Local Content-Style Control for Diffusion-based Image Stylization
ConferenceACM SIGGRAPH Asia Technical Communications, 2026
Computer Graphics Engineer and Researcher
About me
Bringing artistic control to expressive image stylization — from GPU-based filtering and neural style transfer to on-device generative AI.
I lead research and development at Digital Masterpieces, driving research and product development for expressive image stylization apps such as BeCasso and ProFuse. With over 15 years in non-photorealistic rendering, my work has been recognized in both research and industry — including best paper and demo awards at SIGGRAPH Asia and Expressive, and App of the Day features in the App Store.
My contributions span GPU-based mobile image filtering, neural style transfer and on-device diffusion. I received my doctorate from the Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, in 2016 and was a post-doctoral researcher in its Computer Graphics Systems group until 2023, working on real-time rendering, computational aesthetics and cartography-oriented visualization.
- Expressive rendering
- Image & video stylization
- Neural style transfer
- On-device generative AI
- Mobile GPU computing
- Geovisualization
Currently
Head of R&D at Digital Masterpieces
With ProFuse, I am shifting my focus to bring local artistic control to generative AI — drawing artists deeper into decisions the models would otherwise make alone.
News
All news- PaperMy paper “Local Content-Style Control for Diffusion-based Image Stylization” has been accepted to SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 Technical Communications, held December 1–4, 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- AppWe released ProFuse, our new on-device generative AI art app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. It turns photos and text prompts into artworks with local control over content and style, running privately on the Apple Neural Engine.
- AppBeCasso, Clip2Comic, Graphite, Oilbrush, and Waterbrush have been updated for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 with Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language, improved canvas handling, and performance optimizations. All apps are available from the App Store.
- AppWe added over 20 new Custom Magic Styles to BeCasso based on Arbitrary Neural Style Transfer, expanding the ML-powered artistic style transfer capabilities with new oil painting, watercolor, and pencil effects. BeCasso is available from the App Store.
- AppBeCasso now integrates Apple Image Playground, enabling users to generate images via Apple Intelligence and transform them into high-resolution artwork directly within the app. Available on devices supporting Apple Intelligence.
Latest papers
All publications
Artistic style decomposition for texture and shape editing
JournalThe Visual Computer, 2024
Controlling Geometric Abstraction and Texture for Artistic Images
ConferenceProceedings International Conference on Cyberworlds, 2023
Selected projects
All projects
ProFuse
On-device generative AI art app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Turns photos and text prompts into artworks with local control over content and style — running privately on the Apple Neural Engine.
BeCasso
Photo-to-painting app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Interactive oil paint, watercolor and cartoon filtering on the GPU, combined with on-device neural style transfer, Custom Styles and Magic Eraser.
Graphite
Interactive photo-to-drawing stylization on mobile devices — pencil, pastel and ink renditions with fine-grained local control.
Artistic Control in Image Stylization
Giving users fine-grained artistic control over filtering and stylization — local and multi-level parameterization, art-directable strokes, editable texture and shape, temporal consistency in video, and local content and style control for diffusion models.
Oil Paint Filtering
Interactive image stylization with an oil paint look — feature-aware color quantization with dominant color palettes and real-time paint-texture synthesis, with per-pixel control through interactive painting on desktop and mobile GPUs.
Cartography-Oriented 3D Geovisualization
Non-photorealistic rendering of virtual 3D city models, landscapes and water surfaces following cartographic design principles — the topic of my doctoral thesis.