Caravaggio

Sometimes, my life seems to be little more than a never-ending quest for the ultimate painting effect plugin. Perhaps it would be easier if I simply gave up and learned to paint properly, instead of wasting hours trying to persuade the computer to do it for me. Sadly, though, I'm one of those people who has a passion for the graphic arts and a deep creative urge, but without any actual talent to back it up. I suppose I'll just have to keep writing plugins instead.

This one is a simple 'oil-painting' effect, with just four sliders; in a misguided effort to express my latent artistic impulses, I've given them whimsical names... think of them as defining the personality of your own personal virtual artist. It was this kind of thinking, I suppose, that led me to name the plugin in honour of the enigmatic Italian renaissance artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - which was rather pretentious of me, really. If he phones me and complains, I'll change the name.

Creativity	Well, I could have labelled this one "primary convolution kernel radius" I suppose, but it probably wouldn't have fitted onto the dialog. The image tends to become more impressionistic as you move this slider to the right.
Exuberance	Increased 'exuberance' - in this context, at least - means a larger brush with increasingly wayward strokes. It may help to know that I originally planned to call this slider 'carelessness'!
Attentiveness	Move this slider to the right to bring back a little sanity - the virtual artist will take more care over edges, and the final image will make more sense. Tip: use this on portraits to help preserve those all-important catchlights in the eyes.
Moodswing	Move left if the artist is in a depressive phase, or right if he's manic. Try it, and you'll see what I mean... Note: this slider works with the 'Attentiveness' slider - if 'Attentiveness' is set to zero, then 'Moodswing' will have no effect.

	For a classic painting effect, there can be no better choice of model than the classically-beautiful Ms Sophie Marceau, who appears here in a suitably classical-looking pose. The effect with the default settings is reasonably subtle...
	Increasing the 'Creativity' gives a more 'painterly' effect.
	Increasing the 'Exuberance' gives a more energetic, broad-brush feel.
	Finally, using lots of creativity, plenty of exuberance, enough attentiveness to stay within hailing distance of reality, and a touch of up-beat moodswing, we get this. It's a bit of a mess, frankly. But just imagine all the carpet-cleaning you'd have had to do if you'd painted it for real.