Microsoft Fresh Paint


Fresh Paint is a painting app developed by Microsoft and released with the launch of Windows 8 in October 2012.

History

Fresh Paint originated from a Microsoft Research project known as Project Gustav, an endeavor to reproduce the behavior of physical oil paint on a digital medium. To push the boundaries of simulating oil on a digital medium the research team created a physics model that precisely replicated on a screen what would happen in the real world if you combined oil, a surface and a tool such as a paint brush. Two publications, Detail-Preserving Paint Modeling for 3D Brushes and Simple Data-Driven Modeling of Brushes, were released as a result of the team’s findings.
After a variety of internal testing Project Gustav was codenamed Digital Art. Partnering with The Museum of Modern Art, Digital Art was tested for a year by 60,000 people. With feedback culled from MoMA, developers expanded the existing physics model, experimenting with how real oil paint blended and reacted to the texture of a canvas. After final adjustments were made Digital Art was rebranded as Fresh Paint and released to the public with Windows 8 in October 2012. In 2016, the app was remade for Windows 10 computers.

Versions

Major Milestones
Ongoing monthly updates