Painting Landscapes with NVIDIA Canvas
NVIDIA Canvas turns rough brush strokes into photo-realistic landscapes using AI. This tutorial shows how the app works, how to build a scene with materials and layers, how styles change the result, and how to export to Photoshop. You need a recent NVIDIA RTX graphics card to run it; the supported cards were listed in the video description at the time.
The interface
Tools sit on the left, view and file options on top. On the right are the materials (sky, cloud, mountain, forest, river, sea, grass, hill, snow, fog and more), a Layers panel that works like Photoshop’s, and a row of style images. The style controls the look of the final render, and you can import your own photo as a style.
Step 1: Sky and clouds
Pick a style, select the Cloud material and paint a few strokes across the sky. Even a single line becomes a believable cloud. Reduce the brush size for finer clouds and Ctrl+Z to undo.
Step 2: Mountains and forest
On a new layer, draw the outline of a mountain range with the Mountain material, then use the Fill tool to fill the area so the mountains render solidly. Add a Forest layer and paint trees over the lower slopes and foreground.
Step 3: Water and grass
Add a River layer and paint a river through the scene, and draw a line upwards for a waterfall. Add grass to separate areas. Layers behind the mountains can hold more distant forest. Note that painting on one layer can change how neighbouring layers render, because the AI treats the whole scene together.
Step 4: Change the style
Click another style image and the same strokes re-render in a completely different mood. Import your own image as a new style if you want to match a reference. Layers can be turned on and off or deleted, for example replacing a waterfall with a sea painted on a new layer.
Step 5: Export
Save the native file, then Export as PSD. Opening it in Photoshop gives you the render with the layers separated, ready for retouching or for use as a background in your own artwork. The video ends with an example background created this way.
Notes
The app was in beta at the time. Layer opacity cannot be adjusted, and some materials (snow, hills) may not suit every scene. For concept backgrounds and quick environment references it is very fast.
Links from the video
- Join the members-only content: https://bit.ly/3fEEvD4
- Members-only videos: https://bit.ly/3fJieDV
