7 ms·

A Generative Approach to Simulating Watercolor Paints from Scratch

133 points by GarethX 9y ago

stuaxo 9y ago
Very nice !
akx 9y ago
Ah, I made something similar back when that original article came out. Should have maybe fleshed it out and posted on HN? https://github.com/akx/watercolour https://github.com/akx/watercolour
- akx 9y ago
  (Edit, in case anyone's still reading: here's the dist version. Refresh for another blob. https://akx.github.io/watercolour/ https://akx.github.io/watercolour/)
lanewinfield 9y ago
Reminds me of the (absolutely beautiful) watercolor maps by Stamen Design: https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor-process-3dd5135861fe https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor-process-3dd5135861fe
billfruit 9y ago
Are you able to generate dry brush type of strokes?
hungerstrike 9y ago
It's too bad that e-ink never really went anywhere. I'd love to have low-power/no-power, random, dynamic, full-color paintings hung up around my house.
dahart 9y ago
> In my seven years of programming I have had the most fun in the past few months after discovering generative art. Careful! It's totally addictive. Next thing you know, you'll be spending thousands on high res prints, or even worse, making it your day job and your hobby. ;) Nice work! It looks great, and I'm looking forward to more.
- noelwelsh 9y ago
  I feel myself getting this addiction. Can you say more about what kind of day jobs use these techniques? I realise that to achieve good results requires time, and the easiest way to find time is to spend working hours on it, so I'm considering pushing my consultancy in a direction that includes this kind of work---though I'm not actually sure what this is!
  - GuiA 9y ago
    Design teams at large companies that have a strong design culture, ad agencies, and design studios working on contract work (particularly installations for music events etc) are the kind of day jobs where you can work on these kind of things. It definitely takes some time (and a lot of personal work) to break in in this field though. Like most artistic practices sold to the Market, deadlines are usually tight, pay isn't the highest, and there are more people who would like to make a full time living from it than there is available paid work. Get in a routine (make things with regularity, many artists make something daily), make your work public (post it on Instagram/Twitter/art subreddits/etc.), make it clear that you're available for paid work, and after some time you might make it happen. Good luck!
    - noelwelsh 9y ago
      Thanks!
  - dahart 9y ago
    Vfx & animation is one place people do this, and what I’ve done. Advertising is another one, but probably more hit & miss, I think there are only a few people who figure out how to spend much time doing the fun stuff. Another avenue is selling your generative art, but having tried a little bit, breaking into the art market can be pretty tough. Some design work can let you practice generative techniques too.
    - noelwelsh 9y ago
      Thanks!
hidenotslide 9y ago
Nice idea, here's a little WebGL version inspired by your post. I just used a noise function rather than the polygons though. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lt2BRm https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lt2BRm
gene-h 9y ago
This reminds me of this one Siggraph paper where they did full bristle and fluid level simulation of paint and a paint brush[0][1]. [0]http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~wang.3602/Chen-2015-WB/Chen-2015-WB.pdf http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~wang.3602/Chen-2015-WB/Chen-2... [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-foZ64bIxEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-foZ64bIxEw
- enervate 9y ago
  I haven't used corel painter in a long time but I hope at they took this as some sort of inspiration about how paint mixes.
  - pasta 9y ago
    Verve painter is a great app for this kind of sim. http://www.taron.de/forum/ http://www.taron.de/forum/
kitanata 9y ago
Reminds me of this research paper by Adobe and their approach to bringing Water Color painting to Illustrator on the iPAD. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598012&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=848256239&CFTOKEN=82651607 https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598012&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CF...
graham1776 9y ago
Is there a website like codepen or jsfiddle to build and show off generative art in javascript? Would be a fun little community.
spankalee 9y ago
Back in a college graphics class I had a lot of fun, and some lucky success, with roughly simulating watercolors with GL shaders. I kept several textures that represented the paper, it's wetness, and the paint. The shader would calculate new states for each based on the previous state, time and user input. The cool thing was that you could watch the paint disperse in real time and could add things like gravity to cause it to drip down the page. It wasn't physically that accurate, but it looked pretty good and was super fun to hack on. If only I could find the source :(
swayvil 9y ago
This is a major generative art nexus right here : http://reddit.com/r/generative http://reddit.com/r/generative

133 points by GarethX 9y ago

Very nice !

akx 9y ago

Ah, I made something similar back when that original article came out. Should have maybe fleshed it out and posted on HN? https://github.com/akx/watercolour https://github.com/akx/watercolour

akx 9y ago
(Edit, in case anyone's still reading: here's the dist version. Refresh for another blob. https://akx.github.io/watercolour/ https://akx.github.io/watercolour/)

lanewinfield 9y ago

Reminds me of the (absolutely beautiful) watercolor maps by Stamen Design: https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor-process-3dd5135861fe https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor-process-3dd5135861fe

billfruit 9y ago

Are you able to generate dry brush type of strokes?

hungerstrike 9y ago

It's too bad that e-ink never really went anywhere. I'd love to have low-power/no-power, random, dynamic, full-color paintings hung up around my house.

dahart 9y ago

> In my seven years of programming I have had the most fun in the past few months after discovering generative art. Careful! It's totally addictive. Next thing you know, you'll be spending thousands on high res prints, or even worse, making it your day job and your hobby. ;) Nice work! It looks great, and I'm looking forward to more.

noelwelsh 9y ago
I feel myself getting this addiction. Can you say more about what kind of day jobs use these techniques? I realise that to achieve good results requires time, and the easiest way to find time is to spend working hours on it, so I'm considering pushing my consultancy in a direction that includes this kind of work---though I'm not actually sure what this is!
- GuiA 9y ago
  Design teams at large companies that have a strong design culture, ad agencies, and design studios working on contract work (particularly installations for music events etc) are the kind of day jobs where you can work on these kind of things. It definitely takes some time (and a lot of personal work) to break in in this field though. Like most artistic practices sold to the Market, deadlines are usually tight, pay isn't the highest, and there are more people who would like to make a full time living from it than there is available paid work. Get in a routine (make things with regularity, many artists make something daily), make your work public (post it on Instagram/Twitter/art subreddits/etc.), make it clear that you're available for paid work, and after some time you might make it happen. Good luck!
  - noelwelsh 9y ago
    Thanks!
- dahart 9y ago
  Vfx & animation is one place people do this, and what I’ve done. Advertising is another one, but probably more hit & miss, I think there are only a few people who figure out how to spend much time doing the fun stuff. Another avenue is selling your generative art, but having tried a little bit, breaking into the art market can be pretty tough. Some design work can let you practice generative techniques too.
  - noelwelsh 9y ago
    Thanks!

hidenotslide 9y ago

Nice idea, here's a little WebGL version inspired by your post. I just used a noise function rather than the polygons though. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lt2BRm https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lt2BRm

gene-h 9y ago

This reminds me of this one Siggraph paper where they did full bristle and fluid level simulation of paint and a paint brush[0][1]. [0]http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~wang.3602/Chen-2015-WB/Chen-2015-WB.pdf http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~wang.3602/Chen-2015-WB/Chen-2... [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-foZ64bIxEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-foZ64bIxEw

enervate 9y ago
I haven't used corel painter in a long time but I hope at they took this as some sort of inspiration about how paint mixes.
- pasta 9y ago
  Verve painter is a great app for this kind of sim. http://www.taron.de/forum/ http://www.taron.de/forum/

kitanata 9y ago

Reminds me of this research paper by Adobe and their approach to bringing Water Color painting to Illustrator on the iPAD. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598012&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=848256239&CFTOKEN=82651607 https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598012&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CF...

graham1776 9y ago

Is there a website like codepen or jsfiddle to build and show off generative art in javascript? Would be a fun little community.

spankalee 9y ago

Back in a college graphics class I had a lot of fun, and some lucky success, with roughly simulating watercolors with GL shaders. I kept several textures that represented the paper, it's wetness, and the paint. The shader would calculate new states for each based on the previous state, time and user input. The cool thing was that you could watch the paint disperse in real time and could add things like gravity to cause it to drip down the page. It wasn't physically that accurate, but it looked pretty good and was super fun to hack on. If only I could find the source :(

swayvil 9y ago

This is a major generative art nexus right here : http://reddit.com/r/generative http://reddit.com/r/generative