How can I achieve this cartoon effect?

Question

I'm a programmer doing a client project, and I'm trying to write an app that will do this effect to user-uploaded images. I think it's some combination of Find edges, Blur and some other filters, but I'm not sure. Anyone have any ideas?

Original:

Result:

Answer 1

To be able to script a user uploaded image to add an effect we may want to have a look at command line scriptable tools rather than a full blown image editing soft.

A quite versatile command line processing tools is ImageMagick which also comes with a variety of artistic filters we can combine for impressive effects.

Below example was quickly created using the -paint option:

convert <infile> -paint 6 <outfile>

ImageMagick is a free Open Source software available for (almost) all platforms.

Answer 2

Try looking for watercolor filter tutorial though the internet.

For example -

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/watercolor-painting/

or

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/watercolor-painting-photoshop-cs6/

or number5 here -

http://www.twelveskip.com/tutorials/photoshop/975/12-photoshop-tutorials-to-produce-watercolor-effects