DAP Tips and Tricks

[mhwarner]

Thought I would copy this from another thread to keep it all in a central place:

Dry Reveal and color palette - DAP PRo 64 bit

In the normal workflow, you won't be able to alter the Dry Reveal effect — except for disabling it in the "Advanced" controls (Enhanced Realism). It is a part of the template (painting style definition).

The only way to change Dry Reveal attributes is making a new template with different values (strength, duration, overall use). That may require to execute DAP "as administrator" to be able to save the newly created template file (*.aop).

Actually, that's not true. Although you have more control in DAPx64, you can also modify the strength of DR in DAP 32. Once DAP begins the Dry Reveal process, you can simply right-click in your painting to stop the painting process. Then you go to the little control dialog in the bottom left corner (x64) where you can change the amount of overlay, as well as the effect of Dry Reveal on dark and light colors. All the way to the RIGHT (255) is essentially turning it off completely; moving to the LEFT(0) is increasing the amount. To the far LEFT is the same effect you have in DAP32 (which does not have these wheel/sliders) -- all the way on. (Seems backward, but that's they way Oscar designed it.)

In addition, there is a dotted slider at the bottom which controls the strength of the Dry Reveal effect. Let Dry Reveal run for a bit and then move this slider to see the effect in real time. This slider is also available in DAP32. I've created a graphic which might help explain a bit more clearly:

[Wutz]

Portraits with DAP

Take a good picture of at least 1280 x 1024 pixles (any digicam can do this size), run it with DAP and a watercolor template of you choice (bogfl1 is a good one ) for app. 20000 strokes. Save it as layered psd. Open it in PS or a similar graph software that can handle layers. Make the painted layer transparent for the eyes only. If you want to and if it is needed - add a little outline. And done!
Works with humans and animals as well.

jessica-biel-1280_1024_DAP_bogfl1.jpg (232.27 KiB) Viewed 13537 times

@edit: If that works for you, post the result here, as inspiration

[Wutz]

A few examples:

Sara_Martins_DAP_bogfl1.jpg (193.13 KiB) Viewed 13290 times

jaime-king_4_DAP_bogfl1.jpg (180.95 KiB) Viewed 13290 times

Eva_Green_01_DAP_bogfl1.jpg (217.49 KiB) Viewed 13290 times

angelina_jolie_DAP_bogfl1.jpg (226.34 KiB) Viewed 13290 times

[MikaK]

Here's one tip.

If you like more realistic paintings like I do and have some problems with sky for example. I have a night city photo I shot couple years ago in Rotterdam. I really like the bogfl1-preset but it does for example skys really badly. So you can make aquarell painting in DAP and cut the sky with feather-option in Photoshop and paste it to the bogfl1-painting.

You can see pics here, original:

city_1_original.jpg (126.98 KiB) Viewed 13221 times

Aquarell:

city_2_aquarell.jpg (86.43 KiB) Viewed 13221 times

Bogfl1:

city_3_bogfl1.jpg (116.63 KiB) Viewed 13221 times

Final:

city_4_FINAL.jpg (133.16 KiB) Viewed 13221 times

[Kajay]

Is there a tutorial on how to use the material and light? I can't work out how the light and distant are positioned, and not sure which way to point them for light :/

[Fluffbutt]

I found something interesting.

I have been trying to find a way to stop lots of very similar strokes being laid down in areas of similar colour - skies and green fields, etc.
They make the final picture look obviously like a computer generated artwork.

In my experiments, I found this:

With an art program - I used Irfanview - INVERT the image and save it as a new file name.

Run it through DAP, I used Monet style.

Open the saved artwork and INVERT it again (to return it to normal colours)

End result = flatter colours, more random strokes, open areas of sky are now multi-stroked.

Image one - Dap Monet NORMAL picture
Image two - Dap Monet INVERT-DAP-INVERT picture

One:


Two:


Compare the strokes in the sky and water.

[Wutz]

I found something interesting.

I have been trying to find a way to stop lots of very similar strokes being laid down in areas of similar colour - skies and green fields, etc.
They make the final picture look obviously like a computer generated artwork.
In my experiments, I found this:
With an art program - I used Irfanview - INVERT the image and save it as a new file name.
Run it through DAP, I used Monet style.
Open the saved artwork and INVERT it again (to return it to normal colours)
End result = flatter colours, more random strokes, open areas of sky are now multi-stroked.
...

A new trick - love it. I tried something similar a time ago, I rotated the originalby 90° or 180° - the strockes pattern was always different. It is useful with AOPs that make a dark shadow on one side.
I made this with your workflow:

Eisbären NEG_DAP_Bogfl_turner22.jpg (248.37 KiB) Viewed 12917 times

The fur came out pretty IMHO since all is white on white

[Fluffbutt]

That turned out lovely - the bears look furry AND the background looks like a snowstorm!

[lylejk]

I found something interesting.

I have been trying to find a way to stop lots of very similar strokes being laid down in areas of similar colour - skies and green fields, etc.
They make the final picture look obviously like a computer generated artwork.

In my experiments, I found this:

With an art program - I used Irfanview - INVERT the image and save it as a new file name.

Run it through DAP, I used Monet style.

Open the saved artwork and INVERT it again (to return it to normal colours)

End result = flatter colours, more random strokes, open areas of sky are now multi-stroked.

Image one - Dap Monet NORMAL picture
Image two - Dap Monet INVERT-DAP-INVERT picture

One:


Two:


Compare the strokes in the sky and water.

Will have to give that a try next time FB; thanks for the hint.

[Fluffbutt]

Prepare to bow down and tickle of the tummy yet again!!

For I have found greater wonderment for your enjoyments!

▬▬

Take your original image (I used a rather simple scene of two ducks on a lake with trees and grasses - it might not work on busy scenes) Edit - not too good on them, the grey-scale details are too strong.

Now resize it to be exactly the same size as the output (In my case, 5600 x 3626)
Now save it to a new file and stick it in your canvas folder.

DAP the image (i used Sargent) - stop before about 1000 strokes (very much style dependent).

Now go to the canvas page and set it to use your own image from the canvas folder and then to materials and set it to dry.

You get a scrappy paint stroke thing with details coming up from the canvas!

THIS was only 800 strokes of Sargent (I normally use 40k to 60k)..