A simple question that comes up when getting started using Studio Artist for the first time is how to erase the canvas. The quick answer is that you can use the eraser button in the main operation toolbar shown above to erase the canvas. This tip discusses the different options available for erasing the canvas in more detail.

Erasing the Entire Canvas

If you click on the eraser and continue pressing the mouse button a popup control will appear after a second that shows the different options you can erase to. You can then select the one you want and the canvas will be erased to what you specified.  You can also control click the eraser button (right click on windows) to immediately get the popup options.

This option is now your default erase to option. So if you now just quickly click the eraser in the main operation toolbar the canvas will be erased to your erase to option. Note that only the current canvas layer is erased when you press the eraser button or select a new erase to option.

You can also choose your default erase to option using the Canvas : Erase to menu as shown below. Using this menu is the same as using the eraser popup control.

You can also use the command b hot key menu key command to run the Erase menu command which erases the canvas to your current default erase to option. So using this menu key command is the equivalent of clicking on the eraser button.

Erase To Options

There are a number of different erase to options.

White and Black set the canvas to solid white or solid black.

Source Color sets the canvas to the current color specified in the Source Area. You can use the source color picker to adjust the current source color.

Source Image sets the canvas to the source image. If the canvas is a different size or aspect ratio than the source image the source image will be automatically adjusted to fit the canvas sizing.

You can also just drag the source image to the canvas to erase to the source image. When you do this your current erase to setting will be changed to source image.

Selection sets the canvas to the current region selection mask. You can adjust your current selection in selection operation mode, or by running one of the Canvas : Selection menu commands.

Live Video Capture sets the canvas to a live video capture. The live video capture will be generated using your computer’s iSight camera or an external firewire camera you have connected to your computer if it doesn’t have a built in iSight.

Source Alpha sets the canvas to the source images alpha channel. Note that the canvas RGB buffers are set to a black and white alpha mask image.

Canvas Alpha sets the canvas to the current layer’s alpha channel. Note that the canvas RGB buffers are set to a black and white alpha mask image.

Source Color Memory 1 sets the canvas to the current color specified in the first color memory in the Source Area.

Blanking Buffer sets the canvas to the contents of the paint synthesizer’s blanking frame buffer. The blanking buffer is a hidden frame buffer the paint synthesizer uses to keep track of paint stroke coverage.

Texture sets the canvas to the current source image’s texture visual attribute.

Full Erase

Each Studio Artist layer consists of a RGB frame buffer, an A or alpha frame buffer, and a bezier path frame. A normal erase operation only erases the RGB frame buffer. The layer’s alpha channel and bezier path frame are not erased.

Running the Canvas : Full Erase menu command performs a full erase. This means that in addition to erasing the canvas’s RGB frame buffer to your default erase to option, the alpha channel is also set to full off and the bezier path frame is erased as well. Full erase also erases the paint synthesizer’s hidden blanking buffer. The blanking buffer is used internally by the paint synthesizer to track paint stroke coverage.

Shift clicking the eraser button in the main operation toolbar is the equivalent to running the full erase menu command.

Using the Pen Eraser

Studio Artist supports using the eraser tip on a Wacom pen to interactively erase the canvas by drawing with the eraser tip on local areas of the canvas. You can also use the e hotkey to simulate working with the pen’s eraser tip when drawing with a mouse.

When drawing with the eraser tip in Studio Artist, the current preset will dynamically change to the current eraser preset. This happens when you start drawing with the eraser tip. When you finish drawing with the eraser tip the paint synthesizer reverts to the original current preset you were using before you used the eraser tip.

The current eraser preset is stored in the paint synthesizer eraser memory. You can access the eraser menu using the ‘Edit : Paint Synthesizer : Pen Eraser’ menus. Running the pen eraser Record menu will record the current paint synthesizer settings as the eraser preset. Running the pen eraser Play menu will load the current eraser preset as the current paint synthesizer preset.

The eraser tool support for the pen is totally user configurable, you can load any paint preset you want to be your default eraser tip. So the eraser tip could just be used to switch to a different paint tool, like a water wash preset for example. There’s a folder of some generic eraser presets you can load into the Pen Eraser memory in the Default :Erasers factory paint preset category.

For more information on working with a Wacom pen and tablet check out this tip.

Interface Changes

Note that the original Studio Artist 4.0 release and previous dev4 builds used a slightly different terminology in the canvas menu.  They use the term Default Color as opposed to Erase to. The terminology was changed starting in Studio Artist 4.01 to avoid confusion for beginning users.

The original Studio Artist 4.0 release and previous dev4 builds also used text buttons for the eraser and other buttons in the main operation toolbar. These buttons were changed starting in Studio Artist 4.01 to use icon buttons instead of text buttons, again to help avoid confusion for beginning users.

If you are ever confused about what a particular icon button does (or any Studio Artist control for that matter), if you hold the cursor still under the icon button a brief text help tip will appear that describes the name of the control and what the control does. A more detailed help description will also appear in the bottom left status bar in the main workspace window.

For More Information

For more information on Studio Artist Layers check out this tip.

For more information on the Studio Artist workspace check out this tip.

Studio Artist 4 lets you work off of a source image or start from scratch when building up a digital painting. For beginning users, working with a source image is the best way to get a feel for how Studio Artist works.

To get started, double click on the Studio Artist application icon. When the Studio Artist interface first launches it will be in the Paint Synthesizer operation mode. The Preset browser will display a series of factory paint presets.

The Source Area initially starts up with the Fixed Color option, displaying a color picker you can use to choose the current source color you want to paint with.

Using your mouse or pressure sensitive pen, try painting a few quick paint strokes in the canvas.

By clicking on different presets in the preset browser you can load them as the current preset.  Each preset has a different appearance and characteristic behavior when drawing.

Working with a Source Image

Studio Artist’s paint synthesizer is able to intelligently analyze a source image and then use that visual analysis to intelligently paint the source image in a variety of different styles. The visual characteristics of the loaded source image can also influence the appearance and behavior of paint presets designed for manual drawing as well. So you should try painting with a loaded source image to really appreciate the full potential that the factory paint presets have to offer.

Now lets get started by loading a source image. Use the File : Open Source menu command to open a source image.

If you are just getting started there are some source images that come with Studio Artist you can use for your first introductory painting sessions. When you run the Open Source menu command a standard file dialog will come up. Try going to the A Few Source Images folder that is in the same folder as the Studio Artist application. Choose the A Sunflower image to get started.

After you select your source image the Source Area will change to the Image tab and you will see a small representation of the source image you selected displayed in the source area.

Now try painting a few paint strokes. Note that the coloring of your paint strokes is now being chosen automatically from your source image. The color that is selected depends on where you are drawing in the canvas and is chosen to match the color of your source image in an equivalent spatial location. The source image will automatically map to the full canvas dimensions, even if they are different sizes.

Some paint presets will drag their initial coloring for the length of the entire paint stroke. Other presets may clone color, which means that the coloring of the paint stroke will adjust as you move the pen while drawing to best reflect the associated source coloring.

Automatic Painting

Studio Artist can intelligently paint a source image or a complete video file in a variety of different visual paint styles with no assistance from a user. This is called auto-painting, or auto-rotoscoping when working with movie files. Studio Artist uses the results of it’s intelligent visual analysis of the source image or source movie file to control drawing behind the scenes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you are just getting started with digital painting then Studio Artist’s intelligent assisted drawing will really open up new creative doors for you by enabling you to quickly be able to create artistic pieces without having to spend years learning to draw. Even if you are comfortable working with traditional manual painting you will find that automatic painting is an amazing source of creative inspiration, and a useful new tool for building artistic effects. And no matter what your background is, auto-painting is just plain fun.

Now, lets try automatic painting. Press the Action button.  Watch how Studio Artist automatically paints in the source image. To stop automatic painting, just press the spacebar.

Each paint preset has a different automatic drawing behavior in addition to the different physical appearance of the paint.  Try selecting different paint presets and then use the Action button to see how they automatically paint.

Paint Presets

Studio Artist presets are hierarchically organized by Collection And Category. There are 2 popup controls at the top of the factory preset browser that you can use to choose different collections of presets and the different categories associated with each collection.  Every time you load a new preset category the list of presets in the factory preset browser changes to display the individual presets included in that category.

Studio Artist ships with thousands of different factory presets. They encompass a vast range of different artistic effects. Rather than restrict your creative options to a few generic art presets we try to offer a very wide range of different aesthetic choices.

Some presets try to emulate traditional art media or techniques. Others create never seen before digital paint effects. All of the factory presets are completely editable, so you can modify and tweak them if desired to suit your own artistic needs.By editing your own presets, and building your own preset collections and categories you can totally customize Studio Artist to your own personal artistic vision.

Spend some time exploring the different factory paint presets that ship with Studio Artist 4. Some presets may have been designed primarily for auto painting or for manual painting, so it’s worth both manually painting a few paint strokes and then pressing the action button and watching the preset auto-paint to get a sense of what an individual paint preset can do.

If you do a lot of manual hand painting the CD_hand_Drawn_media collection was specifically designed for manual painting as opposed to action painting.

Working with the Source Area

The source area determines how coloring is applied to paint strokes. Depending on how you adjust the source area controls you can dramatically change the coloring behavior of your painting.

There are 4 different tab option available in the source area

• Image colors based on a loaded source image or movie
• Color allows for manual color selection using a color picker
• Palette allows for coloring based on a palette of colors
• Gradient allows for coloring based on a color gradient

Most of the main source area tab options also include a secondary coloring option you can adjust with a popup control. The Image source area tab offers the following secondary coloring options, which are all derived in some way from the source image coloring..

• Paint uses the source image directly for coloring
• Colorize maps the source image into the current source color hue
• Palettize maps the source image into the current source palette colors
• Fixed uses the current source color (but you can c click the source image to select a new source color directly from the source image)

Changing the Pen Mode

The paint synthesizer offers a large number of editable parameter options that can change the appearance and drawing behavior of any given paint preset. You can adjust all of the different editable paint synthesizer parameters in the Editor palette.

One very useful adjustable control is the pen mode. Any given paint preset will have radically different drawing behavior based on the pen mode setting. So learning how to adjust the pen mode is a great way to start to get familiar with editing the paint synthesizer to customize how paint presets look and behave.

The Pen Mode option is located in the Pen Mode control panel.

There’s a tutorial tip that discusses the different pen mode options and how to adjust them here.

Paint Synthesizer Macro Edits

There are a large number of different editable controls available in the paint synthesizer for adjusting the look, feel and automatic drawing capabilities of a paint preset. While this extreme amount of control ultimately is extremely useful for both customization and for providing the underlying capability to produce rich,lush organic paint effects, it can be somewhat intimidating to a beginning user.

Macro edits are a collection of single step editing commands that can be used to easy modify or edit paint presets. The paint synthesizer macro edits are available in the Help Browser as a series of active link commands.

To edit a paint preset with a specific macro edit command, just click the black arrow icon on the left side of the command. Pressing the arrow icon will run the active link command, which will automatically edit the current paint synthesizer settings to correspond to the editing change you requested.

The screen shot above shows a user running the Clone Source Color macro edit. Running this macro edit command will adjust the current paint preset so it clones color as opposed to dragging color.

Many macro edits adjust a series of different internal editable parameters to make the requested editing change. You could of course do this manual editing yourself by adjusting the series of editable controls in the paint synthesizer editor. The point of the macro edits is to provide an easy single click editing interface to common editing commands as an alternative to getting under the hood of the pant synthesizer.

For More Information

An introductory overview to the design philosophy behind the Paint Synthesizer is available here.

A short tip on how to change the brush size is available here.

A short tip on how to adjust the paint opacity is available here.

The Studio Artist User Guide pdf is the ultimate technical reference for all of the functionality available in Studio Artist. There’s a very detailed Paint Synthesizer chapter in the User Guide pdf that goes into great detail about all of the editable controls available in the paint synthesizer. The User Guide pdf is available in your main Studio Artist folder.

Studio Artist uses a special folder called the Brush folder as a container for storing individual image or movie files used in Studio Artist paint presets. This tip will discuss how to work with the Brush folder.

Many Studio Artist paint presets are defined computationally by the information stored in a paint preset file. However, some paint presets do reference specific image or movie files that are used to help build the paint preset. For example:

• An Image Source Brush uses an image file as a a brush source.
• A Movie Source Brush uses a movie file as a brush source.
• An Image Background Texture uses an image file to generate a texture.
• A Movie Background Texture uses a movie file to generate a texture.

These image or movie files are not stored in the paint preset file. A file path reference to the image or movie file is stored in the paint preset file. So when you open a paint preset that uses an image or movie file as a part of it’s specification Studio Artist needs to look on your hard disk for the referenced image or movie file and load it in order for the preset to paint properly.

The problem with file references is that the given image or movie file specified by the file path reference may have been moved or perhaps even deleted when you try and use the paint preset at a later date. The Brush folder provides a convenient way to store any image or movie files you use in your Studio Artist paint presets so that this does not happen.

Whenever Studio Artist is unable to find a particular image or movie file reference stored in a paint preset file during the import process, it then looks for that file name inside the Brush folder. The Brush folder needs to be located inside of the main Studio Artist folder next to the Studio Artist application and the other folders like the doc and Preset folders.

It’s highly recommended that if you build your own custom image or movie brush presets that you store their associated image or movie files in the Brush folder.  That way Studio Artist will always be able to locate the specific image or movie files used in those paint presets.  This will be true even if you move the location of your studio artist folder on your computer, or even if you move the folder to a different computer.

Terminology Confusion

Many paint programs refer to specific paint tools as ‘brushes’. So it’s easy to fall into using the term ‘brush’ to refer to some specific paint preset.

Internally, paint synthesizer classic paint tools consist of a virtual brush consisting of a source and a type.  The source is specified in the Brush Source control panel and the type is specified in the Brush Type control panel.

The Brush Modulation control panel parameter options provide additional control over the generation of the dynamic virtual brush. If you are working with an image brush for example, interactive modulators like pen pressure or tile could be used to dynamically modulate the size and orientation of an image brush.  An additional dynamic texture field could also be interactively mixed into the dynamic virtual brush.

Some brush types like the geodesic brush types ignore the brush source control panel settings since they are dynamic computational processes. Region fill as brush pen mode also overrides the brush source controls and generates a virtual source brush on the fly based on the region you specified with your manual or automatic painting. It’s also possible to construct a virtual brush by using path randomization or multi pen features to scatter a small brush nib around while drawing to simulate a larger virtual brush area.

Virtual dabs of paint are placed on the virtual brush and then applied to the draw canvas. Both how the virtual brush nib is generated, how the paint dab is generated, and how the brush nib loaded with the paint dab is applied to the canvas can all be dynamic processes in Studio Artist. By dynamic we mean they can be constantly varying and can also be interactively modulated by your mouse or pen gestures as you paint.

Many paint programs are internally based on an image brush for painting, end of story. So when they refer to a brush they are referring to the image used as a representation of a paint brush that is dragged around the canvas applying paint.

Studio Artist’s paint synthesizer has a much more elaborate and sophisticated painting engine as detailed above that is capable of creating much richer, more organic digital painting effects.  While you can certainly work with a simple image brush if you want to, many Studio Artist paint presets actually use generative computational brushes that are dynamically computed in real time as you paint.

The same is true for generating textures used for digital painting. You can generate a texture derived off of a single texture image in Studio Artist if you want to. But most presets use a combination of different computational procedural texture generators to create dynamic textures that are always changing, just like textures in the real world that are always varying and different rather than being a repeatable tiled pattern based on a single small image.

Movie brushes are a unique feature in Studio Artist that allow for collections of images to be used to build a paint tool. You can use movie brushes to build a dynamically modulatable virtual brush. You can also use movie brushes to build special effects like photo mosaic imagery.

Movie brushes can also be used in paint synthesizer time particles. The movie plays back as the painting time particle moves over time.

Movie brushes can also be used to build sophisticated hatching patterns for representing different tonal values in a sketch using the Movie Pixel Indexing feature in the Background Texture control panel.

The use of the term Brush in the first part of this tip is referring to the Studio Artist Brush folder.  Preset files you use for painting are not stored in the brush folder.  They are stored in the Preset : Paint folder. The brush folder is just used to store any image or movie files that are used internally within specific paint presets.

For More Information

A more detailed introduction into how the paint synthesizer works is available here.

More information on Studio Artist presets and how they are organized is available here.

The Studio Artist User Guide pdf is the definitive reference for all of the user adjustable parameters available in the paint synthesizer. The User Guide pdf is located in your main Studio Artist folder.

More information on how to build a movie brush is located here.

More information on working with movie pixel indexed background textures to build custom hatching patterns is detailed here.

The Paint Synthesizer can respond to your mouse or pen movements in different ways.  How the current paint preset responds to pen movement is a function of the paint synthesizer’s adjustable Pen Mode option.  Changing the pen mode is an easy way to modify the drawing behavior and appearance of any paint preset. This tip will discuss how to adjust the pen mode and the different kinds of drawing behavior you can access via the different pen modes.

Prior to version 4 the Pen Mode popup control was located above the left side of the draw canvas as shown below.

In version 4 the old pen mode popup control at the top level of the interface is gone.  In version 4 you adjust the Pen Mode in the paint synthesizer’s Pen Mode control panel. The different control panels associated with the paint synthesizer are accessed in version 4 via the Editor palette as shown below.

There are 13 different pen mode options to choose from. They all represent a unique way of drawing based on your manual pen movement. When we use the term pen in the discussion below we are referring to mouse movement or pen movement on a tablet. Pen lift also refers to a mouse up.

Many of them also have unique ways of auto drawing that mirror their manual painting behavior. Some pen modes like FreeStyle revert to Interactive Pen when they are auto-drawn because while their manual interactive drawing is unique the end result is a single paint path like interactive pen as far as auto-drawing is concerned.

Studio Artist is very unique when compared to other digital paint programs. The paint synthesizer is capable of intelligently automatically painting an image in a variety of different styles. Painting can be fully automatic, fully manual, or somewhere in between, artist and computer working together to paint and draw.

Some of the pen modes described below incorporate automatic drawing into paint presets that may still be designed for manual drawing. This is called intelligent assisted drawing. Studio Artist works as an intelligent assistant, automatically working in the background while still under interactive control by the artist as they manually direct drawing or painting.

The paint synthesizer’s automatic path generation features can be used to create a wide variety of different stylistic effects in a paint preset designed for manual painting.  This could be as simple as dynamically generating a cross hatching pattern to something more elaborate like simulating the behavior of liquid paint or ink droplets.

Interactive Pen

Interactive pen mode dynamically paints a single paint stroke as you move the pen. The paint appears in real time as you move the pen.

FreeStyle

FreeStyle pen mode dynamically draws a freestyle representation of the paint path as you move the pen.  The path can be repositioned or rotated while you are drawing by using the t or r hotkeys.  Once you lift the pen then the path representation vanishes and the actual paint stroke is drawn in with paint.

FreeStyle Autodraw

FreeStyle Autodraw pen mode dynamically draws a representation of the paint path as you move the pen.  The path can be repositioned or rotated while you are drawing by using the t or r hotkeys.  Once you lift the pen then the path representation vanishes and the path is used as a path start positioning generator to generate a series of autodrawn paint strokes that are spaced along the path you have drawn.

AutoDraw One Click

AutoDraw One Click pen mode draws a single automatic paint stroke where you click the pen.

AutoDraw Interactive

AutoDraw Interactive pen mode dynamically draws a series of automatic paint strokes as you move the pen. Auto drawing stops when you lift the pen.

The automatic painting is determined by the different adjustable parameters in the pain synthesizer associated with specifying automatic drawing. These include the Path Start, Path Shape, Path Angle, Path End, Path Randomization, and Path Application control panels.

Region Draw

Region Draw pen mode dynamically draws a representation of the regions paint path with a dynamically generated hatching pattern as you move the pen.  The paint path can be repositioned or rotated while you are drawing by using the t or r hotkeys. Once you lift the pen then the region path representation vanishes and the actual paint stroke that paints the specified region hatching pattern is drawn.

There are many kinds of different Region Fill Types that define hatching patterns for how the pen specified region is filled in. You can adjust this parameter in the Pen Mode control panel.

Bezier Curve

Bezier Curve  pen mode dynamically draws a representation of the bezier paint path as you move the pen.  The bezier path can be repositioned or rotated while you are drawing. Once you lift the pen then the bezier path representation vanishes and the actual paint stroke is drawn in with paint.

If you are using a tilt sensitive pen and tablet then the bezier curve automatically adjusts as you tilt and reorient the pen. Otherwise you can use the option hot key to adjust the shape of the curve and the pen movement to reposition the curve end point. Pressing the command hot key adds a new segment to the bezier curve you are drawing.

Particle Paint

Particle Paint pen mode dynamically draws with a stream of paint particles while you move the pen. The behavior of the dynamic painting particles can dramatically change depending on the different adjustable settings in the Particle Pen control panel.

Interactive MultiPen

Interactive MultiPen mode dynamically paints a series of multiple paint stroke as you move the pen. This pen mode is designed to simulate a brush with multiple bristles.  Each bristle paints with it’s own dynamic paint path. There are a wide variety of different adjustable controls to change the appearance and behavior of multipen paint presets in the MultiPen Mode control panel.

AutoDraw MultiPen

Works like Interactive AutoDraw pen mode, except that it autodraws with a multipen brush rather than an interactive pen brush.

RegionDraw MultiPen

Works like Region Draw pen mode except that the region is filled with a mutipen brush rather than an interactive pen brush.

Region Fill as Brush

Region Fill as Brush pen mode dynamically draws a representation of the paint path as you move the pen.  The path can be repositioned or rotated while you are drawing.  Once you lift the pen then the path representation vanishes and the path is used as the outline of a solid region. The solid region is filled in like it is a single paint nib. This pen mode overrides the normal source brush controls since the brush shape is being defined dynamically by the path you manually draw in.

The Region Fill as Brush control panel has a number of different adjustable parameters that determine how a region is generated and filled.

Auto Region Fill as Brush

Auto Fill as Brush pen mode dynamically auto paints a path that is then used as the outline for a slid painted region. The solid region is filled in like it is a single paint nib. This pen mode overrides the normal source brush controls since the brush shape is being defined dynamically by the path that was autodrawn by the paint synthesizer.

The Region Fill as Brush control panel has a number of different adjustable parameters that determine how a region is generated and filled.

For More Information

The Studio Artist User Guide pdf is the complete technical reference for information on editing all of the over 480 different user adjustable parameter options in the paint synthesizer. You can find the User Guide pdf in your Studio Artist 4 folder.

For an introduction to the paint synthesizer and how it works check out this tip.

For more information on Studio Artist’s hot key commands and hot key modifies check out this tip.

Gallery show is a new feature in Studio Artist 4 that can be used to put together free running art shows. A gallery show consists of a series of cycles. Each cycle generates an artistic effect, that can then be displayed on the screen for a specified period of time before another cycle starts. You specify the details of your gallery show in the Gallery preferences tab.

Each cycle can potentially select a new source image to work with a gallery show technique. The source could be randomly selected, sequentially selected, or the source could be derived off of a live video capture.

The technique options provide different approaches to building a free running gallery show. Your gallery show could be based off of randomly selected factory presets, custom folders of your own presets, or randomly evolved operation modes. Some techniques work with additional scan or painting options.

An additional start cycle option allows the screen to be erased or not before each cycle. A random preset from a favorites folder can also be used to provide a transition effect at the start of the cycle before the main processing technique is run.

The Random Vectorizer technique is the one we’re focusing on in this particular example. But there are many different techniques you can choose from to customize your gallery show. Working with custom sets of presets in favorites folders is a way to craft a personalized gallery art show for use in an art gallery display or for live presentation performance.

The first screen shot of the Gallery tab in the main preference dialog at the top of this tip shows the particular gallery show options we used to build this example. The Random Vectorizer technique mutates a new randomized Vectorizer preset for each gallery show cycle.

The Source option used for the gallery show chooses random source images from a specified folder. You can click on the Source Folder button to specify your own folder of custom source images.

There are a number of different Source Options available for your gallery show. The live Video Capture option can be particularly fun if you want to construct a gallery show in a public place like an art gallery that processes live frame captures from the room the gallery show is running in.

Our gallery show example is setup to wait for 2 seconds after a new art image is finished before starting on generating the next one. How long it takes to generate the new art image in this next gallery show cycle is a function of what kind of processing is being run in your gallery show technique and how computationally intensive it is. The screen will not be updated until the new art image is finished being generated.

Running a Gallery Show

After specifying the options for your custom gallery show you are ready to actually run it. To run a gallery show based on the current Gallery preferences, just run the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command. Depending on which gallery show technique you are running there may be a pause for a few seconds before your gallery show begins.

Galley Show will continue running until you stop it.  To stop a running gallery show, just press the spacebar key.

If you see a cool image generated at the end of a gallery show cycle you want to save, you can use the spacebar to stop the gallery show and then use the File: Save Canvas as menu to save the image.  If gallery show has already completed the cycle you were interested in and generated additional images you can stop the gallery show and then use the Edit : Undo menu to move back through previous gallery show cycle output.

You can also cancel the current gallery show cycle early and have it move on to the next cycle without stopping the gallery show run. This is not going to be particularly useful for the random vectorizer technique, but can be very useful to advance to the next cycle if you are using one of the paint synthesizer or dual paint techniques. To cancel the current cycle and move to the next on, hold down the shift key and then press the spacebar key.  Continue to hold down the shift key until the cycle advances.

The random vectorizer gallery show technique is capable of creating a wide range of different stylistic processing effects. Some different examples from our tutorial gallery show run are shown below.

Saving your gallery show art images

You can use Studio Artist’s Movie Stream features to save a folder of the art images generated by your custom gallery show. You could also save the sequential art show images in a movie file if you wish.

To save a folder of art images, you use the File : Stream : New Image Stream menu command. After running this menu command you get a standard file dialog that you use to select the folder where you want your art images to be saved in. You also specify a default name for your art images. Each saved art images will use that default name with additional numbering added at the end of the name.

After opening your image stream, you need to specify how frames will be written into the open image stream. To capture your gallery show art images you will need to run on the File : Stream : Flags: Enable Write on Gallery Show Cycle menu flag show above.

After you have opened a new image stream and enabled frame writing for gallery show cycles you can start your gallery show by using the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command. Each art image generated in a gallery show cycle will be written out into your specified movie stream folder.

When you finish your gallery show run, remember to close your open image stream. You can close an open image or movie stream by running the File : Stream : Close Open Stream menu command. This will also happen automatically when you quit Studio Artist.

Saving your gallery show evolved custom preset for later use

You also can record the custom randomized presets gallery show is generating for each cycle in a gallery show run. To do this you can use the History Sequence palette. Open the History Sequence using the appropriate Window menu. The turn on history recording by clicking the Rec check box at the top of the History Sequence palette.

When you start your gallery show run by using the Action : Run Gallery Show menu command, a new action step will be recorded in the history sequence at the end of each gallery show cycle. After you are finished with your gallery show run you can turn off history sequence recording by unclicking the Rec check box. Every randomized technique effect run in a gallery how cycle has been recorded as a single action step in the history sequence you recorded. You can export the history sequence to disk to save you gallery show run.

You can then use the contextual menu commands to play back specific history sequence action steps. To do this, hold down the control key (right click on windows) and the click on the action step you want to playback. A contextual menu will come up. Select the Play Selected Action Step menu to play back your specified action step. If you like the particular effect that was recorded in that action step you can export it as a preset file.

You can also open your exported history sequence as a paint action sequence. This can be useful because you can then just click on an individual action step’s initial frame 1 keyframe to play it back, as an alternative to using the contextual menus to play the action step.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed how to build a custom gallery show.  The particular gallery show technique we used was the Random Vectorizer technique.  We also shows how you can save art images created in a gallery show run by using the Image or Movie Stream features. And we showed how you can use the History Sequence to record and save the custom presets generated and used in the gallery show run.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of what Gallery Show is capable of in this short tutorial. Try out your own gallery shows and see for yourself.

For More Information

This tip and this article provide a quick overview of Gallery Show.

This tip provides more information on working with Movie and Image Streams.

This tip provides more information on Studio Artist’s Vectorizer.

Many of Studio Artist’s paint and image processing effects are raster effects. What this means is that they are pixel based. Raster paint and raster image processing effects are capable of generating amazing organic paint looks and photo realistic imaging effects. However, because raster image processing is pixel based you can’t arbitrarily scale raster image output to arbitrary print resolutions without interpolating the raster image, which can introduce interpolation artifacts at high interpolation ratios.

Vector graphic effects are inherently resolution independent, which means that vector file output can be printed at arbitrary resolutions with no interpolation artifacts. Studio Artist does have the capability to output vector file formats like EPS or SVG. Studio Artist also includes tools that can convert a raster image into a resolution independent vector representation. So you can take a raster image processing effect and by working in Studio Artist generate a modified version of the effect that outputs vector files, which can then be used for resolution independent printing or vector editing.

Raster to vector conversion does introduce artifacts when a continuous tone raster image is converted into a flat color region vector file. However, there are a large number of raster image processing effects that generate flat color raster output.  These kinds of image processing effects are ideal for conversion to vector output.

The Vectorizer has a special Technique option called Flat Input that is specifically designed to take a flat color raster image and convert it into a vector representation. We will utilize that vectorizer technique in this tutorial tip.

The specific image operation we’ll be working with for this tutorial is the Line Screen Regionize ip op. This image operation effects is raster in nature, but generates flat color effected output. The effect is designed to simulate different black and white or color lithography and screen print styles. It’s an example of a raster processing effect that is ideal for generating vector output.

The screen snap above shows the particular editable parameter settings we used for the Line Screen Regionize ip op. Note that the Ip Source is set to the Source Image and the Composite option is set to Replace, so the effect processes the source image and then places the effected output in the current canvas layer. The effect output is shown below.

Note that the effect is ideal for generating vector output because it is a flat color stylized representation of the source image. To convert the raster frame buffer into a vector representation we can now use the Vectorizer.

The screen shot above shows the vectorizer Generation control panel settings we used to convert out flat color raster image processing effect into vector output. Note that the Main Technique option is set to Flat Input. This particular technique assumes that you already have a flat color raster source image. If you are working with a continuous tone raster source image then you would use a different technique like the Image technique.

Note that all of the Filtering and Cleanup options are turned off. This is because we want to convert the flat color raster image into a vector representation with as little modification as possible.

The screen snap above shows the vectorizer Drawing control panel settings used for this example. These settings basically just pass through the flat color region’s original coloring and shape with no effected variation.

Again, the point of these particular vectorizer parameter options is to modify the original image as little as possible. You do have the option to turn on any of the various stylization or coloring options and add additional modifications to your original effect.

I recorded the 2 processing steps discussed above into a paint action sequence (PASeq) shown above. The first action step runs the raster image processing effect. The second action step converts the raster effect output into a vector representation. This 2 step PASeq can now be saved as a PASeq preset and used in the future to generate our custom vector processing effect.

Note that the particular vectorizer settings we used generate anti-aliased vector drawing, so even if you wanted to output a raster image file, using this 2 step technique is a great way to convert the Line Screen Regionize effect into something that generates anti-aliased output at edges in the effect.

When you are ready to generate vector file output with the PASeq preset, there are a few options available to choose from. You can generate EPS output or SVG output. To do this use the appropriate Action : Generate EPS or Action : Generate SVG menu option. Since we’re working with a complete effect recorded into a PASeq, you would use the ‘with Paint Action Sequence’ menu command option.

The screen snap above shows the resulting vector file output opened into Adobe Illustrator. All of the vector paths are completely editable in Illustrator or any other vector editing program when you output your effect this way.

For this particular example we output an SVG vector file and opened it in Illlustrator. Illustrator will also open an EPS vector file. Photoshop can also open EPS files and rasterize them into very high resolution image layers.

The screen capture above shows a zoomed in view of the EPS vector file in Apple’s Preview application. Note how the vector file output arbitrarily scales to an arbitrary zoom for display or for printing.

For More Information

Here’s a tip on generating EPS vector output.

Here’s a tip on generating SVG vector output.

Here’s a tip that discusses a different approach to generating vector output effects by using the Sketch Ip Op in conjunction with the paint synthesizer vector output capabilities.

The PASeq preset generated in this tutorial is available for download here.

Paint Synthesizer Overview

There are a number of different paint synthesizer control panels with associated user editable parameter options that work together to determine where individual paint strokes are positioned on the canvas.

• Path Start control panel – determines where individual paint strokes start to draw on the canvas.

• Path Shape and Path Angle control panels – determine how the individual paint strokes are drawn.

• Path End control panel – specifies additional conditions that can stop a paint stroke from drawing if one of those conditions is met.

Working with the Path Start and the Path End control panels is really the key to focusing automatic paint strokes to draw on certain restricted areas of the canvas.

Path Start Control Panel

The Path Start control panel determines where individual paint strokes begin drawing on the canvas. The path start Generator determines the initial start location sampling. You can think of the Generator as generating a series of spatial coordinates in the draw canvas that are physical locations where automatic paint strokes could start drawing.

There are additional path start controls that can be used to inhibit certain start locations output by the Generator from actually being used for drawing. Similarly some of the path start control options may define conditions that make certain spatial locations on the canvas more likely to be used as start locations for paint strokes. So the path start process works by generating a spatial position in the canvas and then evaluating whether to use that location for drawing or to skip it and move on to evaluating the next potential location for drawing.

The Max Stroke setting determines how many times the Generator tries to position a path start location for drawing. If no path start or path end inhibitors are turned on then that will be the number of paint strokes drawn when you press the action button. But if path start inhibitors are turned on, then the generator will try max stroke number of times to start a path but not all of those locations may actually end up being used for drawing.

The 2 Probability options weight certain generator start locations as being more likely to be kept or to be passed over. The action probability decision could be thought of as like a coin toss, it’s a random decision based on the specified probability function. The Texture Prob Weighting is useful for directing paths to start at locations associated with source edge detail, so try this option if you want your paint strokes to focus on drawing in the source edge areas of the canvas.

The Inhibitor specifies specific conditions that must be met at a path start location for painting to happen there or not. The example above has the Inhibitor set to White Only, which means that painting will only start in pure white areas of the canvas. By pure white we mean (255,255,255) RGB coloring. So if you started by erasing your canvas to white and then painted on top of the white canvas, you could use this inhibitor setting for subsequent paint passes to force paint strokes to only start in the remaining white areas of the painted canvas.

The Texture and Lum (luminance) Range controls can be used to associate path start locations with specific texture energies or luminance ranges. High texture energy would be associated with edge locations in the source image. A low luminance range (near 0) would be associated with black or dark areas of the image. A high luminance range (near 255) would be associated with white or light areas of the image.

Path Shape and Path Angle Control Panels

The Path Shape and Path Angle control panels determine how an individual paint stroke is drawn.  Paint strokes are dynamically generated on the fly during painting. The path shape generator and it’s associated editable controls work in conjunction with the path angle generator to dynamically control the drawing of individual paint strokes.

The path shape controls work together to determine the shape of the paint path. The path angle controls work to determine the angular direction of the paint path as it’s being drawn. The path angle control settings can have a big effects on the final physical appearance of the generated paint path for a given path shape control setup.

The path shape controls determine a maximum paint stroke length.  The generated paint strokes will be drawn to this specified maximum stroke length unless path end options are turned on. Depending on which path end control options are turn on, a generated path may stop drawing early if the associated activated path end conditions are met during the dynamic path drawing process.

Path End Control Panel

The Path End control panel is used to define conditions that if met will stop a paint strokes from drawing. There are a large number of different path end options. Some correspond to edge locations in the image, others correspond to certain characteristics of the source image like luminance or color ranges, path angle divergence, etc.

For example, if the Texture Range option is turned on, then a path will stop painting if it runs into a textured area with a certain energy range.  The settings shown above with a Texture Range Min of 40 and a Texture Range Max of 255 would correspond to edge locations in the source image.  So turning on the Texture Range control with these settings means that a path will stop drawing if it runs into an area of the canvas associated with a source image edge.

The Local Color Range option is useful for tightening up a painting.  When turned on it prevents a paint path from drawing if the color of the paint no longer represents the coloring of the source image in the location the path is currently drawing in. The Local Color Range Value determines how different the paint color can be from the associated source image coloring before the path stops drawing.

Blanking Buffer

The paint synthesizer includes a hidden Blanking buffer.  You can think of the blanking buffer as a 1 bit per pixel frame buffer than can be used to track paint coverage when drawing a set of paint strokes. There are controls located in the path start and path end control panels associated with blanking.

The path start Blanking controls shown above determine how the blanking buffer is filled (or not) when painting. The Blanking option determines what is drawn into the blanking buffer as painting takes place. The Brush option fills with the brush nib, the path option fills with the single pixel paint path. This second option is useful if you want to inhibit painting when it runs into a previously drawn paint stroke but to have the end of the path overpaint  the previous paint stroke a little.

If Reset Blanking is turned on then the blanking buffer is erased at the beginning of each auto paint step. If the blanking is not reset then the buffer will contain information about paint strokes drawn in previous auto-paint passes.

The path end control panel has a blanking option (shown above).  When this option is turned on then a dynamic paint stroke will stop drawing when it runs into a spatial location in the blanking buffer that is turned on. When used with the path start blanking options described above this would typically be where you had previously drawn a paint stroke.

Setting up the blanking buffer to reset for each auto paint step, fill with the brush nib or paint path, and to stop drawing when a paint stroke reaches a blanked out location is a common paint synthesizer editing convention used in many paint presets. It’s a way to speed up overpainting a canvas, since paint strokes will stop drawing when they reach a previously painted area rather than continue painting.

Like everything in Studio Artist, the blanking buffer is a tool that can be modified to use as you see fit. Typically it is used to track paint coverage as discussed above, but you could use it as a custom stencil buffer, user defined mask, or for other custom applications.

For More Information

For a general overview of the paint synthesizer check out this tip .

For an Introduction to the paint synthesizer check out this tip .

Detailed explanations of all of the adjustable control options for all of the control panels in the paint synthesizer are included in the Studio Artist User Guide pdf. The User Guide pdf is included in your main Studio Artist folder. You can read it with a pdf reader like Acrobat Reader or Apple’s Preview application.

The paint synthesizer’s editable parameters are adjusted in the Editor palette. The Editor palette is a generic editor that is context sensitive to Studio Artist’s main operation modes. When you are in Paint Synthesizer Classic Operation mode you can manually or automatically paint using the paint synthesizer and it’s associated Editor adjustable parameters.

The adjustable popup at the top of the Editor lets you choose between the different control panels available for any given operation mode. When in paint synthesizer classic operation mode this control panel popup displays the different paint synthesizer control panels.

To adjust the paint opacity you will want to select the Paint Fill Apply control panel.

There are 2 different adjustable parameters you can use to adjust the paint opacity. The Blend % control is the one you will typically use. This adjusts the blend of paint applied to the canvas. By decreasing the Blend % parameter you are reducing the amount of paint applied to the canvas, so the paint will appear lighter.

The Blend Mod parameter lets you apply a modulator to the Blend % setting. The modulator will modulate the blend of the application of paint onto the canvas from 0 to the specified Blend % setting. A common blend modulator is Path Pressure. Selecting this Path Pressure modulator option for the Blend Mod editable parameter will let you interactively modulate the paint blend based on your pen pressure when using a pen and tablet.

There are a large number of different Blend Mod options. You can edit your paint presets to interactively modulate the blend based on pen pressure, tilt, tilt orientation, path length, and many other options.

There’s also a Transparency % parameter available on the Paint Fill Apply control panel. This control lets you add additional true transparency to your paint independent of the blend setting.

Studio Artist’s painting engine tries to simulate the effect of applying nibs of paint on a brush to a canvas. The Blend control is working at that level of the physical paint on canvas simulation. So this is typically the control you will want to adjust to lighten up on the amount of paint being applied to the canvas. And this is the reason why the interactive modulators like pen pressure work with modulating the Blend.

The Transparency control provides a second level of true transparency adjustment. Adjusting this control will give you a transparency adjustment for your paint that is separate from the recursive mixing occurring at in the physical simulation of paint-canvas interaction going on in the paint synthesizer.  However,this control does not take the recursive paint mixing into account like the blend control does, so adjusting the transparency is not going to be as natural an effect as adjusting the blend for wet paint presets. This is the reason why you modulate the blend setting with pen pressure if you want to build a pressure sensitive paint preset.

The Replace Composite option assumes a 100% Blend, so the Blend % and Blend Mod controls vanish from the Paint Fill Apply control panel if you have the Composite control set to Replace.  If you change the Composite setting to Blend then the Blend controls will reappear. Blend % is available for all of the Composite settings except for Replace.

The Composite control lets you choose the particular compositing algorithm used to combine paint onto the canvas. Compositing algorithms are sometimes called transfer modes in other graphics programs. A compositing algorithm takes 2 images as input and combines them together in some specified way. Blend compositing linearly mixes the 2 images (paint and canvas being the 2 images in this case). Min compositing is a nonlinear kind of compositing that outputs the darkest pixels from the 2 input images. It’s useful to simulate some watercolor paint effects where the application of additional paint onto a canvas only darkens what is already marked on the canvas.

In this tutorial we’ll be exploring the use of Studio Artist 4’s Temporal Image Operations for processing movie files.  Temporal or time based image operations are effects that use multiple frames in a source movie to build each effected output frame. The example above is a single output frame that was generated using a temporal rank filter.

Studio Artist processes movie files with Paint Action Sequences (PASeq).  You can think of a PASeq as a script that details the series of processing steps that are need to produce a certain artistic effect. So any time you want to process a movie file you need to build a PASeq to implement the a particular processing effect you want to achieve.

Studio Artist 4 includes a new temporal image operation mode. Temporal means time based.  These new processing effects work with multiple video frames over time to implement their effects. For an introduction to temporal image operations check out this tip.

When working with temporal image operations you need to have a loaded source movie. Temporal image operations also don’t have the normal Ip Source options associated with standard image operations in Studio Artist since they are currently designed to only use the source movies as input (not the canvas or other layers). If you don’t have a movie file loaded as your source they won’t seem to do anything other than pass the source through to the canvas.

The section below shows off a few of the different temporal image operations used to process a source movie file. These are just a few of the different temporal processing effects you can work with.  All of the video processing examples we’ll discuss below were generated using the same source video footage of a skater on a black background.

Each of these examples was created with a simple PASeq that contained one temporal image operation action step. The PASeq used for the first example is shown below. The others are similar, the only difference is that they use different temporal image operations, but they are all just single step PASeqs.

Temporal Difference Matte

An example of processing the skater source movie with the temporal difference matte is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This effect tries to extract motion taking place in a series of video frames and encapsulate it into a single output frame.

Temporal Rank Filter

An example of processing the skater source movie with the temporal rank filter is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This particular example was generated using a max algorithm for the temporal rank filter. So it’s combining together the brightest information across multiple frames into a single frame. This particular setting works well for this example’s source video due to the light skater moving on a black background. Different algorithm settings will dramatically change the visual appearance of the effect.

Temporal Time AxisRotate

An example of processing the skater source movie with the temporal time axis rotate effect is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This effect essentially rotates the stack of video frames so that what was the time axis becomes a spatial axis and vice versa.  It’s great for ethereal special effects when working with video that has motion.  Depending on the scan direction you can extract moving objects while removing background detail, or generate more abstract motion effects that encapsulate motion over time like the one seen in this example.

Temporal Scan Tracker

An example of processing the skater source movie with the temporal scan tracker is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A let to right scan setting was used for this particular scan tracker effect.The scan direction is going to interact with movement in the video.  Movement in the direction of the scan motion will be extended, while movement in the opposite direction of the scan direction will be deemphasized.  A vertical scan would encapsulate the horizontal motion in the video very differently.

The scan tracker is also great for generating static panorama images from video pan sequences.

For More Information

An introduction to temporal image operations can be found here.

A Studio Artist News post that provides an overview of what you can do with temporal image operations is available here.

This tutorial has focused on using temporal image operations for processing movie files to generate movie file output. But temporal image operations are also great tools for 2D artists that allow you to generate static images derived from video sequences. You can do things like encapsulate motion in a video over time into a single static 2d image, or create panorama images from video pan sequences.

To process a movie file in Studio Artist you first record a Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) and then process a movie file with the PASeq. A paint strategy is the series of processing steps you need to implement in your PASeq to build up a particular visual effect.

This discussion will focus on some technique to construct cartoon style auto-rotoscope animation effects. What we mean by auto-rotoscope is that you work with one frame of a movie to build up a particular stylistic paint effect encapsulated in a PASeq preset and then Studio Artist automatically paints the rest of the frames in the visual effect style you created in your custom PASeq.

Here’s an example of a finished cartoon style animation effect generated by processing a source movie with a PASeq. The Vectorizer was used to generate this particular stylistic effect.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio Artist  has the capability to create a wide range of different stylistic cartoon effects. In this tutorial we’ll discuss a few of the many different processing approaches you can take to create cartoon style animation effects. There are also a lot of prebuilt factory PASeq presets that you can use to get started quickly creating cartoon animation image or movie processing effects.

When building up a PASeq for processing video you always want to have a paint strategy in mind. Paint Strategies are discussed in much more detail in the first part of this tutorial series, but the basic idea is to formulate the components of the visual effect style you are trying to achieve and then record action steps in your PASeq to implement the different steps necessary to build up the desired effect.

My initial thinking was that i wanted to generate a soft cartoon style that looked stylized but still retained a lot of the original source video characteristics. I used multiple applications of the Smooth image operation to generate this effect. The first Smooth action step processed the Source Image. The rest of the Smooth action steps process the Current Layer. The initial PASeq i constructed is shown below.

The Smart Blur ip op step was added for some additional edge smoothing. The Blur ip op step at the end is using an Edge 1 Composite setting and is actually a contrast boost sharpening step to boost the contrast and sharpness of the softening effect. The Simplify ip op is another processing effect that is very useful for generating soft cartoon styles.

The soft cartoon style animation i generated with the PASeq created above is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I liked the fact that the soft cartoon effect retained a lot of the source video characteristics. But after viewing it i wanted to try a more flat color cell animation cartoon style. To achieve this i used the Vectorizer to convert the soft cartoon canvas image into a flat color vector rendition. My modified PASeq with the additional vectorizer step is shown below.

I could have just run the vectorizer in a new single step PASeq by processing the original source image. But by processing a modified version of the source image i was able to achieve a more simplified flat color cartoon effect. Preprocessing your source footage to remove undesirable features or enhance desirable features prior to effect processing or painting is a useful tool to add to your paint strategy arsenal.

The flat color cartoon animation generated by my modified PASeq is shown below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After viewing the flat color cartoon animation output i decided that i liked it better for this particular sequence than my initial concept of a soft cartoon rendition. I then thought it would be interesting to try adding some additional vector paint sketching on top of the flat color cartoon rendition.

To achieve this i added the following action steps to my cartoon style PASeq. All of these steps were implemented by running different Path menu commands. First i erased the bezier path layer.

Then i generated a set of bezier paths derived from the source image edges.

Then i picked a thin vector stroke paint synthesizer preset. I used a Blend Composite setting with a low Blend % setting in the Paint Fill Apply control panel so that the vector sketch paint strokes i was adding would be more subtle when placed on top of the flat color cartoon canvas.

I then painted in the bezier path buffer using the vector paint preset i had just edited.

My final PAseq after recording the additional processing steps described above is shown below.

When i processed my source movie with this modified PASeq i generated the following cartoon style animation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Additional Cartoon Styles

The Vectorizer is capable of a wide range of different flat color cartoon styles and effects. The cartoon example at the very top of this tutorial post was generated with a single vectorizer action step in a PASeq that processed the source image. A vectorizer Region Effect was used used to stylize the generated vector regions in that animation.

Studio Artist 4 also allows for mix compositing when using the vectorizer so you can use repeated applications of the vectorizer with partial transparency to build up vector gradient effects that have some shading incorporated into them.

The Color Simplify image operation is also a very useful tool for generating cartoon styles. The cartoon style animation example below was generated using a single Color Simplify ip op action step in a PASeq.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many cartoon styles incorporate some form of thin line sketch outlining in addition to rendering image mass with soft gradient or flat color areas. There are many different ways to generate thin outline sketch effects in Studio Artist. Some image processing options include the Color Edge, Color Simplify, Edge, Gradient, Smart Contrast, Sketch Edge, and Watershed Regionize ip ops. The Color Edge and Sketch Edge ip ops can also directly generate bezier paths that could then be painted in by the paint synthesizer. The paint synthesizer is also capable of a wide variety of different sketch paint effects by itself.

For More Information

This tutorial is the second part in a series of tutorials on movie processing strategies. The first part of the tutorial is available here. The second part of this tutorial series is available here.

The PASeq presets i described above are included in the new Movie Processing Strategies category. These PASeq presets showcase some additional version 4 features that work well for movie processing.

For some additional information on the mechanics of processing a movie file with a paint action sequence check out this tip.