future effects :)
Best regards,
David