Post Impressionist
Paint a tropical beach or your own photo as living brushstrokes that swirl, shimmer and sway with the music, with nine looks and optional AI stroke planning.
Post Impressionist paints in moving brushstrokes in the Creative category. By default it paints a tropical beach: a sky of swirling strokes around the sun, a distant island, rows of waves with a golden sun track, a sandy shore and a palm tree swaying in the wind. Upload a photo and the same brush paints your picture instead. Every stroke answers the music.
Open Post Impressionist
Launch the visualizer with its matching left-nav entry selected.
Paint your own photo
Open the Photo section and choose Upload Photo. The photo stays in your browser and is saved with your settings. Post Impressionist reads the picture on the spot: it finds the direction of every edge so strokes follow the photo, and it works out which areas are sky, water, ground, foliage or solid objects so each part moves the way that subject moves. The palette of the photo appears under the preview, and the Subject switches to Your Photo.
Choose Analyze with AI to plan the strokes with AI. The analysis reads a reduced copy of the photo once and returns where the horizon and the light are, the mood of the light, and a set of regions with their own motion and stroke size. Those regions refine the local reading in the areas it was unsure about. On the Free plan this uses one AI Frame Analysis try; Pro and above analyze without limit. Choose Remove to return to the tropical beach.
Controls appear when they apply
The five layer sliders (Cloud Swirls, Wave Strokes, Beach Strokes, Palm Tree, Island) appear for the tropical beach. Fine Detail and Underpainting appear for a photo. Hidden controls keep their values.
Looks
Tropical Dawn is the natural default. Golden Hour warms the light and brightens the sun track. Dusk Lagoon and Moonlit Surf cool the palette and slow the motion, with more sparkle on the water at night. Vivid Noon pushes color and paint relief. Storm Swell bends the palm hard and speeds the sky. Calm Lagoon slows everything down. Thick Impasto paints broad, heavy strokes; Fine Dabs paints many small ones. Looks never change the subject, your photo or Background Opacity.
Quick start
- Start the demo track, choose a local audio file, or enable a live input.
- Try a preset or style first, then open the section for the part of the image you want to change.
- On a control with Assign modulation, open the source picker, choose a signal, and watch the slider's live fill.
- Use Reset to Defaults whenever you want to return to the original look.
Presets and styles
Tropical Dawn · Golden Hour · Dusk Lagoon · Moonlit Surf · Vivid Noon · Storm Swell · Calm Lagoon · Thick Impasto · Fine Dabs
Audio modulation
On a control with Assign modulation, select the activity icon to open Modulate with. Choose a named source, or choose — None to leave the control unmodulated. After you assign one, its name appears below the slider; select that name to edit the route, or use Clear modulation to remove it. The slider track shows the live signal reaching the control.
| Modulated control | Section | What the route changes |
|---|---|---|
| Impasto | Strokes | Raises the paint relief: stronger highlights and shadows along each stroke, with more color variation between strokes. |
| Brightness | Color | Sets overall brightness. Route it to Volume for a painting that glows with the mix. |
| Sky Swirl | Motion | Sets how fast the sky strokes circle around the sun. In a photo, sky and cloud regions swirl. |
| Water Shimmer | Motion | Sets how much the water strokes ripple and sparkle, and how bright the sun track is. In a photo, water regions shimmer. |
| Wind Sway | Motion | Sets how far the palm, the fronds and the beach grass sway. In a photo, foliage regions sway. |
Settings reference
Scene
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | TROPICAL BEACH, YOUR PHOTO | Chooses what is painted: the built-in tropical beach or the photo you uploaded in the Photo section. |
| Mood | NATURAL, GOLDEN, DUSK, MOONLIT, VIVID | Chooses the light and palette: Natural daylight, warm Golden, pink-violet Dusk, cool Moonlit or saturated Vivid. |
| Cloud Swirls | 0–1 | Sets how much the swirling cloud strokes cover the sky. Tropical beach only. |
| Wave Strokes | 0–1 | Sets how strongly the wave rows and sparkles are painted over the sea. Tropical beach only. |
| Beach Strokes | 0–1 | Sets how visible the beach strokes, shells and wet sand are. Tropical beach only. |
| Palm Tree | 0–1 | Fades the foreground palm tree and the beach grass in or out. Tropical beach only. |
| Island | 0–1 | Fades the distant island and its palms in or out. Tropical beach only. |
| Fine Detail | 0–1 | Adds a second layer of finer strokes over your photo. Photo only. |
| Underpainting | 0–1 | Sets how much of the softened photo shows between strokes. Photo only. |
Strokes
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Stroke Size | 0.5–2 | Makes every brushstroke longer and wider, or finer. |
| Stroke Density | 0.5–1.5 | Packs more strokes into the picture, or fewer and larger ones. |
| Impasto | 0–1.5 | Raises the paint relief: stronger highlights and shadows along each stroke, with more color variation between strokes. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
Color
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Warmth | -1–1 | Shifts the whole painting cooler or warmer. |
| Saturation | 0–1.5 | Sets color intensity across the painting. |
| Brightness | 0.25–1.5 | Sets overall brightness. Route it to Volume for a painting that glows with the mix. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
Audio
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Master Gain | 0–3 | Sets how strongly the input signal affects master. |
| Background Opacity | 0–1 | Sets how transparent the background appears. |
Motion
| Setting | Available values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Motion Speed | 0–2 | Sets the pace of the whole painting. Zero holds the strokes still while the music still lights them. |
| Sky Swirl | 0–2 | Sets how fast the sky strokes circle around the sun. In a photo, sky and cloud regions swirl. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Water Shimmer | 0–2 | Sets how much the water strokes ripple and sparkle, and how bright the sun track is. In a photo, water regions shimmer. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
| Wind Sway | 0–2 | Sets how far the palm, the fronds and the beach grass sway. In a photo, foliage regions sway. Use Assign modulation to choose a source. |
Some controls appear only after you enable a related mode or style. The settings panel always reflects the options available for the current selection.
Tips for a better audio visualization
- Assign different bands to structure, motion, and light instead of routing every control to Volume.
- Try assigning Bass to Impasto, then compare Mid, High, and Volume while the demo track plays. The slider's live fill shows the signal reaching that control.