Dynamic Auto-Painter 2.5 review

Dynamic Auto-Painter is a bitmap-based application designed to automatically convert your images into creative works of art. As such, its goal is very similar to the filter-based PostworkShop, but there the similarity ends. Dynamic Auto-Painter takes your photo or 3D rendering as its starting point, but then repaints it from scratch.

Using Dynamic Auto-Painter couldn’t be simpler: you just load your image, select an artistic style and hit Start. After a few seconds of preparation, your canvas will turn blank and then brush strokes in the appropriate style will start appearing.

To begin with, the brush dabs are large, blocking in the overall effect, but then shrink over time to add more detail. A crucial stage is the dry reveal where the artwork suddenly seems to come into focus, and further strokes are added to bring out highlights and shadows. After a few thousand strokes, your artwork is finished and ready to be saved.

Clearly the success or otherwise of this automated approach depends on the quality of the styles. Dynamic Auto-Painter 2.5 now offers a total of 23, including common media-based effects such as chalk, pastels, pencil and watercolour, as well as others based on particular artists such as Camille, Cezanne, Monet and Sargent.

Crucially, in all cases, the end results don’t look like filtered bitmaps, but like real artworks that have been created from a blank canvas by a real artist. Select the Klimt style, for example, and the image is recreated complete with signature whorl patterns, and a red and gold colour scheme.

Dynamic Auto-Painter takes care of all the painting, but the user isn’t left entirely out of the loop. In particular, you can radically change the end artwork before the painting begins by colour correcting the original, removing unwanted areas, creating detail and focus masks and choosing a colour palette.

During painting, you also have some control over the size of brushes and where strokes are applied, and new to this version is the ability to both roll back the painting process and pause it to change palette or style.

You can certainly help the creative process along, but in most cases you don’t need to, as Dynamic Auto-Painter’s default settings produce results that are both striking and aesthetically pleasing. That’s hugely impressive, and Dynamic Auto-Painter delivers brilliantly on its promise of real art in short order – and at an excellent price.

Author: Tom Arah