Ever wish your digital painting could really have the look of oil on canvas? Well, the next generation of Adobe tools — with a hefty assist from powerful GPUs from companies like Nvidia — might get your digital work a little closer to the real thing.

At a SIGGRAPH press briefing yesterday, Nvidia showed off a demo of "Project Wetbrush," an Adobe technology that simulates oil painting in the digital realm. It's not just a glorified Photoshop texture tool either — Wetbrush actually computes the effects of the collision between the brush tip, the glob of paint, and any paint that has already been applied to the canvas.

The results are remarkable, but hard to describe. Pardon the mediocre cell-phone video, but we grabbed this glimpse of Wetbrush in action to give you a much better idea of what the technology can do.

The upshot, Nvidia reps said, was that masterworks created in Wetbrush could ultimately be 3D-printed in a process that would have not only the color values of the oil painting, but also the depth information that would give it its texture.

Of course, Project Wetbrush is likely pretty far from being incorporated into an actual Adobe product. Think of it as yet another Cool Thing you first heard about at SIGGRAPH that may, or may not, eventually make it to market.

For more on Wetbrush, see Nvidia's blog or look for a demo at Nvidia's SIGGRAPH booth (#509).