Methods for transforming a render into Victorian era painting?
AnotherUserName
Posts: 2,727
in The Commons
Im wondering if there is a good way to transform a render into an oil painting (a portrait) in the victorian style? I have photoshop and ive played with the filters but havent gotten that great of results. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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There are several 3rd party plugins for Photoshop which simulate analog media. Two that I know of are AlienSkin's SnapArt package and Some of Topaz Labs' components. Topaz Labs things can also be used as standalones. There are others from other makers as well.
And of course Corel's Painter bases its reputation as an analog art simulator.
Try FotoSketcher. It's free. :) And it may have the right filters for what you want.
I'll sometimes run a picture through fotosketcher and then use that as either an overlay or a grain layer in GIMP. (GIMP's oilify filter may also be useful to you, but I'm sure you've used Photoshop's version)
If you want to do it manually http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/oil-painting/
Personally, I usually use FilterForge, which has a lot of options for emulating various graphic styles.
Excellent! Thanks for all the suggestions. Here is the portrait im working with. I still have to make some minor modifications to things like his facial hair, etc. The overall render that the portrait will be included in will be black and white and in the style of an old photograph.
I followed the tutorial that Cybersox suggested, I figured I would actually try to learn something. Here is the result of the new ps action. Im going to check out some other actions and stuff as well.
Thoughts? The portrait will be in the background slightly behind the model. It will be a full body shot portrait (of the main model that is).
Here is a version made using FotoSketcher. FotoSketcher seems easy enough to use and has alot of fun options. I think I like this one better than the previous version.
One element is to make sure to have proper painting-like lighting to start with.
I bought Painter's Lights a while back and I use it for almost everything.
I mean, there's a part of me that gets grumpy at buying stuff 'I could just do myself,' but it does what it does quickly and efficiently and saves me a huge amount of trial and error.
I was just thinking about those. I have them and im going to use them. I think that overall I need to re-pose him and do a little more dressing with the background. Your definetely right about the lighting.
It's something I constantly struggle with. I've had so many images going 'this looks TERRIBLE I stink arrrgh' and then realize I have a mostly straight on bright light and a backdrop that's lit equally as foreground. That kills depth.
Then I move things around and be sure to highlight the subject better and hey, what do you know, it's not that awful after all.
Have a look at Mediachance Dynamic Auto Painter - lots of painting styles available for it, does a decent job.. Heres a phot that was run through it using a Monet based style..
Here are some things done with SnapArt3. (There's a newer version out now, this was done some time ago.) Two of the images were run through the oil painting filter, one uses the pastel and the last uses the color pencil.
http://www.redhen-publications.com/newbies.html#
Farther down the sidebar there is a GiftFest image that also uses the oil painting filter. That one might be in the newer version of the plugin since it was done a couple of years later.
One thing that I saw at once is that even though running a render through the oil painting filter won't make the older animal models with the low-res textures look like real animals, it goes a long way towards making them look like someone might have done a real painting of some real animals.
I love the effect, here, especially in the background. But this illustrates why so often a filter is not the end of the process. In the foreground you can't even tell those are swans. Perhaps running the image through the filter twice with slightly different settings then in an image editor clone, history brush, whatever, various areas from one to the other.
Well. considering that Monet was an Impressionist, I think that the program does capture that style well. The original photo is attached for reference... If one backs down the "Monet" preset slightly you get the second pic attached..
Oh, it does, definitely. I loved everything except some of the actual swans. They're more distinguishable in the 2nd, but overall I love the first one you posted best.
Just downloaded the trial of Dynamic Auto Painter and all I can say is wow, some of the styles it has is just amazing and it has a few that I really do want, guess will have to buy it when I can.. lol
Time is the one commodity we can't get enough of, so any time you save using a purchased tool will inevitably be worth it.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I ended up getting a strong dose of head cold and havent been able to work more on the render. Ill update when I get to it.
I think that for Victorian era you could go with the Nik Collection tools. I use them for everything, especially for more painterly effects
Here is the new base painting render. I like it much better than the last.
Here is the treated version using FotoSketcher. All of the software packages that everyone has suggested are really very interesting. I didnt know there were so many great options. I decided to go with FotoSketcher simply because free has a whole lot of appeal right now.
Yeah.. that works.. and a nice base render to boot.. Just out of curiosity, is that chair part of a DAZ set? could use one like it..
@hascart, the chair is from this set http://www.daz3d.com/gothic-decor .
Edit: Links removed.
Good ones! and thanks!
Hmmm. Maybe you can point to a portrait of the type you're looking for. Queen Victoria lived a very long time, through several eras of art styles, including impressionism -- seems pretty clear you're not looking for that. There really isn't a single "Victorian" movement. Your starting image suggests you're looking for a German romanticism style, popular in the first half of the 19th century. From a brushstroke staintpoint, perhaps you're I'm thinking you're looking for something like this (it's too highkey, but look just the oil technique):
http://www.oilpaintingfactory.com/english/oil-painting-98084.htm ;
Frankly, I'm not sure you can readily achieve this with a filter, at least not without using several. If you have Photoshop there are some oil canvas actions you can get (try Google search, or the Envato marketplace if you don't mind springingf for $5 or so), and you can certainly do it by wet-brush tracing using a program like Painter or ArtRage.
My opinion only, but I think you will want to severely de-emphasize the background in your starting portait. The back wall and frames picture there are far too dominant.
This one is especially nice:
So do any of the PS plugins work in Elements? I cannot afford the full PS, but I would buy Elements if they work in it. I read "some" scripted actions work in Elements, and I'd like to use those, too. But I am worried that the actions I want would just so happen to be the ones that don't work with Elements. And those Nik collection items, too.
My interest is in possibly making some comic and manga style pics. Though some of the stuff posted here is absolutely beautiful!
Nope. Perhaps specifying "Victorian" era was more ambitious or specific than I intended. I got the renders to a point that I really enjoy and that is where they will stay. While I think it would be a great challenge to try and achieve total period accuracy, I new from the start that I wasnt going to fully attempt that. I landed on Victorian simply because thats the gown I chose. Vampire, murder and steampunk were ideas that were also moving around in my head when I made this. Thanks for the critique though. I do like to read honest opinions about my renders, positive or negative. Feedback is always welcome.
I have just downloaded and used FotoSketcher on a few of my renders and am impressed with the ease of use and results
I like them. I especially like the first render. FotoSetcher is a fun little tool. And I always appreciate a user friendly interface.
Both Fotosketcher and DAP benefit from a well lit scene being imported in the first place.