Newsletter #207 - Spooky Paint Tool: Watercolor FX
painting with fluids
Update Nov 1st, 2024:
We now have a dedicated page about WatercolorFX at thebest3d.com/wcfx
- Build 0009 is now Shipping
We also have updated the release build, it is now build 0009
- Announcing Support for GPU mode
WatercolorFX now can also run on GPU. You will find a new toggle button to switch between CPU mode and GPU mode.
- CPU mode is the default. If you have a great number of CPU cores and fast RAM (such as DDR5 at 6400 MHz), you might find this to be the fastest.
The speed is mostly affected by transferring a lot of data to and from the CPU to GPU, so the speed of that data transfer will make all the difference. If you have a fast GPU but it's sitting on a slow bus, CPU might still be faster.
- GPU mode can be enabled with the new toggle button. On some systems, GPU mode will be faster. It varies by the details of the configuration. If you have slow RAM and a high-end GPU, it might be faster with GPU mode.
Update Oct.25, 2024:
- WatercolorFX (standalone edition) is now also available here:
https://www.thebest3d.com/sales/index.html#wcfx
Update Oct.24, 2024:
Now available as plugin for Howler and new! Also as Standalone fun tool!
Available now at
https://pdhowler.com/Cart.htm
For more newsletters please look here: https://www.thebest3d.com/newsletters and earlier ones here: https://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/newsletter
Dan continues to create new filters and plugins to add to the Howler 2025 offering. In this newsletter we'll take a look at a Watercolor FX tool.
Announcing the
WatercolorFX Painter
A very cool new paint tool has been
added: Watercolor_FX - paint with liquids!Here is a video that showed its early designs, as a POC, proof of concept. It has evolved since but this is a good first idea.
Dan's Watercolor Simulation POC - https://youtu.be/xjP5URcybGQ
Yes, you heard this right: with liquids! We're trying to add a level of liquid behavior to the paint.
Indeed, the main goal for this development is to simulate liquid paint, with gravity from mother Earth pulling it downward on your digital canvas.
You paint and it keeps 'dripping' down, and you get to adjust the strength of that gravitational force. But it can also expand in other directions, and you get to control that too. blending with other colors on the paper. It also shows paper texture. All in all, it's another step closer to simulating watercolor.
You can start from a blank image or pre-load another image, from Howler or from the Clipboard. And send it back to Howler or the clipboard too. We're also thinking about making it a standalone app, not needing Howler, so you can use it by itself as a fun companion to other paint and illustration tools.
Here is a brief vedieo showing installation and first steps with it:
https://youtu.be/8tWevELurck?si=U1FVp_7QacjqyZ6l
Do you like it?
You can place your order here from Dan directly:
https://pdhowler.com/Cart.htm
Looking for more examples? Watch the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/pdhowler
Some examples below.
Here's a brief reminder and summary of other recently released new features:
LiquidFX mesh tool.Pinch, punch, and push your pixels around like liquid.
Advanced Feature Removal tool.
Uses a technique similar to Poisson blending to remove features and replace the underlying texture with a new one.
Advanced Chromakey tool.
Allows multiple samples instead of just one color to fine tune your key. Green spill suppression option. Great tool to isolate objects from the background in many cases that would have been more difficult in the past, especially if you have uneven lighting on your green backdrop,
Halftone gradient.
Create a gradient between 2 colors using a halftone pattern to blend between them. Can also be (ab)used for strannge new elevation maps in weird 3D landscapes.
Canny Edge Detection(!)
New type of edge detection, creates great outline illustrations in many cases. If you're creating line art for example to make coloring books, this should be awesome.
New text tools:
Still evolving, details tbd, might include edge outline size, drop-shadow, gradient, Auto-correct. We might also get some other text tools such as text on curve, Bezier, 3D warp, or some other kind of warp, or maybe some animated text of some kind. This one is continuing to undergo new features. It's almost a tool by itself now. You can save to vector format and use in other tools even inside Howler, look for Callouts, or use it in other apps? Stay tuned for more on this.
Here are more recently added Videos
https://youtu.be/aEhszWW2hnI?si=Q2C6vETghYdBc-REIn other news, we also have taken a look at techniques to draw circles. Here are a few videos you might enjoy:
Circles103-
https://youtu.be/scI4TyyttvA?si=8gDoaboznQJl33tL
Circles102-
https://youtu.be/IHjl_Gdlg2E?si=5tfGAz_uaqbvWID7
Circles101-
https://youtu.be/pHJ28_kMuv4?si=oqiArUPeBoBGAsBd
You'll notice that we can load shapes from EMF format (Enhanced Metafile). There are numerous vector graphics tools and illustration programs that can save to .emf format. Use those to create additional shapes to work with in Howler, including perfect circles!
Stay tuned for more fun explorations with the new Watercolor FX.
And thank you for waffling and howling! If you like this new feature please help spread the word in your social media.
Team Dogwaffle,
https://www.pdhowler.com & https://www.thebest3d.com
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