Back in 2019, NVIDIA revealed what the company called a “smart paintbrush” tool that looked like magic. Today, over two years later, that project finally comes to life with the all-new Canvas app. It’s available as a beta and will literally turn your silly doodles into stunning works of art.
NVIDIA’s Canvas app uses artificial intelligence to turn each little brush stroke into a photorealistic stroke. The app lets you paint by material, like trees, rocks, or clouds, rather than colors. As a result, users can easily create beautiful paintings with life-like details that even Boss Ross would appreciate. It’s hard to explain, but the video below will show you all you need to know.
It’s available to download today as a free beta. One major downside is you can only enjoy it if your machine is equipped with one of NVIDIA’s RTX GPUs. And as we all know, those are somewhat hard to come by.
Basically, even if you have zero artistic abilities, like me, you can still paint like a professional. That’s because Canvas is powered by the GauGAN AI painting tool, which NVIDIA spent years researching and developing. GuaGAN is an AI system that uses deep learning models and nearly 5 million images to help you paint.
You can draw lines and shapes on the virtual canvas, and the app turns every brushstroke into the material you want. There are only 15 materials available so far, but more are on the way. That said, as you draw, Canvas gives you instant results, so you see as you paint. If you don’t like the way something looks, try a different material. Or, switch from grass to snow, and the entire image changes from a mountain landscape to a cold winter wonderland.
Artists can add roads, people, animals, or buildings and watch the AI work its magic. It’s worth noting that while Canvas uses its deep knowledge of other images to create these drawings, each one is still considered an original work of art since the app is generating new images. Either way, this looks amazing for regular people, not to mention game developers or even architects. Give it a try today.
