Learn to see light the way Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Vermeer did. Relight any portrait in 3D. Transform it into a master painting style. Then learn exactly how and why it works.
We do not replicate or copy any artist's paintings. VOLUX teaches technique and transforms images into a representation of what they would look like if painted by the masters. For art education and reference only.
Four steps from a regular photo to a master painting study.
1
Upload Any Portrait
Drop in any photo. Colour, black and white, selfie, professional headshot, or even a drawing. VOLUX works with everything.
2
Relight in 3D
Our normal-map engine detects the 3D shape of the face. Move lights around in real time. See exactly how light falls on real geometry.
3
Apply a Master Style
Click any master artist. Our AI analyses the photo and applies their exact technique — palette, lighting, texture, atmosphere. Your face stays. The art transforms it.
4
Learn Why It Works
Every style comes with a deep-dive lesson. Understand the palette, the lighting setup, the colour temperature. Then paint it yourself on canvas using VOLUX as your guide.
Studio Features
Not a filter app. A professional tool built for artists who want to understand light.
VOLUX uses the same maths as film VFX studios. Normal-mapped relighting. Lambertian diffuse. Blinn-Phong specular. ACES tonemapping. Running in your browser.
3D Relighting Engine
Upload a portrait and VOLUX computes a normal map. Then it simulates real light physics on that surface. Move lights and watch shadows, highlights, and rim light respond in real time.
Up to 3 coloured key lights with interactive hemisphere pad
Full colour picker per light — warm amber, cool blue, neon pink
10 mood presets: Studio, Golden Hour, Neon Night, Moonlight, and more
Gobo patterns, overlay textures, film grain, colour grading tools
Before/after split bar to compare with original
15 Master Artist Styles
Each style is a forensically accurate recreation of a master's technique. We studied their palettes, lighting setups, and atmospheric effects. Then built each one as an 11-layer Photoshop-style compositing pipeline.
Your face stays pixel-perfect — only the style changes
Works with colour photos, black and white, and drawings
4 categories: Old Masters, Fantasy, Comics, Street Art
Click an artist, wait 5 seconds, see your face as they painted it
History gallery saves every render you make
Complete Art Academy
This isn't a tool with a tutorial. It's an education platform with a tool. 9 modules teaching real painting and photography technique. Deep-dive pages for each of the 15 master artists.
9 learning modules covering the fundamentals of visual art
Interactive exercises: recreate Rembrandt's light, then compare
Learn colour theory by mixing actual colours, not reading about them
Practice with your own photos — the best way to learn is by doing
New modules added regularly for Masters and Lifetime users
Masters Collection
15 artists. 4 categories. 500 years of technique.
Each style is built from real study of the original master's methods. Not a filter. A forensically accurate recreation of how they saw and painted light.
Old Masters
Rembrandt
Golden triangle chiaroscuro
Single warm key light at 45 degrees. The signature triangle on the shadow cheek. Deep umber shadows that glow. The most studied portrait lighting in history.
Old Masters
Caravaggio
Extreme tenebrism
The most dramatic lighting ever painted. Harsh overhead light. Subject emerges from absolute darkness. 80% pure black. Drama through darkness.
Old Masters
Vermeer
Pearly window daylight
Cool natural light from a left window. Skin glows with luminous pearly quality. Blue-white highlights, warm honey shadows. The most beautiful daylight portraits ever.
Old Masters
Turner
Golden atmospheric haze
Light itself becomes the subject. Golden radial glow. Edges dissolve into warm fog. Impressionism before Impressionism existed.
Old Masters
Da Vinci
Sfumato smoke
No hard edges exist. Smoke-soft gradients. Ivory parchment warmth. The technique that makes the Mona Lisa smile impossible to pin down.
Old Masters
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel fresco
Terracotta skin. Ultramarine blue shadows. Sage green undertones. Gold divine light from above. The pigments of the Italian Renaissance.
Fantasy
Frazetta
Dark fantasy fire
Deep oily blacks meet fire-orange highlights. Golden oil sheen. Dramatic backlighting. The most influential fantasy art style ever created.
Fantasy
Boris Vallejo
Heroic bronze oil
Natural skin with bronze-copper warmth. Wet specular oil sheen. Purple atmospheric background. Gold rim on every edge. Hyper-smooth airbrushed oil on board.
Fantasy
Frida Kahlo
Bold earth warmth
Terracotta, olive, ochre. Flat matte surface. Compressed range with intimate warmth. Folk art boldness meets fine art emotion.
Comics
Alex Ross
Painted photorealism
Photographic realism rendered in gouache. Dramatic overhead heroic lighting. The artist who proved comics could hang in a gallery.
Comics
Jim Lee
Dynamic cell-shade
Cross-hatching shadows. Cell-shaded tonal bands. Blue-white edge glow. The defining look of modern American comics.
Comics
McFarlane
Gothic darkness
70% in deep shadow. Matte darkness. Only eyes and teeth survive the void. The Spawn aesthetic.
Comics
Dave McKean
Mixed media charcoal
Charcoal and sepia. Paper texture. Edge bleed. Torn collage layers. The Sandman covers brought to life.
Street
Basquiat
Neo-expressionism
Raw red, blue, yellow patches. Posterized tones. Thick brush strokes. Crown motifs. Punk meets fine art.
Street
Banksy
Stencil street art
Three tones. Black, grey, white. Sharp stencil-cut edges. Spray paint overspray. Pure graphic power.
MORE ARTISTS COMING — Photography Masters, Digital Concept, Impressionists
Per Artist Deep-Dive
Every master comes with a complete study.
Click any master in the academy and get everything you need to understand, study, and recreate their technique with your own hands.
Full Biography
Where they trained. What influenced them. How they changed art forever.
Famous Works Analysis
5-8 key paintings with breakdowns. Where the light comes from. What palette they used. Why the composition works.
Signature Technique
What makes them instantly recognizable. The specific method explained so you could teach it to someone else.
Light Setup Diagram
Interactive breakdown of their lighting. Recreate it with the VOLUX relight engine on your own photo.
Materials & Tools
Oil on canvas. Fresco on wet plaster. Charcoal. Spray paint. Each master's specific medium and what to buy.
AI Style Transform
One click. Your photo in their style. The fastest way to understand what makes each master unique.
Artist Quotes
Their own words about art, light, colour, and creativity. Inspiration directly from the masters.
Practice Exercises
"Where does the strongest light hit?" Questions that train your eye to see what masters saw.
VOLUX Academy
Two tracks. Theory and practice. Just like a real art school.
The Foundation track teaches you to SEE like an artist. The Practice track teaches you to PAINT like the masters. Both use your own photos and the VOLUX studio as your canvas.
Foundation Track — Learn to See
01
Colour Theory
Why complementary colours vibrate. Why analogous palettes feel calm. How to mix any skin tone from 5 pigments. Warm vs cool. What "mud" is and how to avoid it.
Colour WheelComplementaryAnalogousMixing
02
Light & Shadow
Key light, fill, rim, ambient. Why shadows have colour. The 5 zones of a lit sphere. Rembrandt's triangle. Caravaggio's drama. Butterfly lighting for beauty.
Key Light5 ZonesChiaroscuro
03
Value & Contrast
Perfect colour with wrong values looks flat. The 9-step value scale. The squinting test. Notan studies. Why 70/30 dark-to-light creates drama.
9-Value ScaleNotan70/30 Rule
04
Temperature
Warm light creates cool shadows. This one principle separates amateur from professional. Why flesh in shadow looks purple-blue. How temperature creates depth.
Warm/CoolSubsurfaceDepth
05
Composition
Rule of thirds creates balance. Golden ratio creates flow. Leading lines guide attention. How the masters controlled where you look first, second, and last.
Golden RatioLeading LinesVisual Weight
06
Black & White
Remove colour and you see value. Charcoal techniques. Grisaille underpainting. Why removing colour makes you a better colourist.
CharcoalGrisailleUnderpainting
07
Oil Painting Basics
Underpainting creates structure. Glazing creates luminosity. Impasto creates texture. Fat over lean. Why understanding oil makes better digital work.
GlazingImpastoScumbling
08
Portrait Lighting
Butterfly. Loop. Rembrandt. Split. Broad vs short. Set them up in VOLUX, understand the mood each creates, then take it to a real photoshoot.
ButterflyLoopSplit
09
Colour Grading
What a LUT is. Split toning. Film emulation: why Portra looks dreamy and Velvia looks punchy. How Hollywood colourists shape mood with colour.
LUTsSplit ToningFilm Stocks
Practice Track — Paint Like the Masters
Step-by-step painting tutorials. Real brushes. Real paint. Real canvas. Each master gets a complete painting walkthrough — from blank canvas to finished portrait. Use VOLUX as your reference guide, then paint it for real.
P1
Paint Like Rembrandt
Set up the golden triangle light. Burn umber underpainting on toned canvas. Build warm shadows first. Layer golden highlights. Step-by-step from VOLUX reference to finished oil painting. Materials list, brush sizes, paint colours included.
Oil on CanvasChiaroscuro4-Layer ProcessPhoto Tutorial
P2
Paint Like Caravaggio
Pure tenebrism. Start with black canvas. Only paint what the light touches. Learn to see shadow as the default state. A single light source, maximum drama. Includes reference photos at each stage.
Airbrush-smooth oil technique on board. Build realistic skin first, then glaze bronze warmth over the top. Add chrome specular highlights. Purple atmospheric background. Complete material and brush guide.
Oil on BoardGlazingSpecularPhoto Tutorial
P4
Paint Like Vermeer
Soft window light from the left. Pearly luminous skin using lead white (modern substitute) and transparent ochre glazes. The camera obscura debate. Cool highlights over warm shadows.
Daylight SetupPearl SkinGlazingPhoto Tutorial
P5
Paint Like Frazetta
Dark fantasy oil. Start with the darkest values. Build fire-orange light from behind the subject. Wet-on-wet technique for the oil sheen. Dramatic rim light. Smoky atmospheric background.
Dark-to-LightWet-on-WetRim LightPhoto Tutorial
P6
More Masters Coming
Da Vinci sfumato. Michelangelo fresco. Kahlo folk art. Alex Ross gouache. Each master gets the same complete treatment: VOLUX reference, materials list, step-by-step photos, finished painting.
New Tutorials MonthlyMasters PlanLifetime Plan
15+
Step Photos
Full
Materials List
VOLUX
Reference Guide
Share
Your Results
Share Your Art
Paint it. Post it. Tag us.
Finished a VOLUX painting tutorial? Share your work on social media. Tag @voluxstudio and we'll feature the best student work in our gallery. Show the world what 500 years of technique looks like in your hands.
@voluxstudio
#PaintedWithVOLUX
#VOLUXAcademy
Best student paintings featured monthly on our Instagram, website gallery, and newsletter.
The Real Question
In the era of AI, why learn to paint at all?
Because AI generates images without understanding. It pattern-matches from data. It produces a face without knowing what a skull is. It renders light without understanding optics. It mimics Rembrandt without ever holding a brush.
A real Rembrandt in a museum has physical texture. The highlights are thick ridges of paint that catch gallery lighting. The shadows are thin and transparent, glowing from the warm ground underneath. No screen, no printer, no algorithm can replicate this. The painting exists in three dimensions. It changes depending on the angle you view it.
The artist who can create with their hands holds something irreplaceable. Not a skill becoming obsolete. A skill that becomes more valuable precisely because the machines cannot do it.
VOLUX Academy teaches you the techniques the masters used. Not a university degree that costs $40,000 and takes four years. Not an art school that teaches theory without practice. Real technique. Real pigments. Real brushes. Step by step. At your pace. Guided by voice. For less than the cost of a single university textbook.
What You Get
A complete art education. Not a filter app.
Every plan includes real teaching content. Here is exactly what is inside.
15 Master Studies
Deep Reading Pages
12 chapters per master. Full biography. Five signature techniques explained. Complete palette decoded with real pigment names. Materials list with exact brands and tube sizes. Practice questions. Kindle-style reader with 4 themes. Comfortable serif font. Adjustable size. Saves your position.
50+ HOURS OF READING CONTENT
Voice-Guided Tutorials
Paint Like the Masters
12-step painting sessions per master. Voice narrator guides every brushstroke. Hands-free voice commands: say "next", "repeat", "pause", "question." Materials checklist with checkboxes. Q&A knowledge base you can ask mid-painting. Rating and feedback at the end. Your pace. No timer.
15 COMPLETE PAINTING COURSES
Foundation Academy
Learn to See Like an Artist
9 theory modules: Colour Theory (with interactive wheel), Light and Shadow, Value and Contrast, Colour Temperature, Composition, Black and White, Oil Painting Basics, Portrait Lighting, Colour Grading. Exercises in every module. Real materials with real brand names.
9 INTERACTIVE MODULES
Listen While You Paint
Audio Stories & Tours
Narrated master biographies (25 min each). Painting tours of famous works (5 per master). Technique deep-dives. Each master narrated in a distinct voice character. Save progress. Resume anytime. Listen while painting, commuting, cooking. 30+ hours of audio content.
30+ HOURS AUDIO — COMING SOON
The VOLUX Studio
Your AI Painting Reference
Upload any portrait. Apply any master's lighting style. 11-layer smart compositing. Normal map estimation. Multi-light system with colour, position, intensity. Mood presets. Background removal. High-res PNG export. Use the output as your painting reference.
INCLUDED IN ALL PLANS
Better Than Art School
The Comparison
Art degree: $40,000+, 4 years, theory-heavy, one city. Online courses: $200-2,000, pre-recorded, no interactivity. VOLUX Academy: $79-499, voice-guided, hands-on from day one, uses YOUR photos, real materials, real technique from 15 masters across 500 years. One payment. Yours forever.
FROM $79 — ONE-TIME
Plans
One payment. Yours forever.
No subscriptions. No recurring charges. Buy once, own it. AI master renders use credits. Buy packs when you need more.
Masters and Lifetime only. Bigger packs = bigger savings. Credits never expire.
10
Credits
$3.99
$0.40 each
25
Credits
$6.99
$0.28 each — save 30%
Best Value
75
Credits
$14.99
$0.20 each — save 50%
200
Credits
$29.99
$0.15 each — save 63%
All prices in USD. One-time payments — no subscriptions. Render credits never expire. Packs only for Masters/Lifetime. Lifetime bonus credits added yearly on anniversary. Lifetime price may increase annually — lock in today's price. 7-day money-back guarantee.
FAQ
Questions? Answers.
What exactly is a "master render credit"?
When you click a master artist style, VOLUX transforms your photo using AI. This uses one credit. The result is cached — clicking the same artist on the same photo again is free. Only new combinations use credits.
Do I need to subscribe?
No. Every plan is a one-time payment. You buy once and it's yours forever. The only ongoing cost is render packs if you need more — and those never expire.
Can I try before buying?
Yes. The full studio editor is free — all moods, lighting, gobos, overlays, grading. Exports are watermarked. Master styles and academy require a paid plan.
Can I use VOLUX to learn oil painting?
That's exactly what it's designed for. Apply a master style to see what the painting should look like. Study the technique in the academy. Then paint it on canvas yourself, using VOLUX as your visual guide.
Does it change my face?
No. Your face stays pixel-perfect. The master styles only change colours, lighting, atmosphere, and texture through an 11-layer compositing system. Your identity is never altered.
What happens when credits run out?
A popup shows pack options: 10, 25, 75, or 200 credits. Bigger packs are cheaper per credit. Credits never expire. The editor and academy always work regardless of balance.
Can I use this commercially?
Yes. All exports from paid plans can be used commercially — portfolio, social media, prints, client work.
Will more artists be added?
Yes. Photography Masters, Digital Concept Art, and Impressionist styles are coming. Masters and Lifetime users get all new content automatically.
Ready to see light like the masters did?
Start free. Relight your first portrait. See what 500 years of technique looks like on your own face.