This is the Kuwahara Filter

30 years ago a man attempted to denoise medical imagery and unknowingly set off a chain reaction of research developments leading to a modern day post processing effect that transforms images into paintings, but how did he do it?
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References:
Anisotropic Kuwahara Filtering on the GPU - GPU Pro
www.umsl.edu/~k...
Music:
Joy - Persona 3
Tranquility - Persona 3
Crisis - Persona 3
During The Test - Persona 3
Afternoon Break - Persona 3
This Mysterious Feeling - Persona 3
Muscle Blues - Persona 4
Like A Dream Come True - Persona 4
Dead End Chaos Theatre - Earthbound
Climax Return - Danganronpa
Gold Falls Casino - HuniePop
Lucky Day - Jingle Punks
arrow in thumbnail drawn by thlurp
Thanks for watching!
This video is dedicated to my friend, Alotryx.
#acerola #graphics #gamedev #unity3d #graphics #shaders

[@moth.monster]

If you added the noise in photoshop just press ctrl-z 4Head

[@frog-hf4po]

shit i didnt think of that

[@deniszdorovtsov8195]

Generalized Ctrl-Z Denoise

[@alex.g7317]

what if i had already saved the noise in photoshop?

[@moth.monster]

@@alex.g7317 Idk don't do that next time

[@alex.g7317]

@@moth.monster what if i do?

[@quentinchoumont3437]

I just spent 40$ for a post-processing stack specifically for this filter, you come out a week later and release it for free, you're a madman

[@Acerola_t]

I technically released it like a month ago but I only posted about it on twitter, sorry about the trouble! I hope the asset you purchased is much more usable than my stuff.

[@quentinchoumont3437]

@@Crux_Riajuu Stagart Creations SC Post effects

[@orbatos]

And this is probably better than what you paid for.

[@ThePandaAgenda]

@@quentinchoumont3437 That one can do way more than just that one filter. So I guess the purchase was worth it (one of the demos looks like Antichamber which is great)

[@JeronimoStilton14]

@@ThePandaAgenda What a fun hidden gem.

[@jabadahut50]

I wasn't super impressed by the effect until I saw the HUGE improvement it makes to FFXIV... it looks like an entirely new game and it's gorgeous. I love it.

[@iluvpandas2755]

Is there a way to use the effect in Godot?

[@jabadahut50]

@@iluvpandas2755 yeah you'd just have to write the shader for it into godots shader pipeline

[@iluvpandas2755]

I will try.

[@pingvin9166]

​@@iluvpandas2755This effect is on the Godot Shader website, I can't leave a link because KZbin deletes comments with a link.

[@InkDrop.]

Never stop making these videos. Your method of teaching is both fun(ny) and informative. Love it!

[@Stowy]

nice pfp

[@InkDrop.]

@@Stowy ayyy

[@harriehausenman8623]

yez!

[@aiellamori]

I wish I could see it on my phone, all my phone lets me watch at is 720p and the bitrate makes it almost unnoticeably different

[@thediktatortot9645]

I will say that the original Kuwahara filter did a great job for what it was meant to do. Also, as an artist, I use this filter (or it's equivalent) all the time when searching for common colors on an image for either reference drawing or when I'm trying to achieve a 'style'. Great video, just a little offended that something like that would be considered 'not good' xD

[@Acerola_t]

I did say they all have their aesthetic appeal! I use the basic kuwahara filter a lot as a pre pass to other effects since it simplifies more than the anisotropic filter does and is pretty cheap performance wise.

[@thediktatortot9645]

@@Acerola_t Lol Just giving you a hard time. I enjoyed the video!

[@KoongYe]

As a Engineering major who is an artist now, this was like a content made for me.

[@kellybraille]

As a person who holds math and physics degrees and now transcribes music into braille for blind children, this content has absolutely nothing to do with my life path or personal interests. (But dang it I am LOVING it and I'm now binging all of his programs. How does he make this stuff so dang interesting?!?)

[@DerMBen]

I'm kinda in the oposite situation. I'm a design student going down a coding rabbit hole.

[@charliehammer8780]

As an artist who loved the Emperor Wang Gun drama, I love your username! 😁

[@samfromcadott]

If you used the Kuwahara filter on level geometry and toon shading on objects, you would have a pretty good emulation of cel animation.

[@redundantqwail9088]

7:12 I spit my cereal, you can't do this to me. I'm shaking, crying, pissing my pants. My fields have been salted, my possessions, stolen, my animals slaughtered.

[@redundantqwail9088]

9:19 My trees felled, my house collapsed, my water poisoned, my body incinerated, my ashes scattered in a foreign land.

[@Cansyrian]

That intro at 4:15 caught me off guard lmao, i thought i changed the video by mistake

[@glenneric1]

One of the difficult things in removing noise is deciding which fine objects need to be preserved, like eyes, and which you might want to leave out, like moles.

[@anteshell]

Moles are not noise. They are facial(or elsewhere on the skin) features exactly as eyes are. Removing those is completely different thing that denoising. Maybe you expect denoise filter to make the boobs bigger, tummy smaller and apply better makeup too?

[@MarcelAndrian]

@@anteshell that's not op's point. would you rather have eye-less face instead of mole-less face?

[@anteshell]

@@MarcelAndrian What I want my face to look like has nothing to do on using completely wrong tool on the wrong task. But also, I am very content on how I look and I don't have to resort on superficial vanity and lies to hide what ever I might have on my face with faux images of myself. I'm sorry that you don't have such a healthy self-esteem.

[@glenneric1]

@@anteshell You're fighting the entire cosmetics industry on this one.

[@anteshell]

@@glenneric1 no, I'm not. To be successful in cosmetic industry, it requires a bit more than being dumb enough to use denoiser for moles. Try again.

[@Julian_H]

You're not alone in wondering how manifold garden did edge detection. I worked on a (now scrapped) project with a similar aesthetic and could never figure it out.

[@SjorsHoukes]

See one of the top comments for the presentation video!

[@LanceThumping]

@@SjorsHoukes He's hearted a lot of comments and it is harder to find now but the comment said to search for "(SIGGRAPH 2020) That's a wrap: a Manifold Garden Rendering Retrospective "

[@sqrt2295]

I've been trying to get rid of the aliasing in my edge-detection shader for years and I'm still unable to, I thought it was something easy to fix but that I couldn't find for some reason. 😭

[@33gbm]

I don't even work with computer graphics, but your content is fantastic. So nice to watch the way you evolved the development of the methods and made it enjoyable. A natural gift for teaching.

[@stefanomoscatelli4138]

You are truly one of the best at explaining complex matter while being careful to details

[@Revoker1221]

Hi Acerola, You mentioned towards the end looking for the Manifold Garden presentation, and I've managed to find one that does outline parts of their anti aliasing techniques. I can't post the link without KZbin hiding the comment, so the title of the video is "(SIGGRAPH 2020) That's a wrap: a Manifold Garden Rendering Retrospective". Hope this is close to what you're looking for.

[@Isleuntothyself_]

8:52 out of all song choices you chose one that makes me shiver thinking about that phase of my life

[@Autistic_Menace00]

Haha same. As much as miss that soundtrack dear god am I glad I’m not listening to it lmao

[@Barackobama-uq2ly]

What's it from

[@DevilSpider_]

@@Barackobama-uq2ly Danganronpa. During segments where the culprit is caught and the protagonist explains the entire process behind the crime.

[@greenberrygk]

Using the filter to anti alias the edge outlines looks wonderful It looks like it’s outlined in actual ink

[@Pipubbles]

Love the Danganronpa music when explaining something, also I am so glad you are starting to pick up subscribers wise. You deserve it.

[@KrisDesChacals]

Wow, this is just incredible! I guess this is the kind of effect that were used in the game Last Day Of June and gave it that dreamy aesthetic.

[@SamHartwell420]

I really appreciate all of your videos. You are great at breaking down difficult to understand problems and have given me a lot more incite on how a lot of visual effects are done. I also enjoy your very dry tone and humor. I am glad to see your channel growing! Keep up the great work!

[@oltimeri8256]

Can’r wait to watch this later tonight! Im in an in-person meeting right now.

[@kylebanks]

These are probably my favourite videos on YT at the moment, keep it up!

[@xelshade]

Excellent excellent video. Learning a ton from this as a young tech artist on the job. Also desperately trying to optimize a custom postprocessing effect that costs 5ms at the moment…Relating hard to both of your freeze frame rants right now.

[@Acerola_t]

That's exciting! Unfortunately I wont be able to do post processing work at my job for a looooong time. Hope you can get it faster

[@JohnyK07]

Loved all the niche references throughout this video, particularly the extensive use of Persona OST for the music and the Monogatari style visuals like the quick frames with either walls of text or "black scenes".

[@Monad_of_Eirye]

Great video Acerola. I had implemented a version of the Kuwahara filter in the past, but I had no idea about the history behind it, so thanks for enlightening me :)

[@Acerola_t]

Thanks Monad :)

[@robertviragh6527]

Only watched the first 14 seconds but you're right, telling computers what to do just makes up for our own inability to do billions of calculations per second, glad to see someone understand what programming is all about.

[@qfurgie]

the fact the transition at 5:20 was from an Imagine Dragons song made me laugh harder than it should’ve

[@redotix9952]

Absolutely awesome video, and thank you so much for sharing your shaderwork publicly!

[@the-white-eye]

basic and generalized kuwahara is actually way closer to many modern oil painting styles imo. anisotropic looks like renaissance style oil paintings, paintings that take very long and try to be as close to a real picture as possible, the other two are far more stylized and actually in my opinion way more recognizable as painterly

[@microdavid7098]

can I just say I really really really enjoy these videos. It's one of the most youtube series at the moment. I was always curious about post processing effects and adding it in pixel art in particular. Some of my favorite videos on yt

[@microdavid7098]

been looking for techniques of blurring and stylizing pixel art without succeeding. Now this will definitely be of a lot of help

[@binkbonkbones3402]

I am... so glad you acknowledged that it was "borderline illegal" I was losing my shit

[@paer124]

Since KZbin doesn't like me commenting the link to the Manifold Garden presentation you mentioned, whose researching had cost me hours and was a huge pain to find, I just want to say that I love your videos and want to send you the link to the presentation.

[@Acerola_t]

Some others have sent me the link already (including the actual graphics guy for manifold garden), but thank you so much for your time and effort.

[@erichbauer3991]

really cool video, I've only heard about it in passing but always wanted to get more indepth with it

[@CausticCatastrophe]

We appreciate the work you put into these videos. love the balance of the explanation.

[@helioom]

This is one of the best and most intuitive videos I've seen on youtube about image processing. You made it very interesting and not boring!!

[@Squish_Squash]

I'm not gonna lie I've been binging all of Acerola's videos because they are so interesting to me as a budding computer science major. I'm not sure if I'm going to end up in a similar field working with graphics like this, but I find it so much fun to learn about all these difference effects and shaders you can add onto images and games, and the math and code behind them. I wish more people knew about this channel!

[@TrancorWD]

Funny, I wrote up a kuwahara filter in shadertoy right around when you released this. Yet if I had seen your video would have implemented paparis color weighting math. The thing I like about kuwahara is that you can get edge values relatively cheep when running the sampling and finding the color deviation. Even tangent values of those edges, for things like embossing effects. All in a single pass through the kernals This is still one if my favorite styles that is basically free in how its set up for everything it can do. The inate style of the noise reduction, so purrrddy!

[@solitudesf8111]

Was just thinking yesterday that you should release new video immediately.

[@kingofthegrapes]

Great video! It would be interesting to see if a filter like this could be used for upscaling low res games, specifically The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. It has a built in toggleable filter to make the game more closely resemble flash Isaac, but it looks atrocious, so it would be neat if a more sophisticated filter like this one could actually get the job done.

[@Acerola_t]

I'll make a vid on upscaling algorithms someday. I find that the kuwahara does work a little better when you upscale the image first and then filter it but that's to make it more stylized rather than recreating a true upscaled render. iirc the bilateral filter is also used for upscaling a lot, before machine learning upscaling was a thing at least

[@zloboslav_]

A random KZbin suggestion became an instant sub - thoroughly informative and immensely entertaining all within my attention span! Thank you!

[@benjaminha9031]

LETSS GOOO! I can tell you out a lot of work in this video. Keep it up ☺️!

[@TankorSmash]

The Manifold Garden dev tweeted their talk in response to this video. I don't think I can link it but it was a SIGGRAPH talk called "That's a wrap: A Manifold Rendering Retrospective"

[@theveryloosegoose]

As someone getting into painting, the Basic Kurosawa filter feels like it'd be good enough by itself. Like, you get rid of some detail off of your reference and then use that easier image to do a painting. But still, the generalized and anisotropic versions look awesome.

[@SaintSkeleton]

somehow you ended up in my feed, Im glad, I learned something today and enjoyed myself while doing it, you my friend have earned another subscriber!

[@AnalogHonesty]

Technology had evolved so much that people are trying to make it worse. I like it. Keep doing it.

[@pomponi0]

Nice! Back in 2019 and with no previous knowledge of denoising algorithms I wrote a filter with a similar, yet even less organic look than the box kernel Kuwahara one.

[@VarenRoth]

The voice: "Jiusepi" The text: "Guiseppe" Giuseppe: 😔

[@Acerola_t]

That's how u pronounce it tho

[@VarenRoth]

@@Acerola_t It's pretty good! The 'e' in italian is more like the 'Elephant' one. So 75% of the way there :)

[@Acerola_t]

@@VarenRoth oh I see, thank you

[@WHYUNODYLAN]

As soon as you mentioned it was a blur filter I was wondering if it could be used to fix the FFXIV graphics 😁

[@UnrealCatDev]

4:27 sick! I am one of those 2,039 videos! Thanks for shout out :D

[@HalfAsleepSam]

Your videos are getting me recommendations from Pixar employee tutorials

[@Acerola_t]

inigo quilez the goat

[@randomess61]

I love the simple but entertaining editing! Good stuff

[@SilverSpoon_]

filter>smooth edit>fade smooth, keep color filter>median 3~depending of your resolution edit>fade median filter, keep light 2-~50% ...that generally is how I denoise. either a drawn scan or a photo in which I was too dumb to leave my SONY on ISO AUTO. edit: myself I have rediscovered the dithering effects a few years ago trying to convert drawings into GIFs and save space, now I often downscale a pic to a few colors. and just grab the dithering noise effect JUST for aesthetic purposes. Even if the image in the end is full RGB 24bit.

[@BeaNoodl3]

The almost all persona bgm for the music choice is awesome

[@ZombieOfun]

I'm so glad humanity figured out how to trick rocks into doing math because I sure can't

[@johnd5149]

I am ashamed of how instantly I recognized the Persona 3 and Danganronpa music

[@AlexStrook]

wonderful video, the final shader gives insanely cool looking result! The kuwahara + pixel art tests are so tasty!

[@steubens7]

the manifold garden edge shader stuff is from siggraph 2020, "that's a wrap"; the section that starts around 10 minutes

[@iluvpandas2755]

I love the kurahara filter’s look. It has a good detail retention.

[@iluvpandas2755]

I actually perfer it over the generalized kurahara.

[@morganlak4337]

Tbh I'm much more interested in the texture space version of the effect! It's cool in real time, but you give up a lot of control as an artist, and it's never fun to fight against your art pipeline to make things look good. Excited for the next video!

[@dbbgba]

Yay! My CG rope behind Franco's head made it into one of your videos!!!

[@MaraJinksblade]

this is amazing. i was struggling to reconcile what i was going to do for the style i wanted to do for a game project im working on and i think this basically answers all my questions. all your videos have been super cool and helpful for me trying to figure stuff out.

[@LE0NSKA]

what a random pleasent find. great stuff

[@defface777]

Best bike I ever had growing up was a Kuwahara Magician :)

[@MoonWalkerTexsRanger]

The Lighthouse, Portishead, The Green Knight, Black Swann, somebody stop that man he has too many good references!

[@Srcsqwrn]

My computer works again, so now I can enjoy your videos again! c: I hope I can put use to some of them!

[@toothbrushfromnisemonogatari]

I like the monogatari effects.

[@Rinruperson]

Feel like I can almost hear the "oh-ho-ho!" coming from the screenshot at 15:21. (also this vid was great ! think I'm gonna have to mess around with these shaders later tonight!)

[@squesh5974]

Im on the other end of the spectrum as far as art humans go , idk what any of this means but Im very happy to be here.

[@zuzej]

wow finally a very informative, detailed and funny video on shaders. thank you!

[@Helgrind44]

Did you ever find out how Manifold Garden's edge detection works ? I also have sleepless nights about it. EDIT: Nevermind, the presentation is called "(SIGGRAPH 2020) That's a wrap: a Manifold Garden Rendering Retrospective" and can be found on KZbin.

[@Nosferatu-_-]

I'm glad you take as much time as you need to make quality videos.

[@lowresbones]

Damn, I love these videos!

[@lukedare-white3131]

These are such good videos, I'm really glad to see your channel growing!

[@jasonrodriguez1331]

I've been waiting since the announcement for the video, loved it.

[@VRtualHarmony]

bro im in love ty. i rly needed the what n why, other videos jus say do this n hopefully it works but it never works

[@p3tro]

finding an amazing channel is goated :3

[@Echolotl3]

gotta get back... back to the past... ACEROLA

[@floatytrouty]

The ink drawing aesthetic is looking amazing

[@NikZapp]

i love this channel! glad to see that its still active!

[@bzikarius]

hey! You did great work/compilation of ideas, and thanks for sharing them for free!

[@lunafoxfire]

Aaaa that's so cool! The anisotropic filter is such a crazy idea I bet you could make some really wild stuff with anisotropic kernels. I feel like in another life I would have loved being a graphics programmer but alas it's just a hobby.

[@Khris-gamin20]

my bro Acerola is caught in 8k ultra hd 0:43💀💀💀💀 edit: I appreciate your graphical work by the way, never stop makin' these cool videos. Keep up the incredible graphical work!

[@jimmy9013]

i wish i had the bravery in your delivery, thankss good stuff

[@jimmy9013]

Carcass interview - Bill astonishingly good, bastards :)

[@RedHedDes]

Man, amazingly chaotic music choices I love it

[@peanutbutter2456]

idk half of what you're saying, however i love hearing it. thanks!

[@Aethelvlad]

idk man but the green screen fast food restraunts is honestly so uncanny its a vibe, ur a genius bro

[@binkbonkbones3402]

Actually I've been looking specifically for this, this is extremely helpful, thank you. 👁👄👁

[@janmagtoast]

Can we all appretiate how we all just watched this video because we saw the name of the channel and knew we had to listen to this guy talk about stuff for 20 minutes? I refuse to believe that anyone watched this because the title or thumbnail seemed interesting. And yes, I put away my knitting needles to type this comment.

[@jackofall2362]

Now i know what anisotropic filtering is in every modern game 👍

[@manon8237]

the danganronpa and persona music were a nice surprise

[@oopsioded]

ayooo siiiick filters my bro Kuwahara ftw my dude

[@Freun]

Bro is the only one who still use the og youtube intro style

[@chameleonedm]

Welp, I can assure you at least one project is going to use these techniques. I'll have to credit you for this, it's precisely what I am looking for Also just popped onto your twitter. There's nothing wrong with your appearance dude. You're allowed to be yourself and don't let anyone suggest otherwise

[@softtware7845]

the persona 3 music sent me to bliss i love this video

[@ruadeil_zabelin]

7:38 Bonus points for Imonster

[@SplarcieRS]

Haven't seen a video of yours before but it was a great quality video. Learned a lot and was wondering if there's something like this for ue5? Me and a buddy have a shader effect that we put on things that gives it a good black outline like comic books but it tends to mess up on super high quality things. This does seemingly the same effect (shown at 16:40)

[@knightabbas363]

some times life follows a logic of "shit comes in shit comes out"

[@totidoki05]

finally some love for the kuwahara filter, i'm stunned it is so underused, zelda skyward sword used it on the wii and it was awesome! though on the switch release they didn't change the kernel size to fit with the increased resolution so it's almost non existant, making a huge visual feature of the game forgotten now. I'd love to see new uses of it like you showcased!

[@nathanlebon5813]

Thank you a lot king, you've made it quite clear and I just implemented the Kuwahara Filter on my mountains in Houdini thanks to you. Next step would be to make a 3D Kernel out of it.

[@紺野-純子]

that monogatari-esque intro, i see you

[@Dan_Tasty]

Fantastic video! I've recently gotten into designing materials and shaders in UE5, would love to have a go at transcribing your shader into unreal as well as experimenting with adding animated artifacts into the textures to appear as impressionist brush strokes on playback. Saw a UE marketplace blueprint simulates smear frames from traditional animation as well and I can definitely see a project that would benefit from combining a few different techniques to give a game some real personality