Animated Painterly Rendering with Photoshop Actions

The following techniques created this test animation :

1. Export frames of video into individual image files named sequentially: e.g. frame001.bmp, frame002.bmp, etc.

2. Generate a difference matte by combining images from the sequence in a way that eliminates the foreground. In this animation, that meant eliminating the dancers.

3. Create a Photoshop action or script which: creates a selection mask from a desaturated (gray scale) version of the image, generate a work path from the selection, then strokes the work path with the smudge tool.

This process creates nice still images, but many people complain that animations lack frame to frame consistency in the background. In other words, the drastic difference in strokes between frames makes for a relatively noisy or chaotic animation.

To address that frame coherency, paint a background image with the method described above, and then, for each frame of the animation, paint only the foreground.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• dec29differenceMattedCompletedShorter01

[abstractcement]

@Evilada, thank you for marking it as a favorite.

The frame rate here is 10 fps, but maybe 5 or 6 fps would look better.

Many systems have tried to improve frame to frame coherency, but nothing seems to solve the problem.

It might make sense to select key frames at the important moments in the sequence and then present a time lapse animation of a sequence of brush strokes needed to transform the painting from one key frame to the next.

It's on my todo list. :|

[evilada]

This came out great. Have you thought about dropping the frame rate of the initial video down closer to 12 fps before rendering to give it a more "animated" feel?