Real-time, 3D oil painting simulator for next-gen Van Goghs

Project Wetbrush is a new 3D oil painting tool from Nvidia and Adobe Research, which simulates the motion and interaction of each bristle.

What could Caravaggio or Van Gogh have created, given access to unlimited oil colors, brushes and the ability to share worldwide what they’ve created at the touch of a button? This is the question posed by Project Wetbrush the new 3D oil painting tool from Nvidia and Adobe Research, whose Character Animator software recently created the live Q&A with Homer Simpson.

Digital painting tools are not new, but up until now they have been 2D and fairly simplistic. Project Wetbrush aims to change all that with the world’s first real-time simulation-based 3D painting system with bristle-level interactions. Adobe Research first developed the core algorithms for this in 2015 but then realized it was an ambitious project demanding huge computing resource, and so NVIDIA GPUs came onboard the project for their tech’s processing power.

It will be interesting to see what artists make of this technology in practice but the company has plans beyond pure artistic expression. The aim is to use the NVIDIA GPUs to incorporate deep learning into the Project and even to allow Wetbrush to learn from itself in the future. Where else can hyper-realistic technology be used to take real-world skill to the next level?