
A Generative Approach to Simulating Watercolor Paints - dlsym
http://www.tylerlhobbs.com/writings/watercolor
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femto
I can see the fascination of this problem. There are so many ways to approach
it, from addressing the physics, to higher level attempts to get the right
look. Searching around, it seems to have justifiably caught the imagination of
many.

Here's another approach, made interesting by its use the connection machine
[1], whereby an attempt is made to simulate the diffusion of pigments though
paper.

[1]
[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/72ab/54ecaaf7458853bd441b94...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/72ab/54ecaaf7458853bd441b9458ac3130526596.pdf)

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tylerhobbs
Great comment! Yes, there are many other approaches that are more true to
reality, to the point where they are fairly thorough simulations of physics.
My approach is somewhat like a five minute figure drawing sketch compared to
the equivalent of hyper-realistic 100 hour paintings. Neither is necessarily a
better approach, but both are good for different goals. What I like about my
approach is that it is very easy for me to understand and manipulate. I can
take advantage of this to make new effects that are less like reality but
still intriguing in their own way.

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arethuza
I have to say that the "sample works" look superb - I wonder what they would
look like printed onto fabric? I visited quite a successful manufacturing
company here in the UK and they basically had huge inkjet printers printing
their designs onto fabric...

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gedy
Really awesome effect! If author is here, would love to hear more about the
'deformation function' mention - is it a fractal height-map type approach that
splits each line of polygon and deflects?

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tylerhobbs
Author here. Thank you! Yes, I think you have the basic gist of it. Split each
line, then move an endpoint. There's nothing too complicated about the
algorithm, the trick is really around fine tuning all of the possible
parameters. If it's not obvious, my approach is purely going after aesthetic
effects.

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gedy
Thank you, this is great, I may try this approach out for a personal painting
app I've been toying with

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k__
I was mind blown when I read how much algorithmic skills were applied to
drawing software back in the days.

