Watercolor Artist Action Set from Adobe Create Magazine?

[Teire]

Does this work for anyone (Watercolor Artist Action Set from Adobe Create Magazine.zip) with Adobe Photoshop 2021? It would be an amazing action set to have, but it just errors out saying "Could not rasterize because the selected pattern is not available." and that a bunch of the actions just don't work or aren't available.

This would be so cute and useful... if it ever worked. THe original article outlining the steps of how to use it is here Transform Photos into Watercolors with a Free Photoshop Action.

[Teire · Accepted solution]

OMG folks. Okay. SO OF COURSE, as soon as I posted this, I discovered the steps for Adobe Photoshop 2020:

* If you are running Adobe Photoshop 2020, please use this updated installation guide. (Direct link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/62ualeqm3xf6hyw/Watercolor%20Artist%20-%20Guide%202020%20Update.pdf?dl=0)

So. I installed as per this documentation on Adobe Photoshop 2021, used a 3000 pixel image, and it took a good 5 mins on my laptop, in order to complete, but this Action Set works. And I quite seriously got the shakes somewhere in the middle there -- not gonna lie -- because it works so well. The output, given a photo with good dark and light values, is ridiculously beautiful.

Charles Purdy, wherever you are: Thank you!

[ftconroy22]

These links no longer work. Please update them so they don't dead end. Thanks.

[c0untryg1rl]

The Updated Watercolor Artist Action Set from Adobe Create Magazine
https://assets.adobe.com/public/c942ff9a-6c74-4437-5b2f-9f3592f4c1e1

I uploaded my successful result of running the action. It takes quite a long time to run. I use Photoshop CC 2023.

[deane4work]

Thank you so much! THIS is the answer everyone!

[shewillcreateit]

I am in need of the updated links for this action, please. Is anyone able to help with this?

I would really appreciate it!

Thank you ahead of time!

[robertk31536873]

this does not work either.  With zero help from Adobe,  install directions that are incorrect and work aroounds that do nothing, it's time to give up.  I think 3 years is long enough to kick a dead horse.  It used to be awesome.  

[robertk31536873]

I kept getting  Could not rasterize because the selected pattern is not available. error message every time I ran the action.

[weso94744947]

Fixed that by Manually installing everything, import the Brushes in the Brush menu and install the Patterns in the Patterns menu. Adobe mess around with the Preset Manager.  Besides that everything in the guide works the same

[elizabethn52808604]

Can you provide a little more detail as to how you "manually install everything"? Thanks; I'm trying to run a much-vaunted Painterly Brushes Action and PS is giving me the same error: "Could not rasterize because the selected pattern is not available." What pattern would this be and how do I install it?

[c0untryg1rl]

You can automatically install the action file (atn), brush file (abr), and the pattern file (pat) by double-clicking on each one. Then go to the Brush tool, click on the brush picker and scroll all the way to the bottom, and you'll find the newly installed brushes. To view the newly installed patterns and action, in the Window menu, click Patterns and Actions to open those panels.
Make sure you have the most recent update to the Action files. There is a set of instructions in the Download, but ignore the instructions to use the preset manager (Adobe changed that in the most recent versions), just install the files by double-clicking. If you can't find a link amongst all these posts, try this one: one: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/odxnppvh7zgmyvz/AADFrWHbRcfzrLvOPpn-08Vda?dl=1

[elizabethn52808604]

I'm running PS 2022 and getting the same error. Does anybody have a solution?

[c0untryg1rl]

I successfully ran the Watercolor Artist - Photoshop Action Set with no error messages popping up. It takes quite a long time to run. When finished, the resulting image has a long stack of layers which can be used to adjust the image, background paper, and effects. I attached a screenshot of my image, along with part of the layer stack, below. It was too long to include it all. Go to the link I posted in my previous message to you, above, and download the most recent update of the Watercolor Artist - Photoshop Action Set, including the instructions. The preparatory steps before running the action are important to get it to run smoothly. One error I see a lot is the instructions say to create a new blank layer above the image and name it "focus" That has to be in all lower case with no quotes. If you capitalize focus, or use the quotes shown in the instructions, the action will not recognize that layer.

[WaltB01]

The process of creating the "focus" layer has already been included as a script (  1) SETUP  ) to automatically set up that layer, select a brush with an overlay color, and a transparency setting (which I personally readjust to 60%). It is on this layer that one "paints" the object to appear as a watercolor (which is later used as a selection template), while surrounding area is later revealed as pencil sketch effect. Personally I disable the masks of the 3 pencil sketch effects, readjust their opacities to 100% and then use a brush,set to about 10% opacity, and paint within their respective masks to hide/reveal the pencil sketchings as I choose.

 

[JJMack]

The Second Action hangs for many users  when player in 22.0 and 22.0.1  in one  of the Actions invert step. You can break out it the hang using ESC key.  There seem to be some issue in Photoshop version 2021 with that Action.

[richardb89536042]

I have not been able to have it finish a run when using PS 2021.  The ESC key does not break it out of the hang.  I must force quit PS.

[broacher]

I've messaged the author of the actions, Nuwan Panditha (Milan), and I will report back once I get his reply. I'm running 22.2.0 and the same thing happens to me:  hangs in the second action, at 'Back Filling' step. Pressing ESC multiple times did manage to break the loop, however.

[Gary_Fresno]

No fix for this yet?  Is the author of the action still available?  It would be a shame to loose this fantastic watercolor action!

[broacher]

Yes. And it all comes down to a RTFM error that I and many others all made.

Nuwan Panditha (Action set creator) sent me this link to the instructions page/manual:

Trasforma le foto in acquerelli con un’azione gratuita di Photoshop.

Yeah, I know -- didn't work, right? But note in the text just above the still life painting near the top a second link for the updated Action Set for this, which is: Watercolor Action PS 22

I tried it and it worked fine.

[Gary_Fresno]

Thanks broacher,

After 3 downloads I finally got it to work.

Ran the action on a small psd file of 3000 px

Then tried it on a larger psd file of 4800 x 7200 px and it worked.

Hope it works again for me.

Thanks again for posting the info to get this neat action to work.

[Cader]

I tried the Watercolour action for the first time and it worked perfectly. The second time when I click on "Setup" I get an error message "The command Select is not currently available" I then click continue and it creates the focus mask as in the instructions. I then click the Watercolour Artist link and it starts to process the image but then stops after a few seconds with a message "Could not rasterize because selected panel is not available. I am new to photoshop and have read through the insructions but cannot find what the problem is. Any help would be apreciated

[Cader]

I finally found out the problem by looking at the video tutorial. I had reinstalled the actions but hadn't added the brushes and patterns so that is where the problem was. The only issue now is after the watercolour process is complete it looks as if it is causing my PC to buffer. I have just upgraded to a high spec PC so it cant be a hardware issue surely

[Kukurykus]

Please link us to that video tutorial.

[War Unicorn]

Just to add: If you have an All Apps plan, Adobe Fresco is part of that. (It doesn't transform images into watercolors (sort of); you have to do the heavy lifting yourself, but you can import images to use as a basis on another layer or convert the image into a pixel layer and do some watercolor jiu-jitsu that way.)

[Ron22305547iufo]

I'm running PS 23.1.0 and I can't seem to get the action working after many attempts.  Hopefully Nuwan Panditha will come to our rescue and modify the action so that is is more workable on the various versions of PS. If anybody has any further suggestions, I would appreciate hearing of them.