Art (multifandom) and webapp rec
I've been experimenting with a new tool, ActionScriptPainter. It's similar to ArtRage in that it attempts to approximate natural media, but 1) it's online, and 2) it automates the process of creating a "painting" from a photograph. Like Photoshop filters, but prettier and more realistic.
You can do something similar with ArtRage, by loading a tracing image and then letting it pick colors for you, but you have to make all the brush strokes yourself, one at a time. This thing does its own brush strokes, and most of the ones I've tried have been 7,000 to 9,000 strokes. So. Way faster and easier. Which is awesome! But on the other hand, you know, the further this technology progresses, the more interesting our times will become.
It will also let you start with a blank canvas and do a regular drawing -- "free-hand!" as my grandmother used to say -- and I just made a different post with one of those. There's a "wet paint" setting, which drips, and a "hue jitter" which randomizes your foreground color in a nice floaty way.
But back to photomanipulation. I used to have a horrible real person squick that kept me from trying things like vidding or manipping, but that seems to have mostly evaporated now. So I've been paying attention to people who incorporate photographs into their art, like nargynargy and newkidfan, and hoping that a little of the awesome might rub off.
For these four, I made manips out of one or more screencaps, trying to get them just passable enough that the painting would cover the sins. (Light source matching? Who needs light source matching.) Then fed them into ActionScriptPainter, and then put the results back into Photoshop. Among them, the ratio of human:machine influence varies.
Title: Dentists
Fandom: Lost, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Little Shop of Horrors
Subject: Bernard Nadler, Hermey the Misfit Elf, and Orin Scrivello
Media: screencaps, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencaps:
Lost screencaps from Lost-Media: Lost 2.08 1, Lost 2.08 2
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer screencap from inadream_caps: RtRNR
Little Shop of Horrors screencaps (capped from youtube, ha): LSoH 1, LSoH 2
Manip:
Click through for bigger (600 x 360px).
Title: Trickster
Fandom: Supernatural
Media: screencap, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Click through for bigger (2800 x 2000px, 356k).
Screencap:
SPN 2.15
Manip:
This was one of the first that I did, when I was first learning my way around. Because of the size limitations of the tool, I had to split it up into 20 sections and knit them back together (over 100,000 brush strokes). It was a ridiculous amount of work, and after all that, it turns out I like the manip better anyway.
Title: Darryl
Fandom: The Office
Media: screencap, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencap:
From such-a-dork: Office 4.09
Manip:
Click through for bigger (700 x 500px).
Sorry, Darryl, that this cap makes you look stoned.
When looking for caps I realized that the pizza kid who Michael held hostage is now Artie on Glee.
Title: Kate and Ana Lucia
Fandom: Lost
Media: screencaps, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencaps:
From Lost-Media: Lost 2.08, Lost 2.09
Manip:
Click through for bigger (500 x 382 px).
I don't understand why Kate's head looks squished, since it didn't start out that way.
This entry was originally posted at http://gnatkip.dreamwidth.org/5170.html. If you feel moved to comment, please do so there:
You can do something similar with ArtRage, by loading a tracing image and then letting it pick colors for you, but you have to make all the brush strokes yourself, one at a time. This thing does its own brush strokes, and most of the ones I've tried have been 7,000 to 9,000 strokes. So. Way faster and easier. Which is awesome! But on the other hand, you know, the further this technology progresses, the more interesting our times will become.
It will also let you start with a blank canvas and do a regular drawing -- "free-hand!" as my grandmother used to say -- and I just made a different post with one of those. There's a "wet paint" setting, which drips, and a "hue jitter" which randomizes your foreground color in a nice floaty way.
But back to photomanipulation. I used to have a horrible real person squick that kept me from trying things like vidding or manipping, but that seems to have mostly evaporated now. So I've been paying attention to people who incorporate photographs into their art, like nargynargy and newkidfan, and hoping that a little of the awesome might rub off.
For these four, I made manips out of one or more screencaps, trying to get them just passable enough that the painting would cover the sins. (Light source matching? Who needs light source matching.) Then fed them into ActionScriptPainter, and then put the results back into Photoshop. Among them, the ratio of human:machine influence varies.
Title: Dentists
Fandom: Lost, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Little Shop of Horrors
Subject: Bernard Nadler, Hermey the Misfit Elf, and Orin Scrivello
Media: screencaps, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencaps:
Lost screencaps from Lost-Media: Lost 2.08 1, Lost 2.08 2
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer screencap from inadream_caps: RtRNR
Little Shop of Horrors screencaps (capped from youtube, ha): LSoH 1, LSoH 2
Manip:
Click through for bigger (600 x 360px).
Title: Trickster
Fandom: Supernatural
Media: screencap, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Click through for bigger (2800 x 2000px, 356k).
Screencap:
SPN 2.15
Manip:
This was one of the first that I did, when I was first learning my way around. Because of the size limitations of the tool, I had to split it up into 20 sections and knit them back together (over 100,000 brush strokes). It was a ridiculous amount of work, and after all that, it turns out I like the manip better anyway.
Title: Darryl
Fandom: The Office
Media: screencap, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencap:
From such-a-dork: Office 4.09
Manip:
Click through for bigger (700 x 500px).
Sorry, Darryl, that this cap makes you look stoned.
When looking for caps I realized that the pizza kid who Michael held hostage is now Artie on Glee.
Title: Kate and Ana Lucia
Fandom: Lost
Media: screencaps, ActionScriptPainter, Photoshop
Screencaps:
From Lost-Media: Lost 2.08, Lost 2.09
Manip:
Click through for bigger (500 x 382 px).
I don't understand why Kate's head looks squished, since it didn't start out that way.
This entry was originally posted at http://gnatkip.dreamwidth.org/5170.html. If you feel moved to comment, please do so there: