With Adobe’s Project Wetbrush, You Can Digitally Paint In 3D

Adobe is partnering with Nvidia to take screen-based visual arts to the next level. Project Wetbrush is a proposed paint simulator that will mimic the texture, viscosity, and “bristle-level” interactions that you’d get from real paint on a real canvas.

Visual art in a digital medium has long been a tradeoff: the advantage of painting in a digital world is the ease of manipulation, but the sacrifice is, well, nothing you make in MS Paint is going to look like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

Whenever it comes out, Wetbrush will allow you to produce paintings on a screen, as well as to mix colors, build up three dimensional paint on a surface, and make it look like the real thing.

Looking like the real thing is cool, but the final “viewing” experience for a finished product isn’t totally clear yet. Perhaps the program will lead to 3D printing of paint on canvas, or virtual reality viewing experiences. Or it could just remain on the screen as digital, 2D artwork with a new level of vivid definition and detail.

Of course none of this actually means you’ll ever paint something like “Starry Night.” But at least you can undo mistakes right?

[H/T The Verge]