Mural Maker by Da Vinci Eye

The problem is, it doesn’t work without 30 minutes of frustration. The video prompts will keep popping up regardless of settings, connectivity issues, getting the photo to actually load without switching 15 times between version 1.0 & 2.0, and pretty useless videos make this “could be great” tool a frustrating nightmare. I have the pro version, but not sure if I’ll renew for a 3rd or 4th year because it’s so frustrating to operate. For clarity, I’m an advanced technology user and this is reminiscent of trying to get online with a 1994 AOL account. Stop with the pop ups and PLEASE just keep it simple, the “upgrades” do not work and beta testing through paid users is awful. Idk who’s being stubborn on the team, but 2.0 is so much worse than 1.0. Without these issues, this is easily a 10 star app that is a lifesaver for artists, but the bugs make it infuriatingly unusable.

Major issues that need addressing: the app does not correct for camera distortion so the image you “project” does not line up correctly to your hand when trying to trace. Furthermore, tracing is not possible because the image you are trying to trace is overlayed on top of the camera image so your hand is behind the image making it impossible to trace accurately. Even if the opacity is turned down you still cannot see where your hand is relative to the drawing. I tried zooming in the camera feed to see if I could get a closer look but it just enlarges the camera and pixelated the stream so my Hand and canvas was rendered unusable. The overlayed image stays in good quality but the canvas feed gets to blurry to see anything you are doing. .. This it’s a great idea tho and I hope they improve it for the near future. I think a digital projector app that can project directly from your mobile Device that has a proctor lens built in would be the way to go for the future. If i knew how I’d make it myself. Excited to see where all this AI tech will bring us in the future and especially how it can be an aid for artists.

About 5 years ago, I found Da Vinci Eye and at the time I couldn’t draw a stick figure (very slight exaggeration). But finding it unlocked a part of my life I didn’t know I was missing. I found a creative outlet and way to turn my brain off from the stress of every day life. The one limitation with Da Vinci was the ability to scale up to a larger size. When Mural Maker came out, I made the decision to do a huge canvas (48”x60”). It took a few minutes to get everything set up, but it was remarkably simple. I had tried to replicate the da Vinci experience with a projector but the shadows get in the way of where I was working. With Mural Maker I was shocked the remarkable level of detail I could get even on such a large canvas. The time saved was easily worth the price to me. I’ve really enjoyed both Da Vinci Eye and Mural Maker, and if you’re interested in doing a large project, I’d highly recommend giving it a try.