Painting photos with Corel Painter X

John Derry

Smart Stroke Painting empowers people with little or no drawing experience to paint their photos.
On a recent trip, I came across an old pickup truck parked in a ramshackle farm structure. The morning light illuminated the front of the truck, creating a visually appealing subject, so I took a few photos. When I reviewed the photos, I realized that the scene would make a nice drawing or painting. Corel Painter X provides the solution for effortlessly transforming photos into a wide range of convincing artwork. In this tutorial, I will create a chalk rendering from a photo. In this tutorial, you will learn about choosing a color scheme adding a border adding color to a border applying brushstrokes to the edges of a border creating a clone auto-painting with Smart Stroke Painting adding final touches

Original photo

Choosing a color scheme
I could have worked with the colors in the original photo, but by adjusting the colors, I enhanced the visual appearance of the chalk rendering. I adjusted the colors by using a color scheme from the Underpainting palette. Color schemes map an existing color range to the colors present in a target image. The Underpainting palette lets you test various color schemes. I liked the Impressionist color scheme but felt that it needed additional refinement, so I used the Photo Enhance controls to fine tune the image.

To choose a color scheme

1 From the Window menu, choose Show Underpainting.
This displays all three photo painting palettes: Underpainting, Auto-Painting, and Restoration.
You can test various color schemes and Photo Enhance settings by applying settings, then clicking the Reset button on the Underpainting palette to undo the changes. 2 From the Color Scheme box on the Underpainting palette,
choose Impressionistic Scheme.
3 To refine the color scheme, adjust the sliders in the Photo
Enhance area of the Underpainting palette. I used the Contrast slider to increase the contrast and the Saturation slider to reduce the saturation.
4 When you are satisfied with the color scheme, click the Apply
button near the bottom of the Underpainting palette.
The Underpainting palette lets you prepare your image before you clone and auto-paint the image.
The color scheme applied to the original photo makes the colors richer and more vibrant.

Adding a border

Many chalk and pastel drawings are rendered on colored paper. This gives greater contrast between the lighter tonalities, like white, and the darker tonality of the paper. By choosing a colored paper that is related to the colors in the photo, any unpainted areas will show through the drawing in a very realistic way, and act as a framing element.

To add a border

1 From the Canvas menu, choose Canvas Size. If the resulting border is too wide or too thin, you can undo the border by clicking Command + Z (Mac OS) or Ctrl + Z (Windows). 2 In the Canvas Size dialog box, type the number of pixels you
want into the boxes in the Adjust Size area. I added 200 pixels to each of the four borders. The number of pixels varies depending on the size of your image and the effect you want to achieve.
3 In the Canvas Size dialog box, click OK to apply the border.
You may need to enlarge the Document window to view the border. To resize the image window, drag the bottom-right corner until you can view the entire border. The color of the border is determined by the current paper color. The default color is white.

Adding color to a border

I want to change the color of the border so it compliments the photo's color range.
I filled the border with a steel blue color by using the Paint Bucket tool. Depending on the image colors, the fill can flood into areas of the photo. To avoid this problem, use a selection to protect the photo. The selection isolates the border and constricts the fill to the border area.

To choose a color

1 From the Window menu, choose Color Palettes > Show Colors to You can sample a color from your image and use it as the border color by choosing the Dropper tool in the toolbox and clicking a color in the image. The color is displayed as the Main Color swatch in the Colors palette.
display the Colors palette.
2 Click a color on the Hue Ring. 3 Inside the Hue Ring, click the Saturation/Value triangle to set
the exact shade you want. The Main Color swatch in the lower-left corner of the Colors palette displays the selected color.
3 The Colors palette: (1) Hue Ring, (2) Saturation/Value triangle, (3) Main Color swatch
To avoid color gaps between the photo and the border, place the selection along the inside edge of the photo.

To isolate the border area
1 In the toolbox, choose the Rectangular Selection tool
2 In the document window, drag across the photo to enclose it in
a rectangular selection. The selection is indicated by a dashed line called a marquee.
3 From the Select menu, choose Invert.
The photo portion of the image is now protected.
To fill the border with color
1 From the toolbox, choose the Paint Bucket tool
2 Click anywhere on the border to fill the area with the color you

have selected.

3 Remove the rectangular selection by choosing Select menu >
If you want to create a border quickly, you can choose a preset border from the Edge Effect box on the Underpainting palette and use the Amount slider to determine the width of the border.
Applying brushstrokes to the edges of a border
Chalk drawings on colored paper generally have an imprecise border rather than a straight border. Applying brushstrokes to the edges of the border helps hide the photographic source of the image. I used the Square Chalk brush variant from the Chalk Category to apply brushstrokes. It is important at this point to choose a paper grain. The grain of paper can dramatically affect the appearance of the image.
To apply brushstrokes to the edge of the border
1 On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Category selector, and
choose Chalk from the list.
2 On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Variant selector, and
choose Square Chalk from the list.
Brush Variant selector Brush Category selector
3 In the toolbox, click the Paper Selector to display the available

paper textures.

Paper Selector 4 Choose Coarse Cotton Canvas from the list. 5 Using the same color as the border, scribble along the inside
edges of the border to break up the photographic edge.

Creating a clone

Now that the image preparations are complete, I can clone the image by using the Quick Clone feature in the Underpainting palette. By default, the Quick Clone command creates the clone, also called a target image, with Tracing Paper enabled. Tracing Paper lets you see the underlying source image, which is useful for tracing and hand-cloning specific areas. For auto-painting, I turn the Tracing Paper off so I can work with a blank canvas. I fill the blank canvas with the same steel blue color that I applied to the border. This lets the proper paper color show through in any unpainted areas, which enhances the hand-drawn appearance of the final image.

To clone the image

On the Underpainting palette, click Quick Clone.
You can toggle Tracing Paper on and off easily by pressing Command + T (Mac OS) or Ctrl + T (Windows).
When you use Quick Clone, the Tracing Paper feature displays a faded version of the source image on the new document.
To turn Tracing Paper off
From the Canvas menu, choose Tracing Paper.
To fill the cloned image with the border color
1 From the Effects menu, choose Fill. 2 In the Fill dialog box, ensure the Current Color option is

enabled, and click OK.

The color selected in the Colors palette determines the color of the fill.
Auto-painting with Smart Stroke Painting
With the clone now prepared, you can move onto the autopainting stage by using the new Smart Stroke Painting features in Corel Painter X. Smart Stroke Painting empowers people with little or no drawing experience to paint their photos. Brushstrokes are intelligently applied using the structure of the source image. I used both the Smart Stroke Painting and Smart Settings options. Smart Stroke Painting evaluates the source image and applies directional strokes to the clone. This mimics the manner in which many drawings and paintings are created.
If you do not enable the Smart Settings option, the brush size remains constant when you use Smart Stroke Painting.
The Smart Settings option progressively reduces the size of the brush. The initial brushstrokes do not necessarily resemble the source imagethese large, coarse brushstrokes block in the basic color areas. As the process continues, the brush size decreases and finer brushstrokes are applied to the areas of detail. The result is an image that appears to have been painted or drawn by hand. You can auto-paint with most brush variants, but there is an advantage to choosing a brush variant from the Smart Stroke Brushes category. Smart Stroke brush variants are optimized for Smart Stroke Painting, and like brush variants from the Cloner category, they are already set to clone the colors from the source image. If you choose a brush variant from another brush category, you must enable the Clone Color option on the Colors palette. After you choose a brush variant, you can start auto-painting. You can let the auto-painting process complete its cycle or you can stop the process when the desired visual effect is achieved.
If the Clone Color button on the Colors palette is not enabled, the brush does not sample colors from the source image; instead, the brush applies the color displayed in the Main Color swatch.
To auto-paint by using Smart Stroke Painting
1 On the Auto-Painting palette, enable the Smart Stroke Painting
check box and the Smart Settings check box.
The Auto-Painting palette is displayed below the Underpainting palette. If the Auto-Painting palette is closed, you can open it by choosing Window menu > Show Auto-Painting.

This action disables the stroke adjustment controls. This action also updates the Brush Selector bar to display the Smart Stroke Brushes category.
2 Do one of the following:
On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Variant selector and choose a Smart Stroke brush variant from the list (such as Chalk Texture). On the Brush Selector bar, choose a brush category and a brush variant, and click the Clone Color button on the Colors palette. I used the Square Chalk brush variant from the Chalk category.
3 On the Auto-painting palette, click the Play button
The Speed control can be used to adjust the speed with which brushstrokes are applied.

4 Click the Stop button

when you are satisfied with the

results.

If there are specific details in your image, such as faces, that you want to restore, choose the Soft Edge Cloner brush from Restoration palette (below the Auto-Painting palette), and drag over the areas that you want to restore.

Adding final touches

I decided to finish the brushwork by hand-blending areas of the image. As a final touch, I added a modest amount of surface texture to the image.
To hand-blend image areas
From the Brush Selector bar, choose the Blenders category, and choose the Diffuse Blur variant. I used this brush variant to soften areas at the border edges. This enhances the hand-drawn quality of the image.

To add surface texture

1 From the Effects menu, choose Surface Control > Apply Surface

Texture.

2 In the Apply Surface Texture dialog box, ensure Paper appears
in the Using box. The Paper texture is used to create the surface texture.
I used the same Coarse Cotton Canvas paper texture that I chose earlier.
3 In the Appearance of Depth area, adjust the sliders to get the
texture you want. I adjusted the Amount slider (set to 11%) and the Shine slider (set to 0%) to add texture without distracting from the artwork.
The Apply Surface Texture effect lets you add a three-dimensional quality to the image surface so it resembles the texture of a rough paper or canvas.
The final surface texture step is optional. For ink-jet output to a fine art paper or canvas, you probably wont need it. For publishing on the Internet or printing on a smooth-surfaced medium, however, the addition of the surface texture simulates a traditional drawing surface.

About the author

John Derry is a pioneer of digital painting and one of the original authors of Corel Painter. Since 1985, he has leveraged his background in drawing and painting to advance the look and experience of traditional art-making tools on the computer. John has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Fine Art and is a practicing artist and photographer. He is currently serving as Corel Painters Ambassador-at-Large. John's web site is at www.pixlart.com.
Portions copyright 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Portions copyright 2007 John Derry. All rights reserved. Corel, Painter and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other product, font and company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Animating frames with Corel Painter X

by Gitanjali Rao

Traditional animators, working on paper using a light box, would draw the first and last positions of the character. These two drawings were called key frames. By keeping these two key frames on top of each other on the light box, an animator could use both drawings as a reference while creating the third drawing, which would be the inbetween frame of the motion.
The 15-minute short animation film Printed Rainbow was created by using the frame stacks feature and the wide variety of brushes in Corel Painter X. The film was later composited on other software and digitally transferred to 35mm film. Because of the way Corel Painter imitates the original media such as oil paints, charcoal, and watercolor few people in the audience realized that the film was painted on a computer! In the film, an old lady, the protagonist of the film, walks down the corridor of an old palace. She stops to look at the women in the harem, who are dancing and singing. She then turns away and walks toward the camera and past it. In this tutorial, I describe the process of showing this character turning her face. In this animation, I used key frames and inbetween frames, as well as the onion skin feature. In this tutorial, you will learn about creating the frame stack file creating the background painting the first key frame painting the second key frame painting inbetween frames
Creating the frame stack file
The first thing you need to do is create an animation file, or frame stack (FRM) file.

To create an FRM file

1 Choose File > New. 2 In the New dialog box, enter the following information:
Its easy to add to, or delete frames from, an FRM file. Choose Movie > Add Frames or Movie > Delete Frames and enter the appropriate frame information in the Add Frames or Delete Frames dialog boxes.
Width: 720 pixels Height: 576 pixels Resolution: 300 pixels. This is the appropriate resolution for television.
3 For Picture Type, choose Movie With, and type the number of
frames. For this tutorial, start with 15.

4 Click OK.

An Enter Movie Name dialog box opens.
5 Enter the name for your animation file.
A New Frame Stack dialog box opens.
6 In the New Frame Stack dialog box, select 3 for Layers of Onion
Skin, and 24-bit color with 8-bit alpha for Storage Type.

7 Click OK.

Creating the background
I have already used oil on canvas to create the background of the palace that will be the background for the whole animation. I now need to paste the background into all the frames of my FRM file.
To create a background in multiple frames
You can use keyboard shortcuts for many tasks. To open a file, choose Cmd + Shift + O for Mac OS, or Ctrl + Shift + O for Windows. To select all, choose Cmd + A for Mac OS, or Ctrl + A for Windows. To copy, choose Cmd + C for Mac OS, or Ctrl + C for Windows. To paste, choose Cmd + V for Mac OS, or Ctrl + V for Windows. 1 Choose File > Open, and select the background file. 2 Choose Select > All to select the background image, and choose
Edit > Copy to copy it.
3 Click in the first frame, and choose Edit > Paste. To paste the
background in each subsequent frame, press the Page Up key repeat the same action.
4 Drop the background layer by choosing Layers > Drop All. This
merges the background layer into the canvas.
Painting the first key frame
I now need to paint the close-up of the old ladys face onto the background.
To paint the first key frame
1 Return to the first frame by clicking the Rewind button

in the

Frame Stacks palette.
2 Choose the Tapered Round Oils 15 brush variant from the Oils
category. Paint flat colors to define the basic planes of the face.
3 On the property bar, reduce the brush size to about 5, and add

details to the face.

4 To create a true oil-paint look, change the brush to the Oil
Palette Knife variant of the Artists Oils category, keeping the size at 5. Blend the various oil paints. Also, slightly blend the edges of the face into the background.
Corel Painter X now also has easy access to dodge and burn tools from the toolbox. To highlight an image, choose the Dodge tool. To darken an image, choose the Burn tool.
5 To work on the lighting, change the brush to the Burn variant
of the Photo category, and apply burn patches to the shadow area. Use the Dodge variant of the Photo category to apply highlights.
6 To make it mimic the look of oil paints, carefully blend the areas
of shadow and highlight into the face. Add a few more detailed strokes using the Tapered Round Oils variant of the Oils category and blending using the Oil Palette Knife variant of the Artists Oils category. The first key frame is ready.
Painting the second key frame
The number of frames displayed on the Frame Stacks palette is determined by the number of onion skin layers. A red triangle appears above the current layer.
Now, to prepare the next key frame of the face turned toward the camera, I need a reference to the previous image. To accomplish this, I can use the onion skin feature (Tracing Paper).
To paint the second key frame
1 Navigate to frame 2 in the Frame Stacks palette.
2 Choose Canvas > Tracing Paper. This command lets you see the
first key frame and use it as a reference while you paint the second key frame.
3 Paint the image of the old lady, using the same methods as you
used for the first key frame.
Creating inbetween frames
To create smooth movement between frames 1 and 2, you need to add inbetween frames. After you paint an inbetween frame, you need to place it correctly in the frame sequence.
To paint an inbetween frame
1 Navigate to frame 3 in the Frame Stacks palette. 2 Choose Canvas > Tracing Paper to turn on the tracing paper.
Since we set the layers of onion skin to 3, the tracing paper shows three frames at a time. This setting lets you use the key frames (frames 1 and 2) to use as references for your painting.

used for the key frames.

I decided to make the old lady blink her eyes, to add realism to the movement.
4 Turn the Tracing Paper off and on to check whether the
inbetween frame looks okay. Paint and blend more, if necessary, to complete the frame.

To place an inbetween frame
1 Choose Movie > Add Frames. 2 In the Add Frames dialog box, enter 1 in the Add box, select
After, and enter 1 in the frame box. Click OK. One frame is added after frame 1, so the inbetween frame you just painted becomes frame 4.
3 Go to frame 4, and choose Select > All. 4 Copy the frame by choosing Edit > Copy. 5 Return to frame 2, and paste the layer by choosing Edit > Paste. 6 Choose Layers > Drop to drop the layer into the canvas.
Now, frame 1 is key frame 1, frame 2 is an inbetween, and frame 3 is key frame 2.
If you want the animation to be smoother and more detailed, use the same techniques to add more frames.

Conclusion

Using Corel Painter X, I created 15 frames to show the old lady turning her head, blinking, and walking past the camera.

About the author

Gitanjali Raos two independently produced, directed, and animated short films, Orange and Printed Rainbow, have won her 11 international awards. She has attended more than 40 festivals all over the world, and has the distinction of being the first Indian animator to win three awards at the Cannes Film Festival. She also has a string of popular and award-winning animated commercials to her credit. A self-taught animator, Gitanjali learned on the job during her association with many studios and film projects early in her career. Her keen interest in narrative techniques led her into acting and stage crafts for a while. Painting, theater, and folk arts of a culturally rich land finally synthesized into the art of making animated films. Gitanjali Rao currently works as an independent animator and illustrator working on her own films as well as other projects. For more information about Gitanjali, visit her website at www.printedrainbow.com.
Portions copyright 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Portions copyright 2007 Gitanjali Rao. All rights reserved. Corel, Painter, and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product, font, and company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.