Paintings
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'Vincent' AI transforms your rough sketch into a Van Gogh
Prisma made AI art style transfer fun for the masses, but a new machine learning app has much bigger ambitions. Applying its vast knowledge of art from the Renaissance to today, "Vincent" can take your simple sketch and transform it a finished painting influenced by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Picasso. "We're exploring completely uncharted territory –- much of what makes Vincent tick was not known to the machine learning community just a year ago," said Cambridge Consultants Machine Learning Director Monty Barlow.
Explore one of the great art galleries with Uffizi Touch
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy is one of the great art treasure houses of the world. Construction began in 1560, and now it is home to thousands of paintings and statues from Renaissance artists like da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. The entire collection ranges from the 1100s to the last century. If you visit the gallery, expect long lines and waits up to five hours. Or, tour the collection on your iOS device with this universal app called Uffizi Touch, which sells for US$4.99. Uffizi Touch, which looks great in the iPad's large screen, lets you search by artist, period, room or theme. You can zoom in to see the detail of the paintings and, with a WiFi or 3G connection, get access to 100 megapixel images, the largest version available for these works of art. If you look at a particular image for a moment, all the navigation buttons slowly fade away so as not to interfere with your viewing. %Gallery-174634% Another unique feature is the "Visual Tour." When you select a painting, you can find others that are related. It might be a work of art with similar jewelry, or an iconic subject. The only downside is a watermark that becomes visible as you zoom in. It's there to prevent to protect the artwork's copyright, and is a requirement of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The implementation is a bit distracting, because the logos fade and re-appear, and sometimes change sizes. I understand the need to protect these images, but I would have liked to see something less intrusive. Don't let that small criticism dissuade you from the app. The art is beautifully and tastefully presented, with information about each item. Holding the Uffizi collection in your hand is quite a treat, and someone can spend hours exploring and appreciating the art that is displayed. The app is a 446 megabyte download, and requires iOS 4.3 or later. It is optimized for the iPhone 5. I've included some screen shots but these compressed images don't do the native images justice.
New Minecraft: Pocket Edition update due out soon
The next version of iOS' Minecraft Pocket Edition has been submitted, according to the official Mojang blog, and it brings another round of updates designed to bring the game in line with its bigger PC and console cousins. In this update, players are set to get access to things like paintings, zombie pigmen (though why you'd want access to those, who knows) and the Nether Reactor and Glowstone. There are also a few tweaks to the gameplay as well, including food giving back more health and hearts getting restored when you sleep in an in-game bed. Sounds great -- Minecraft's Pocket Edition just keeps on getting better. This update has been submitted already, and should be out and available later on this week. Meanwhile, you can grab the game from the App Store right now for US$6.99. [via Touch Arcade]
Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, indoor Street View of museums
Google's been hard at work over the past 18 months on something not many of us have been paying attention to lately: art. Specifically, the search giant has hooked up with 17 art museums around the world to offer tours of their internal galleries, using its familiar Street View tricycles, while also doing high-res images of 1,061 artworks that may be viewed on the newly launched Art Project web portal. Also there, you will find 17 special gigapixel images -- 7,000-megapixel versions of each participating venue's proudest possession. The resulting level of detail is nothing short of astounding and we've got videos of how it's all done after the break.
Still life with Roland TB-303 Bass Line
Dane Lovett's paintings take the old still life form and update it by way of their subjects: modern gadgets. We spy not only the Roland TB-303 Bass Line analog bass synthesizer (circa 1982), but also a cornucopia of VHS tapes and compact discs. The results are beautiful, and every bit as calming and "natural" as if we were gazing upon a bowl of harvest fruit. Hit the source links for several more beauties.
Hobby artist creates paintings on the iPad
Obama Pacman's got a few cool paintings by an artist named John Haasl. The unique thing about these paintings is that Haasl created them exclusively with the iPad. While a lot of the talk around the iPad has centered on the device as a content consumer, content creation is definitely easier in one big area with a much larger touchscreen, and of course, that's art. Not only does the extra screen space help out would-be artists, but the processing power makes things quick and easy, too. Haasl is using ArtStudio for iPad for his work, and there's other good software available as well (SketchBook Pro is another popular app, though it's a little more expensive, with ArtStudio on sale for just a buck). Haasl says that he takes about two days to put a painting together, and it's totally a hobby -- his day job is in IT. It's very cool, anyway. It will also be interesting to see what professional artists end up doing with the iPad's screen, and if some of the new interfaces for art make their way back to traditional computers.
A free app for those who love art
It's true. I'm delighted to find free applications that stimulate and involve. The iPhone/iPod touch continues to open new vistas for those willing to explore the app store.If you love great art, then get thee to iTunes and download Love Art [App Store link] which is a tour of some of the great works at National Gallery in London. The app features about 250 art treasures, with videos, audio commentary, zoom-able high-res images, and galleries and themed tours.The download is 207 MB, so don't try this if your iPhone is on the edge storage wise. I really enjoyed browsing through all the material, and learned a great deal listening to the commentaries and viewing the videos.Having been to the National Gallery myself when I lived in London, it brought back happy memories. It is not a substitute for visiting the great art treasures on display there, but it will do until my next trip.This is the kind of app that could sell for real money. For free, it's a great demo of what the iPhone can do, and a great app to explore and enjoy.If you want to see how the app works without the big download go the the developer's site and click on 'watch the video demo'. One of the real advantages of being a TUAW regular is getting tips to great free software. Here is your bonus for today.Here are some screen captures of the app in action:%Gallery-66017%
iPhone-generated artwork featured on cover of The New Yorker
Well, what do you know? It looks like our favorite fingerpainter is really making a name for himself with his handset artwork. Like his other New York City-scapes, Jorge Colombo's cover for the June 1, 2009 issue of The New Yorker was composed entirely in the Brushes iPhone app. And it looks like the artist's switch to a digital format is no gimmick -- he tells The New York Times that the device allows him to work "without having to carry all my pens and brushes and notepads with me." And he can work in anonymity -- to complete the cover he spent about an hour on 42nd Street, with no interruptions (try doing that with a canvas, an easel, and a full compliment of art supplies). Mr. Colombo, if you're out there: we'd like to add you to our Mafia Wars family. Drop us an email.
Artist "fingerpaints" art on his iPhone
Portuguese artist Jorge Colombo's been working on a series of "finger-paintings" of cityscapes done entirely on his iPhone. Using only his finger and an application called "Brushes," he's done some fairly impressive scenes of New York City. Hit the read link for a full set of iSketches this fanboy's whipped up.[Via Make]
Show and Tell: Painted love
We talk a lot about crafts in this space, but not so much about art. After reader Karl sent in his Tetris-inspired painting, however, we couldn't resist taking the time to track down some other artistic efforts thoughtfully rendered by (Nintendo) gamers. There's a lot out there -- drawings, sculpture, beadcraft -- but this week, Show and Tell is all about paintings. And we're not the only ones thinking about them, either.Start the tour here or jump into the gallery below to see Karl's painting, and the others that caught the collective DS Fanboy eye.%Gallery-32459% Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts. Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.
Authentic software to digitally authenticate paintings
We all know that keepin' it real fake has become an art form in itself, but for serious art aficionados, only the real deal will truly suffice. Currently, it takes numerous "art experts" hours to inspect every inkling of a painting to ensure the buyer isn't getting duped, but a new piece of software is looking to realize an idea that's been in the works for years. Igor Berezhnoy at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has created a system which carefully analyzes "uses of color, brush strokes, and canvas type" in order to spot fakes before they fetch millions at auction. By dividing "145 digitized paintings into pixels" and comparing their attributes with nearby pixels, Authentic recognizes uniquities that aren't likely to be expressed in faux editions. In testing, the software performed "as well" as 15 (presumably trained) human volunteers in spotting forgeries, and while the current version works specifically with Van Gogh's works, we're sure a more fleshed out version is on the drawing board.[Via Slashdot]
Empathic Paintings paint your mood
We knew our obscure collection of facial contortion capabilities would pay off sooner or later. A new project from the University of Bath called "Empathic Painting" reads the mood on your face and paints accordingly, sending you into a spiral of despair with the skill only a machine could manage. The researchers involved have cooked up some nifty algorithms to decide if you're angry, despairing, cheerful or just plain crazy based on your facial expressions. These emotional stats are then sent to the imaging program where the painting style and colors are switched out on the fly -- well, at 4 frames per second -- to match your feelings. For some reason we can imagine having a lot of dumb fun with this one.[Via MetaFilter]
