Exploring the structure of a real-time, arbitrary neural artistic stylization network

In this paper, we present a method which combines the flexibility of the neural algorithm of artistic style with the speed of fast style transfer networks to allow real-time stylization using any content/style image pair. We build upon recent work leveraging conditional instance normalization for multi-style transfer networks by learning to predict the conditional instance normalization parameters directly from a style image. The model is successfully trained on a corpus of roughly 80,000 paintings and is able to generalize to paintings previously unobserved. We demonstrate that the learned embedding space is smooth and contains a rich structure and organizes semantic information associated with paintings in an entirely unsupervised manner.Comment: Accepted as an oral presentation at British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC) 201

Printed texture guided color feature fusion for impressionism style rendering of oil paintings.

As a major branch of Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR), image stylization mainly uses computer algorithms to render a photo into an artistic painting. Recent work has shown that the ex-traction of style information such as stroke texture and color of the target style image is the key to image stylization. Given its stroke texture and color characteristics, a new stroke rendering method is proposed. By fully considering the tonal characteristics and the representative color of the original oil painting, it can fit the tone of the original oil painting image into a stylized image whilst keeping the artist's creative effect. The experiments have validated the efficacy of the proposed model in comparison to three state-of-the-arts. This method would be more suitable for the works of pointillism painters with a relatively uniform style, especially for natural scenes, otherwise, the results can be less satisfactory

Painterly rendering techniques: A state-of-the-art review of current approaches

In this publication we will look at the different methods presented over the past few decades which attempt to recreate digital paintings. While previous surveys concentrate on the broader subject of non-photorealistic rendering, the focus of this paper is firmly placed on painterly rendering techniques. We compare different methods used to produce different output painting styles such as abstract, colour pencil, watercolour, oriental, oil and pastel. Whereas some methods demand a high level of interaction using a skilled artist, others require simple parameters provided by a user with little or no artistic experience. Many methods attempt to provide more automation with the use of varying forms of reference data. This reference data can range from still photographs, video, 3D polygonal meshes or even 3D point clouds. The techniques presented here endeavour to provide tools and styles that are not traditionally available to an artist. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Impressionistic techniques applied in sound art & design

Sound art and design collectively refer to the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating sonic elements to evoke emotion and environment. Sound is used to convey the intentions, emotions, spirit or aura of a story, performance, or sonic installation. Sound connects unique aural environments, creating an immersive experience via mood and atmosphere. Impressionistic techniques such as Impasto, Pointillism, Sgraffito, Stippling introduced by 19th-century painters captured the essence of their subject in more vivid compositions, exuding authentic movements and atmosphere. This thesis applied impressionistic techniques using sound art and design to project specific mood and atmosphere responses among listeners. Four unique sound textures, each representing a technique from Impressionism, and a fifth composite sound texture were created for this project. All five sound textures were validated as representative of their respective Impressionistic technique. Only sonic Pointillism matched its emotive intent. This outcome supports the research question that sound art and design can be used to direct listeners’ mood and atmosphere responses. Partnering Impressionistic principles with sound art and design offers a deeper palette to sonically deliver more robust, holistic soundscapes for amplifying an audience’s listening experience. This project provides a foundation for future explorations and studies in applying cross-disciplinary artistic techniques with sound art and design or other artistic endeavors

Bringing Impressionism to Life with Neural Style Transfer in Come Swim

Neural Style Transfer is a striking, recently-developed technique that uses neural networks to artistically redraw an image in the style of a source style image. This paper explores the use of this technique in a production setting, applying Neural Style Transfer to redraw key scenes in 'Come Swim' in the style of the impressionistic painting that inspired the film. We document how the technique can be driven within the framework of an iterative creative process to achieve a desired look, and propose a mapping of the broad parameter space to a key set of creative controls. We hope that this mapping can provide insights into priorities for future research.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, paper is a case study of how Neural Style Transfer can be used in a movie production contex