Paint splatter simulator for use with Photoshop

Jan-2-08, 2:41 pm by Hanford
File under: Photoshop, design, Director, Adobe, Shockwave, Lingo

When you're a hobbiest programmer, every problem looks like it can be solved with a little scripting. This Holiday season I was working on a for-print art project and I needed some paint splatter for texture. Splattering paint is a great way to get some organic texture into a piece of art, but it's messy and requires a lot of room. So I decided to try writing a quick script to see if I could accurately simulate it.

The end result is this little web app I wrote. It's got a little bit of GUI to make it easy to adjust the amount of splatter you need. The end result is an image that you can use in Photoshop.

Here's a brief rundown of how it works:

+ The canvas is made up of "passes" of paint splatter. You can Add and delete as many passes as you want.
+ Each pass has it's own set of settings. you click on a pass on the left, then you can change the settings for that pass.
+ double-headed sliders set minimums and maximums for settings.
+ As you change settings, you'll see a realtime preview of just that pass on the right.
+ when you stop dragging a slider, the big canvas will re-splatter with your new settings.
+ To get the image into Photoshop, you click on the "Copy to clipboard" button or "copy inverted", which reverses it for better channel creation.
+ You can tweak with a small sized canvas, then when you got it the way you want, make the canvas bigger.
+ There's no way to save settings yet.

you may need to install the latest Shockwave plug-in to make it work. Enjoy

6 Comments | Retweet this

Feedback - 6 responses

Displayed newest to oldest. Leave a comment.

insurance services erlanger ky agency wrote: 4 days ago, 5:43 pm

I prefer this a lot. You know just what exactly you are dealing with, the place other people are usually coming from within this issue. I'm pleased i obtained the wad of cash for you to fall throughout your blog post. The certainly a major matter doesn't sufficient people are speaking about that i'm pleased that we became the opportunity to observe most the attitudes.
insurance services erlanger ky agency

watson insurance agency gastonia nc wrote: 4 days ago, 5:36 pm

It is quite encouraging to endure the write-up correctly includes specifics of these types of helpful function. It's a handy course.
watson insurance agency gastonia nc

insurance group guide wrote: 4 days ago, 5:28 pm

You're making an excellent level. Got wonderful details below. I'm sure that in case more and more people thought about that doing this, they will have a very far better time understanding the issue. Your current view is without a doubt something Id enjoy travelling to a greater portion of. Interesting data, insurance group guide

Marty Plumbo wrote: Jan-7-08, 5:45 am

I don't usually like the condensed typefaces, but that one is mighty nice in a GUI. Sort of modern, sort of authoritative yet still kind of fun.

Thanks, HL!

Hanford wrote: Jan-7-08, 1:57 am

The typeface is Univers condensed. I'm partial to it, and I use it in a lot of stuff.

Marty Plumbo wrote: Jan-5-08, 6:55 am

Heya, Hanford! Great to see you posting again!

I'm curious, what typeface did you use on your splatter widget?

Comments are displayed on posts and visible to all site visitors.