Method and apparatus for digital painting with natural textures

摘要

The invention provides a digital painting apparatus and method that captures the natural textures in physical painting tools. It is comprised of a plurality of sensors below a painting surface and a light source arranged such that reflective objects near the sensors are imaged, with the nearer parts of the objects forming brighter parts of those images. The images are thresholded to include only the parts of those objects nearest the painting surface and accumulated in a display buffer to leave painted strokes that preserve those textures as the objects are moved. A display is located below the painting surface, substantially coincident with the sensors, and feedback from the display is substantially removed from the sensor images before they are thresholded, providing more uniform sensitivity.