Living oil painting

[KenH]

While taking a quick break from TWO animating, I stumbled upon this technique. It may have been done before, but I think it looks pretty cool. I'd like to get it abit more "impressionist" looking, but can't figure it out in the render settings. See what you think!

 

The mov file is based on this image:

 

castle.mov

[Dhar]

I think that looks fantastic!

 

I wouldn't do anything else to it except maybe add fog.

 

Quite intriguing.

[mtpeak2]

That looks cool Ken. So what's the technique?

 

Hmm, why does the image look better that the mov file?

[heyvern]

The trick now would be to add some kind of transparency effect to the edges of the castle and ground... a brush textured transparency somehow on the outer edges so it blends into the background...

 

Maybe a hair image? A static hair image that could simulate subtle brush strokes just for the edges (not to be confused with the hair painting effect from a while back).

 

Cool effect.

 

-vern

[goodguy20k]

Beautiful! Is that a really well done blend of surface attributes plus great textures? Or something even cooler?

 

Wireframe?

[NancyGormezano]

Looks truly terrific - you might try adding some hair to get irregular strokey type edges for the movie.

[KenH]

Yes! Fog definitely improves it by giving it more atmosphere and blending the edges abit. But ideally, some sort of edge blur would be perfect. Maybe photoshop has such a thing......I could even use canvas filters in there. Lots of directions to go.

I'm not sure how I'd use hair to blur the edges. But it's probably a good idea.

 

How it's done....

 

I just "cut up" the image into pieces in photoshop. Then I roughly build proxy models of them in AM. Finally, I eyed the angle of the models in the original and projected the cut up images onto each model. In the render options, I set Flat Shaded to ON.

That means there's no shadows. If I had more time, I could probably unset flat shaded and light each element evenly, but I don't have that time. Here's an image of them in the chor and the fog mov.

 

Thanks for the comments.

castle.mov

[mtpeak2]

Ok, not what I expected. I thought the technique was an oil painting effect. Still cool though.

[heyvern]

I'm not sure how I'd use hair to blur the edges.

 

Not blur exactly but... "blend". A hair image could be used that looks like a paint brush stroke. The hair would be "fixed" and always face the camera. The color of the hair could be controlled by the color of the decal.

 

Just a few "hair" strokes to create the effect of the foreground elements painted on the background.

 

Now that I think about it... might be tricky.

 

-vern

[williamgaylord]

Maybe you could alter the construction of the model just a bit, such that the edges that visibly oclude objects behind them are not , for example, the actual edge of a box, but just the decal edge on a transparent form. So instead of the castle being build completely in a 3D form, just use a plane folded at the nearest corner of the outer castle wall and project a decal with only the brush strokes for that part of the painting. (You can use brush strokes for the mask in Photoshop even, but I would just paint on separate layers.) Inside that would be similar forms for the towers, etc. As long as your camera angle doesn't travel extremely far, this should keep the edges looking like nice bold brush strokes, with the 3D character as you move the camera.

 

I'm not sure how to do this where the water and the land meet. The reflection itself would preserve the brush stroke edges, of course, but the sharp edge where the smooth water surface meets the land would stand out.

[mfortunato]

This image is absolutely gorgeous as is the modeled version.

 

Perhaps adding some geometry to the models and using textures with alpha maps on them could create the effect of the brush strokes? It's worth a shot. This is stunning work and if you could animate it to look like the still image - it will be even more phenomenal .

 

This is actually the same technique I'm going to apply to my textures for the Lost World image I am working on. Except, I'm going to make it look a bit less impressionistic. Of course, I will be painting over parts of the final render to make it look more like a painting and less "3D".

 

- Michael

[John Bigboote]

Very cool! I am a big fan of multiplanes. Walt Disney would be proud!