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.

[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

[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.

[jane-e]

---

@Cader wrote:

... but then stops after a few seconds with a message "Could not rasterize because selected panel is not available.

---

The error message you posted says "pattern", not panel. Is the action looking for a pattern with a specific name? Is it a pattern you created? If so, double-check the spelling.

 Jane

[tcn photo]

I deleted all the old action, pattern and brush files associated with the watercolor artist action and reinstalled them using the current links to the files on the adobe site and I'm still getting the same error showing "could not raterize because the selected pattern is not available."  I assume it's looking for patterns that come with the Watercolor Artist - patterns.pat, not anything else.  Those patterns are loaded and it still doesn't work so where do we go from here?

[War Unicorn]

If the author is not responding, it may be time to move on. Some alternatives are Adobe's own Fresco or ArtRage Vitae. (Both solutions are obviously not like the action and will require heavy lifting on your part (mainly to get to know their UIs), but they both produce great results.)

[AJCM]

I have the same question. It cannot find the correct pattern. I have loaded the patterns that come with the Watercolor Artist.

[Donald24092948z4jt]

I have a Mac Studio with the latest version of the OS. Parts of the action work, but most do not. This actions looks like it could produce some good results, but as it is, it is worthless.

[Michele2275563297lu]

I'm having the same issue - so many of the commands can't be found so it creates a dark artistic image - really disappointed as I think it would look amazing!

[laurelinr57839868]

I was able to edit this action to make it work for Photoshop 2022. I have attached two screenshots. There is a step in the action that says "Select and Mask" (screenshot shows surrounding steps so you can find it - it's fairly close to the end of the action).  Double click on it to edit that step. For Refine Mode select "Object Aware" instead of "Color Aware." Click OK. So far it's working fine for me now. I love using this action. Glad to have it working again.