Here's some kind "Lucisart" processing using G'MIC filters

Processing
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Many people have been impressed by the look of some images with the so called Dave Hill / Lucisart / Illustrated look. I kinda like this type of images. Of course, lighting the scene is a crucial part, but then postprocessing the image is what gives this particular look.

I think I found a way to get a look quite close to this, by using only available G’MIC filters, from Gimp.

Below are some examples (original at the left, processed at the right), using images which I downloaded from Pixabay:

2560×720 734 KB

2560×853 919 KB

2560×826 855 KB

2560×856 689 KB

1066×800 206 KB

If you like it, I’ll be happy to share the steps to achieve this look.

9 Likes
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That’s really great.
Do you think this can be fully automated ? I’ll be happy to make a one-click filter that reproduces this look, for sure :slight_smile: (if possible of course).

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Here’s my workflow:

  1. Open your image (it works best on moderate-sized images of about 1200 pixels)
  2. Load G’MIC, set the Output mode to “New active layer(s)”, and Output messages to “Verbose (layer name)”
  3. Apply the Testing/Photocomix/Photocomix smoothing filter, changing only Amplitude to 10 (works also with Repair/Smooth [diffusion])
  4. Set the newly created layer mode to “Grain extract”
  5. Right click on this layer, click on “New from Visible”
  6. Set this new layer (named “Visible” mode to “Grain merge”, and set the layer just below (named “[G’MIC] Photocomix Smooth…”) back to “Normal”
    Note: the “Visible” layer now contains the details/grain of the original image, which you will put up later, leave it there for now.
  7. in G’MIC again, Apply the Details/Simple local contrast filter, change:
    -Edge sensitivity to 25
    -Iterations to 1
    -Paint effect to 50
    -Post-gamma to 1.20
  8. Now apply the Artistic/Graphic novel filter, checking the Skip this step checkbox for Apply Local Normalization, and changing:
    -Pencil size to 1
    -Pencil amplitude to 100-200
    -Pencil smoother sharpness/edge protection/smoothness to 0
    -Boost Merging Options Mixer to soft light
    -Painter’s touch sharpness to 1.26
    -Painter’s edge protection flow to 0.37
    -Painter’s smoothness to 1.05
    and click OK to close G’MIC
  9. Finally, click on the layer named “Visible”, and drag it to the top of the layer stack to bring the detail back. You can even duplicate this layer to increase the detail level, and adjust its opacity.

Of course you can play with the different filters’ parameters, with the opacity of the “[G’MIC] Graphic novel…” layer, apply a contrast curve to taste.

I find this type of effect to work really great on portaits, models, cars…

2 Likes
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@David_Tschumperle I’m sure this can be done in one click, if the “grain merge” layer containing the image details can be made from G’MIC directly (which I’m sure can be easy to do).

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Yes, a G’MIC filter can output several layers with different blending modes set for each layer.

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it’s just that I haven’t looked really if I G’MIC has an equivalent to grain extract/merge. I think I tried with the High pass filter, but it probably didn’t work as I expected.

Edit: the point of having this extra “details” layer being to be able to make the image more or less “gritty”

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I found how to get a similar “details” layer from G’MIC by using the “Split details (wavelets)” filter with only 2 scales, but then the “residual” layer would need to be removed.

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This may be awesome as a blog post - do you mind if I publish something following your instructions with another image?

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@patdavid of course you can publish a blog post, thanks for your interest! :slight_smile:

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I tried Pat David’s method from his blog, similar thing but don’t have vivid light in g’mic so tried 2 soft light layers. More could be used and opacity varied. I don’t have any truly suitable shots but this gives and idea. It can be less extreme easily.

This was the layer stack

It would have been a good idea to not touch the sky and maybe change that in some other way.

The top layer was something I was messing about with so ignore.

John

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@patdavid where will you post the article when it’s ready?

@David_Tschumperle Regarding the “details” layer, IMO I get a slightly more realistic texture by using the grain extract/merge between the original image and its blurred counterpart, than by using the wavelet “Split details” detail layer.

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I would post it as a blog post on the site (https://pixls.us/blog) - unless you wanted to flesh out your post more and include some other example images (that are free to use/share)?

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Why not in articles, @patdavid?

Also couldn’t this be made into a gimp script?

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Only because it didn’t seem long enough? No other reason, to be honest, so if the thought is that it would be better served there, then I’m all game! :slight_smile:

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I think it would be better if the article is written by a native English writer.

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This set of GMIC commands gets a very similar result.

--gimp_anisotropic_smoothing[0] 10,0.16,0.63,0.6,2.35,0.8,30,2,0,1,1,0,1

-sub[0] [1]

-simplelocalcontrast_p[1] 25,1,50,1,1,1.2,1,1,1,1,1,1
-gimp_graphic_novelfxl[1] 1,2,6,5,20,0,1,100,0,1,0,0.78,1.92,0,0,2,1,1,1,1.26,0.37,1.05
-add
-c 0,255
1 Like
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@sguyader I’m in the process now of drafting an article for this - is there any chance that you’ve saved the url’s for the sample images you use in your first post? I’d love to be able to link to them in the article directly (to clearly link the CC0 images).

1 Like
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@patdavid Here are the links:
Old motorbike
Fashion woman
old car
Industrial worker
Male model

1 Like
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I like this tutorial but the steps taken make the image very bright and white. and I can’t seem to find where to turn down the brightness.
and in some images I’m getting these bars in the image. see photo.
any help is appreciated.

hannah-0105-gimp
hannah-0105-gimp3504×2336 5.26 MB

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@sddarkman619 try to uncheck “parallel processing” in gmic’s simplelocalcontrast