Paint Filters

Decisions, decisions

During last semester I was pretty set on trying to light and render my scenes in Unreal 5. I had done some research and tests and was quite happy with the results but just simply couldn’t get over the fact that I had so little time to master a software that was completely foreign to me. The learning process was daunting and I continuously kept pulling back to Blender. After trying out the post-processing node set-up for the painterly finish I was pretty keen on going back to Blender in case it could offer better results. The filter in Unreal just wasn’t worth all the effort it took to learn the software just now. I’ll definitely learn it eventually, it’s really vital for my job hunting, but for this project, it would just be wasted time.

So I went ahead and searched the internet for something similar in Blender, as I’m 100% more familiar and content with that. And there it was, a massive node tree simplified into one appended plug-in! I had known of the existence of the filter before, but until now it was only a ridiculously intense tutorial of building the most intricate node tree of all time to achieve the look and I have to admit it seemed way too many possibilities of error and lost hairs. But during this time in between the person who made the tutorial had actually transformed his massive node tree into one simple plugin for everyone to use! It was called Blender Live Paint Filter v1.2.

To put it plainly, this plugin creates a canvas in front of the Blender camera and it transforms everything behind it to look like a real oil painting. It’s absolutely bizarre how well it works! The end result really is like someone took my 3D render, referenced it and painted an actual oil painting based on what they see. In my personal opinion, it looks so much better and way more convincing than the Unreal node I tried earlier. The only downside is – it only uses Eevee. This of course is minor, but for someone who swears in the name of Cycles, it’s going to take some getting used to when it comes to lighting. Eevee isn’t doing that well with HDRIs, which I rely on a lot.

Filter doing its magic in Blender.

I wanted to test the filter right away, so I opened up some of my Blender files from last semester. It was crucial that the filter wouldn’t be too overpowering so that the facial features wouldn’t be completely smudged in the process. It became clear right away that the filter was super heavy on scenes that were already heavy, to begin with. Since the filter affects every part of the scene, particles included, the end result is millions of vertices to work with. So note to self, when I’m actually building the scene don’t go overboard with detail!

This actually works well in my favour, since I had planned on giving more space for the backgrounds which would mean more to model. If I end up using this filter I don’t have to worry for small details since those will be lost to the filter anyways. This of course means less work for me. The filter also works super well with image planes, so I can easily add far-away details with just drawings.

As seen above, the end result is pretty mesmerising. The before and after show just how much the filter brings into the scene of just two single-coloured objects with a single source of light. I then wanted to try adding some nature to the mix, so I used the birch tree model I had downloaded from TurboSquid during the first semester, duplicated it and added some rocks and an image plane of a birch tree forest.

And as expected, the end result was as amazing as the previous ones. I knew instantly that this would work in my favour and that I had to use it. The only issue was that it did indeed wash out quite a lot of the facial details, but I could possibly just render the background and the character separately so that I can adjust the filter accordingly. The background could then be as painterly as it can and for the character the effect would be softer, thus preserving the details much better. Another brilliant thing about this is the textures. I had fully prepared to spend quite some time hand painting each and every object, but as seen it’s not actually necessary at all. I could very easily use simple colours for the background and let the filter do its job and focus more on the character. For that, I think it’s still best to use hand-painted textures as I can’t use the filter on full power.

The amazing end result in Eevee render, rendered in less than a minute.