FotoSketcher adds new knife-painting effect, improves existing brushstrokes filter

Freeware digital art creation tool FotoSketcher 2.45 has been released by French author David Thoiron. FotoSketcher, also available in portable form, provides quick and easy tools for Windows users wishing to transform digital photos into virtual works of art.

Version 2.45 introduces a new stylized effect (Emergence 2) and improves on an existing brushstrokes-based effect. It also includes a number of minor bug fixes and coincides with the author making a series of scripts available for download.

The new Emergence 2 effect promises quite different results from the existing Emergence effect, creating results that look a bit like a knife painting. It’s based on calculating an approximation of the source image using shaded triangles, and users can quickly produce the most striking version of the effect by double-clicking the number to the right of the "Number of iterations" slider to set it to maximum.

FotoSketcher 2.45 also tweaks an existing painting effect -- Painting 7 (brushstrokes) -- to improve brushstroke placement for what the Thoiron describes as "a more painterly effect" Two bugs -- including one used in the custom brush code for Painting 7 and 8 effects -- have been squashed along with a few bugs found in the script (F5) code.

The author has also made available a number of scripts for download in order to demonstrate the power of FotoSketch’s new scripting engine, which was introduced in version 2.40. Users should save the zip file to their hard drive, then unzip the contents before opening them in FotoSketcher’s Scripts window by pressing [F5] to access it. Scripts consist of a series of user-customizable actions, and provide additional effects by combining multiple filters together.

FotoSketcher 2.45 and FotoSketcher 2.45 Portable are both available now as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.