Hi all! I have a commission to do hospital photos>to watercolor... Using painter would take a milenium and the automated scripts do not yield great results in either photoshop or painter. I know there are some ggod plugins out there and was wondering if anybody might know which ones are really good.

Thanks - Rod

You could try this - http://www.virtualpainter5.com/

Thanks Gill!

I use Virtual Painter now and then, and it's quite nice.

Thanks I will try it, actually downloading the trial right now. I just really have not found ANYTHING that was even half decent.

Thank You

I've done paintings in both Photoshop and Painter, and like you say, it's very tedious. The results are certainly worth it, but if it's for work, and with a deadline, it just takes too long. Especially if you have several to do. I think Virtual Painter, if you play with the settings and perhaps combine more than one image, can do a very passable job.

Hi.  I was looking at the Virtual Painter website but could not see where they listed the system requirements.  Would Virtual Painter work on a mac?

Thanks.

Sincerely,

David

Virtural Painter

Minimum System

OS: Microsoft® Windows® 98 / Me / 2000 / XP (Not compatible with Mac OS)

Oh well. Thanks anyway. David

Attached Link: http://www.davrodigital.co.uk/tutorials/haye-island-cafe/hayes-island-cafe.htm

http://www.davrodigital.co.uk/tutorials/haye-island-cafe/hayes-island-cafe.htm

I had to modify it a bit as I actually use Paint Shop Pro...

I hope this helps...

Attached Link: http://www.davrodigital.co.uk/tut1.htm

Cardiff Bay

The Gift Shop

Plus there are many more great tuts there...

Cheers

Ken

Th3ere's a Mac program called, I think, Canvas, that might fill your need.

Attached Link: http://www.davrodigital.co.uk/tut2.htm

WOW! As always, GREAT STUFF! Thank you all, jfyi virt painter really does produce excellent results for as little input and tinkering as is required. Also love the 1stopactions!

Thanks - Rod

Try this , BTW its only work in Adobe Photoshop CS2

Attached Link: Skyopal (Anita )

There are some great presets for it, including wet paper, wetter, and one of my favorite's Arctic Brush.  It is free!!!

There is another great plugin  and some things to add to it for great results.  Check out Retouch Pro website for presets for both of these and instructions.

Another good thing is Buzz >Simplifier. It quickly removes some detail, as much as you like, light or dark, and makes a photo look like a water color.

Lots of folks like to use Mehdi filters to enhance the edges, whether black or in the colors in the photo, increasing saturation, or outlining in the color of your choice which is super effective.

DC Special also has an Outliner tool with lots of variations . If you have a layer that is outlines, a layer that has been Buzz simplified, a Virtual Painter layer, Impressionist, Paint Engine or any combination of the above, you can create some cool painted effects easily.

Another trick I like to do is simply create a blank layer and dabble different colors of paint with some drybrush or charcoal brush shape and use it as an overlay over your outlined drawing.

Also, add a sandstone texture or a watercolor paper texture for a realistic finish.

These are my personal favorites and if you try them on layers and play around with different opacities and blend modes, you should be able to create lots of 'paintings'.