Bernard has recently been posting some imagery that starts in Studio Artist, but the lighting shadow effects are then done using other software. Bernard, could you try to delineate the additional shadow lighting features you would like to see added into Studio Artist. Please be as specific as possible.
As we have recently discussed, it is possible to configure Studio Artist to add shadow lighting after the fact to flat colored region images. Some PASeq presets were posted here to show off some possible ways of doing the shadow lighting effect.
There are some new shadow lighting effects that are available as options in the extended vectorizer we are working on for Studio Artist 5. I tweaked some of those features based on the existing discussion Bernard has brought up.
I also tweaked a few things in the paint synthesizer to make this kind of shadow lighting effect easier to add to painted regions. So you can get shadow lighting effects when working with path start regionization using the 'region fill as brush' pen mode.
I'm happy to add additional feature tweaks if needed to allow for additional shadow lighting styles. It helps to suggest very specific effect enhancements to make this happen, since i might not be seeing the same things in a particular image that you are seeing.
I'm also not totally convinced that the effects shown can't be generated in Studio Artist already. As already pointed out, it's pretty easy to add shadow lighting via a PASeq preset. My recent v5 code tweaks have cleaned up a few things you'd like to do but couldn't quite get to in v4.
Some of the other images you've shown just look like blurred images that are then quantized with a few levels to get the stacked flat regions that shadow lighting is then applied to. Blurring and quantizing is pretty easy to do in Studio Artist, so i'm unclear why you would need another program to do that kind of effect?
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I thought it might be useful to have a MSG processor or 2 for this kind of effect. So i've been playing around with adding that this afternoon.
So these kinds of conversations do influence additional features that end up being added to Studio Artist.
I think this is a very exciting direction and am curious to see where it goes. I have found that using the Gradient Lighting function already in SA that I typically want to have the "light" come from one direction primarily and then use a lower intensity setting coming from the opposite direction to get the fill/bounce light that would naturally occur. Any chance of building this into the Lighting Shadow processor?
I've been recently trying to think of lighting effects for flat stacked regions as having a region lip and region cast shadow component. The lip effects really sit within the edge boundaries of the region, and give a sense of dimensionality to the region itself. the cast shadow acts to give the region a raised appearance.
The existing gradient lighting effect seems to be more of a lighting lip effect. This new Lighting Shadow processor discussed here is a cast shadow effect. You'd have to run it twice right now to get a second shadow in the opposite direction.
I'll play around with the effects you are talking about using a cast shadow. I have been playing around with adding a second lip generated by the opposite direction lighting, that shifts luminance up rather than down. So you get a shadow lip on the far side, and a lighted lip on the close side of the direction the lighting is coming from.
Happy to read that it ends with a new processor, thanks John !
Adding grouping to Paint Action Sequences and/or MSG processor chain has been suggested before as cool features to add. I would agree with those suggestions.
The shadow features we added to the v5 vectorizer include a cast shadow (offset from the region) as well as a shadowed lip bevel (interior to the region at it's edges). You can adjust the extent of the shadow, angle of the shadow, blend of the shadow, etc.
The vectorizer shadows don't currently have a soft edge feather option, it's a solid shadow with alpha blend adjust. That's because they are vector based, not raster effects, that can support eps and svg file output.
I guess we could think about adding a raster shadow option to the raster vectorizer render option. That could have a hard or soft option. Some of your adjustable controls associated with positioning the lighting are really just adjusting the edge softness of the cast shadow.
"so i'm unclear why you would need another program to do that kind of effect?"
I suppose you mean the 3D layers pictures ?
I didn't make tests with SA to have this result
Actually I adapt my light/shadow FF preset to other existing FF preset, only to see if it generates cool effects.
Initially this preset gave this picture :
Adpating my preset in another is very easy with the new "group" function of FF; I group all the icones in only one and so I can introduce it anywhere in another preset
So it gave this result.
In FF to create a preset is different as with SA;
I posted the technical diagram of my preset for info.
And here the same preset with the new "group" function :
So with this method it's easier to modify existing presets...
John, the lighting shadow controls I like to use are :
The pictures (cubist dancers, portrait 563, 558, 554, 550, volume painting VP1, VP2 have depth 0, if I increase this value to 30 or more there are artifacts.
Here examples with different values of the shadow control :
first example, values I used for all my pictures :