Applying Artistic Effects

The following functions are designed specifically for artistic effects:

Function	Purpose
L_AddBitmapNoise	Adds random pixels to a bitmap, letting you specify the percentage of coverage and the color plane.
L_AddShadowBitmap	Adds shadows to a bitmap, letting you specify the threshold value, the direction of the light source, and whether the shadows are colored or grayscale.
L_AgingBitmap	Adds effects that simulate random color changes, scratches, dust and pits, making a bitmap look like it was made from an old film.
L_BendingBitmap	Wraps the bitmap along the inside or outside of an arc pattern.
L_BricksTextureBitmap	Creates a brick texture that makes the image look like it has been drawn on a brick wall.
L_CanvasBitmap	Applies an image as an overlay for another image.
L_CloudsBitmap	Generates different cloud patterns.
L_ColoredBallsBitmap	Adds colored balls to the bitmap. Various parameters control the color and appearance of the balls.
L_ColoredPencilBitmap / L_ColoredPencilBitmapExt	Apply a colored pencil effect to a bitmap. Both functions brighten the bitmap and enhances its edges.
L_CylindricalBitmap	Warps the bitmap to a cylindrical shape.
L_DiceEffectBitmap	Splits the image into square or rectangular blocks. If the blocks are square, rotates each block by 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees. If the blocks are rectangular, flips the blocks around the X-axis and Y-axis.
L_DiffuseGlowBitmap	Adds a colored glow to a bitmap's light or dark areas, making these areas shine with a neon glow.
L_DisplaceMapBitmap	Displaces bitmap pixels horizontally and vertically according to the values of the displacement map image.
L_EmbossBitmap	Applies an emboss effect to a bitmap, letting you specify the depth and direction of the effect.
L_FragmentBitmap	Averages a bitmap with its shifted copies.
L_FreeHandShearBitmap	Shears the bitmap by the wave drawn using amplitude values obtained from L_GetCurvePoints.
L_FreeHandWaveBitmap	Distorts the bitmap by the wave drawn using amplitude values obtained from L_GetCurvePoints and a specified angle.
L_FunctionalLightBitmap	Adds light to the bitmap according to a function-based distribution. This functional light will be generated by one of the following methods: linear, quadratic, sine, cosine, or using freehand points.
L_HalfTonePatternBitmap	Creates a halftone screen effect for an image while keeping its continuous range of tones.
L_ImpressionistBitmap	Makes a bitmap look like it was painted by an impressionist painter.
L_MaskConvolutionBitmap	Multiplies the pixels of an image by a kernel, resulting in one of several 3D edge effects being applied to the image.
L_MosaicBitmap	Imposes a mosaic effect on a bitmap by dividing the bitmap into tiles of a specified size and changing the color of all pixels in each tile to the average color of pixels within the tile.
L_MosaicTilesBitmap	Divides an image into rectangular or arc-shaped cells with irregular boundaries. This function makes an image look like a mosaic made from tiles. Tiles can be rectangular or arc-shaped, depending upon the coordinate system used to draw the tiles.
L_MotionBlurBitmap	Applies a filter, which creates the illusion of movement in an image.
L_OffsetBitmap	Shifts the bitmap pixels horizontally and vertically.
L_OilifyBitmap	Applies an oil-painting effect to a bitmap.
L_PerlinBitmap	Uses a pseudo-random number generator in order to create a Perlin noise, and then procedurally transforms that noise into a texture.
L_PerspectiveBitmap	Gives a bitmap a 3-D depth, as if it exists on a flat plane and has been skewed into a different shape.
L_PixelateBitmap	Divides the bitmap into rectangular or circular cells and then recreates the image using those cells filled with the minimum, maximum, or average pixel value, depending upon the effect that was set.
L_PlasmaFilterBitmap	Applies color patterns that blend into each other like plasma.
L_PointillistBitmap	Pointillism is a painting technique where the image is composed of tiny, separate dots of primary color. Non primary colors are created by placing primary colors beside each other and allowing the "mixing" to be performed when the image is viewed. This filter creates a similar effect.
L_PolarBitmap	Converts the bitmap from rectangular to polar coordinates and vice versa.
L_PosterizeBitmap	Imposes a poster effect on a bitmap by quantizing the bitmap's colors to a specified number of color levels per plane. For example, two levels means two of red, two of green, and two of blue.
L_PunchBitmap	Warps the bitmap by pinching it toward the center or expanding the bitmap away from its center.
L_PuzzleEffectBitmap	Splits the image into square blocks and randomizes these blocks inside the image.
L_RingEffectBitmap	Divides the image into a certain number of rings. Each ring is rotated according to a rotate angle. The rotate angle for each ring will be chosen randomly by the function or can be passed to the function.
L_RadialBlurBitmap	Rotates the bitmap pixels around a center point.
L_RadWaveBitmap	Distorts a bitmap using a wave radiating from the specified center.
L_RevEffectBitmap	Adds a pseudo-3D wave effect to the bitmap by drawing horizontal lines across the bitmap and basing each line’s height at each point on its brightness at that point.
L_RemoveRedeyeBitmap	Replaces the red component of the pixels with the specified color. To replace only the red component for those pixels in the eyes of the bitmap, select a small region around the eye(s).
L_RippleBitmap	Warps the image in concentric rings.
L_RomanMosaicBitmap	Divides the bitmap into rectangular or rounded rectangular cells and then fills each cell with a color chosen randomly from the colors of each tile’s pixels.
L_SegmentBitmap	Divides the bitmap into segments where each segment’s pixels have approximately the same color (homogenous color).
L_SpherizeBitmap	Warps the image around a 3D spherical shape.
L_SwirlBitmap	Produces a swirl pattern by rotating the bitmap the specified number of degrees about the specified point.
L_SolarizeBitmap	Applies an effect that mimics the accidental exposure of photographic film to light.
L_TextureAlphaBlendBitmap	Combines image data from pBitmapMask and pBitmapUnderlay with an underlay effect. The result is used as a fade mask that will be used to combine pBitmapSrc and pBitmapDst with variable opacity. The result is combined again with pBitmapDst using a constant opacity (using nOpacity).
L_UnderlayBitmap	Combines two bitmaps so that one appears to be an underlying texture for the other.
L_VignetteBitmap	Draws a specified shape and feathers it to the bitmap.
L_WaveBitmap	Distorts the bitmap with two perpendicular waves at the specified angle and with the specified wave type.
L_WindBitmap	Creates thin lines, directed along the specified angle, on the specified bitmap.
L_ZigZagBitmap	Radially distorts the bitmap by creating waves that twist the image around a specified center.
L_ZoomBlurBitmap	Blurs the bitmap along radial lines starting from the specified center point.
L_ZoomWaveBitmap	Distorts the bitmap with a wave zoomed from the specified center.

With any of these functions, except L_UnderlayBitmap, you can limit the effect to a specified region of interest. For information about regions, refer to Defining and Using a Bitmap Region.

Treating the bitmap as a device context opens up many possibilities for artistic effects. The L_CreateLeadDC function lets you get the device context. You can then use the LEADTOOLS special effects functions to combine images in interesting ways. For example, when painting one image on top of another, you could specify a multi-pass paint with a brush effect; then quit before finishing all of the passes. The result would be a blending of the two images. For details, refer to Implementing Special Effects.