Graphic Arts Consortium

Ulead Cool 3d - Buyer Be Forewarned

2011-09-05T13:38:00.002-06:00


Ulead Cool 3d and Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio

If you are like me and tend to scan the internet to see what's new and developing out there in the world of graphic software you will probably run across a few dozen programs that fall into the category of 'over kill, under performance'. The Ulead Cool 3d packages (under the title Ulead Cool 3d or Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio) fall into this category as far as my evaluation goes. Both programs work well and are quite reasonably priced but have a somewhat limited output capability. The program is used to create 3d titles and objects to be used on the web or in Flash presentations and give you the ability to construct 3d objects and/or text, complete with texture and color control, lighting adjustment, path animation and special effects. Sounds pretty sweet, eh? The functional versatility falls a bit short of the imagined possibilities though and you end up compromising a lot of your finished 3d pieces because the software just couldn't allow you to dial in the precise tweaks you wanted. Case in point: most 3d packages allow you to adjust the UV mapping of an object so you don't get an unnatural looking texture stretched across the surface of your object.


interface of Ulead Cool 3d Production Studio

The GUI supplies a visual preview of the preset animated effects that you can add to text or objects. I have a quad core processor on my machine and the animation previews of the effects still chugged along at a snail's pace leaving you frustrated at wanting to see a better, more real-time representation, of the effect.
The one plus side to this program is the learning curve. This is a quick to learn, quick to use program that allows most people to just begin noodling around and getting used to all the effects you can do. It doesn't take much time before you are up and creating your own animated Flash or animated GIF files for the web. I checked on Corel's website (Corel has taken over the program from Ulead and is now the distributor of Ulead products) and it looks as if they aren't even promoting these programs anymore which leads me to wonder if they are going to drop the program entirely or maybe come out with an updated version.
In closing I will say that if you run across this program on Cnet or some other downloading site and think 'hey great price and it looks like it can do a lot of cool 3d stuff', be forewarned. My suggestion would be to create the same type effects using Flash and Photoshop and give yourself a much broader range of creativity. You can find trial versions of the program on the web so don't jump in too quick, try it before you buy it.

DP Animation Maker

2011-07-22T19:09:00.000-06:00

Here's a fun little program that does a few cute tricks and is fun for kids or adults to play around with and may even come in handy to save you some time on a quick effect for a project. I can't see anyone using it a lot but what little it does, it does pretty well and the price is reasonable at just under $27 for the registered version (evaluation copy free to download). DP Animation maker is a smart little program you can use to create animation gifs for websites, backgrounds and other projects with very little effort. Within minutes you will find yourself tooling around the effects toolbar trying out all the plugin effects to create weather, lighting and object animations within your static picture. It also allows for the import of your own static images into any picture and works good with transparent background images like .pngs or .gifs. Sure, anyone with a few mid to high-end progs could recreate the effect, but for those weekenders who want to create some jazzy little images to email their friend or stick or their webpage, DP Animation Maker takes the pain out of construction. If you want to create your own animated wallpaper or screensaver they also offer cheap programs specifically for making those as well. I would download the free trial and play around with it before purchasing but still feel it's a bargain for the fully registered version.

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro....What's an Animatic?

2011-07-02T11:25:00.000-06:00


interface of Toon Boom Storyboard Pro

I suppose the first question I should address before going on about animatics is, what is an animatic? Think of an animatic as a multimedia storyboard, a series of images placed together to relay a story or idea enhanced with movement, sound and/or footnotes. Before devoting the time and effort to create an animated story, commercial or media presentation, the smart approach is to plan it out. You can waste a lot of time and effort creating a fully finished piece only to have to ripped apart by editors, producers and clients, then it's back to square one on your project. By conveying the flow of your project through still image usage, you save time and give everyone an idea where you're headed, artistically. Often this can be a stumbling block as well-a lot of individuals out there aren't visionaries and may find it difficult or down-right impossible to perceive your story through still images. So there you are left trying to describe some 'cool move to the left while the first guy jumps in the sir, then the second guy sees him and starts-'...the glazed eyes of those listening tell you the point isn't quite driving home. So what's the happy medium point between finished animation and sketches, workload, effort, project perception? The answer is, the animatic.
The animatic helps bridge the gap of understanding movement and storyline flow of a project and to date I have found that one of the best pieces of software out there to create animatics is Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, created by the sane company that gave us Toon Boom Studio. TBSP is a scaled down version of Toon Boom Studio but gives you just enough tools to make fantastic presentations that you can distribute as a document (PDF) to be printed in a professional looking format (just like the big studios....nice) or in an electronic format to be viewed as a Quicktime movie, which adds the effects of sound and/or motion. The interface is quite easy to learn and use and will have you creating presentations in no time. Tools include tablet/mouse sensitive pen, eraser, color palette-most the basic tools you'll find in any basic paint program, but added is the movement ability to rotate, scale and move elements within your project and time/sync them in accordance to your story flow. Side notes can be added for additional help in understanding your piece, onion skinning capabilities to help you with animation and layers to provide you ease of project element organization. Toon Boom offers a limited time trial offer of their software which is always nice to try before you buy and if you feel you need a good followup program for finished, full animation presentations, Toon Boom Studio is an excellent choice-check both of these programs out at their website.

Incomedia Website X5

2011-06-24T22:41:00.000-06:00

Most posts on this blog have been favorable to the software reviewed, however I feel it my duty every now and then to point out those packages I feel are not quite up to being as user-friendly or usable in the graphics world as one (or one's company) might lead you to believe. Inconmedia Website X5 lured me in with the promise of being the 'all in one solution packed with tools to create and publish professional websites, online shops and blogs'. I have my share of programs and small utilities to help me streamline the creation of websites but also keep on the lookout for any new and improved (or equally usable) progs to do this task. Most people are familiar with or have heard about Adobe Dreamweaver and quite a few have heard of some WYSIWYG web software out there that promises making websites a cinch. Website X5 called out for me to put it to the test and right from the word go, they left me unimpressed.
I will admit that they do have all the editing tools needed to make a site, editing tools to create or modify images for your website, Flash support, shopping cart capabilities, but where it lacks is in the freedom to create outside the box. You are instructed from the beginning to start a new project by providing a valid URL for your site (what if I'm just in the planning stage or haven't yet registered a domain?) and then you choose from a plethora of pre-made templates (I hate templates!) that will serve as the boundaries for your page. This limitation stifles someone from the word go and forces them to fit the design around the software rather than the other way around, as it should be.
So to be fair, I suppose if you have no problems being led around by the nose when it comes to designing a webpage, then Website X5 will work for you, but to be honest, if you want a cookie cutter approach to a website design you might a well just save the money and go online to a host like Wix or some other make-your-own site that will walk you through setting up a fully functional webpage that corrals your creativity within the boundaries of their criteria.

Daz 3D-Electronic Paper Dolls To The Extreme

2011-06-20T22:09:00.000-06:00

Daz3D

I suppose it's time to get over my love/hate relation with this program and make mention of it for all those out there willing to try their hand at this quite remarkable FREE program. Okay that word 'free' does come with some stipulations but yes, Daz Studio (formerly Daz 3D) is a free program for creating simulated 3d images with models, props and such, all at your control. You can create still images or animations rendered with various settings like lifelike or cartoon finish or even sketchbook. The results are truly amazing when you take into consideration how little time one needs to spend to become familiar with this software package.
Now for some of the side notes about this program. One of the early predecessors to Daz was a program called Poser, which is still in production today but ha since taken a back seat to the Daz Production mega-modelling favorite. Perhaps some of this is due to Poser's migration between company hands (Fractal Designs to MetaCreations to Curious Labs, now with Smith Micro) but for whatever the reason, Daz is clearly the top do of the hour when it comes to digital 3d figures. The library of humans, non-humans, animals, plants, buildings, organic and non-organic things one can download and install is practically unlimited. That ends up being the cross you must bear when using this program. It becomes too easy to fall into the habit of putting just one more model or just one more set of clothes into your library and before you know it, you're spending more time collecting items for the program rather than using all it's many features. Learning the basics of Daz takes about ten minutes but really digging into hardcore fine-tuning capabilities it has can take a while to perfect. You can easily find yourself inching a model around to get it just the way you want it to look and think, 'gee, I've just spent four hours on this one pose'-trust me, I've been there all too often.
Daz will entice you by starting you off with the program totally free (I believe they do want you to sign up for a newsletter but nothing that intrusive) and you could probably have a lot of fun and do a lot of work with the basic package they provide, but be ready. Once you start playing around with it you'll be on the lookout for more freebie and start signing up to forums that give away stuff for Daz and then before you know it you'll be totally addicted to putting out 3d renderings of muscle clad warriors or babes in bikinis. Go to the Daz site now to learn more about this magnificent-free-program.

Pencil: Back to the Basics of Animaton

2011-06-14T20:05:00.000-06:00

A great little free (although they certainly do accept donations) animating program you can download from the web is called Pencil-appropriate enough because it leads you back to the days of animating basics. This little program is the electronic age version of the old animator light table where one would sit and draw pencil rough character and bring them to life via traditional animating techniques. If you have the craving to jump into the wonderfully time consuming world of animation and don't want to be sidetracked with a lot of shortcut tweening functions offered in costly 2d animating programs then my suggestion is to pick up Pencil. The drawing and animating tools are about as simple to learn as you can get but not in performance. This little prog can do wonders in keeping up with the bigger platform software packages. Made to function at its best with a graphics tablet Pencil still allows you to draw with a mouse (keep that hand steady) however tablets only allow the pressure sensitivity pen width function so be prepared. Pencil supports an audio track so you can put music or sound effects in your production however, one area it falls short is the ability to see a wave form on the timeline to help synch up your sound-ends up being a lot of trial and error with the audio.

I would have to say that Pencil is a great program to hone your animating skills but as far as full production goes, you could end up wasting a lot of time get it to perform as well as other programs like Toon Boom or Flash...but then again, Toon Boom isn't free, is it? Pencil is available for both PC and MAC platforms with an online manual and support forum so if you feel up to polishing those keyframing skills, go download Pencil today.

You Can Never Have Too Many Fonts or Brushes-Can You?

2011-06-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

One of the more deceptive space gobblers on your computer could be fonts and/or brushes, if you're one of those individuals who love to experiment and create-like me. I found myself being carried away with the bliss of free fonts and free Photoshop brushes, which can be found all over the internet. Some quick sites for brushes, right off the top of my head include Free-Brushes.com, brusheezy.com, and fbrushes.com - but don't just take my word for it, feel free to spend an hour or three perusing the web and stocking up on glints and glistens and cracks and stains, but be prepared to lose your senses. Before you know it you can bog a program down with so many choices of addons that you will forget the importance of the other great design functions your paint program has to offer. At one point I had some 90 different sets of brushes on my Photoshop palette and became frustrated scrolling up and down this huge list just to find something I wanted. I now limit myself to about a half dozen brush options and leave the others alone. A good set of brushes (aside from the standard soft round, hard round ) to keep loaded are a nice lens flare brush, a star glint or twinkle, a few cracks or veins for adding an extra touch to aged concrete or broken glass, some various spray or splatters and blades of grass. Most other functions you need to create an image can be created and better controlled by applying real life pics and playing with the layer settings. Adding a silhouette on a separate layer and setting the layer properties to SCREEN or OVERLAY or DARKER can give some excellent results.
Fonts are another space gobbler and if you aren't careful can leave you lost in a sea of alphabets. I always keep in mind that when designing a brochure or pamphlet, the main body text should be easily readable. Posters and flyers that don't contain much copy are the place to cut loose with expressive fonts but make sure when it comes to putting down important criteria, like the time and place of an event, you use a legible typeface to leave no confusion in the reader's mind. You may have a really wild looking font that you like and have no trouble reading, but you'd be surprised how many people don't hold your excellent powers of observation and discernment. Another thing to remember about fonts when creating multimedia or web projects is, just because you have the font on your machine is no guarantee that the end-user will have that same typeface. Programs will automatically display a substitute set of characters if the typeface hasn't been loaded on the end-user's machine. If you plan to distribute your multimedia (i.e. PowerPoint) presentation, make sure the program allows you embed the font or turn the font into a image. For web projects I usually turn fancy headings into gifs or png's with a transparent background and leave the main body copy set to Arial or Georgia, both being universal fonts.
Now you may look in your files and see that fonts usually come in at about 30-60K spacewise and brush files even smaller than that-not really a big space issue, right? Trust me, before long those things start adding up and a machine will take longer and longer to load a program.
So keeping that in mind if you do need to look for some nice typefaces, a great place to start looking for fonts (every designer has their own personal favorite sites for free ones) is DaFont.com, a great site that has a diverse line of free typefaces and symbols to suit most needs.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

2011-06-01T20:54:00.000-06:00

comic image being drawn using
Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

Although this program is geared more for those who use an electronic tablet, I found using Autodesks fine illustrating program, Sketchbook Pro, to be a streamlined wiz for creating artwork without all the added sidebar menus or filters and plugins you may never use. This program has a straight forward approach to electronic sketching that comes about as close to actual hand drawing as it gets. It comes with a full range color chart (and the ability to build and store your own custom swatches) and typical drawing tools (pencils, pens, markers, airbrush) which react about as efficient as the real thing. When using Sketchbook you become adapted to creating your image in layers, one of the few functions that help preserve your original image; if you don't care much for a car in red, quickly create a new layer and make it in green, or blue, or whatever color and however many colors you feel like. The tool panels maneuver around the work area at your ease giving you access to all the drawing tools you need but not getting in the way of your work. The canvas and tools slide around at your discretion. Presets can be stored to keep your favorite pen settings and the tools adjust nicely to tablet sensitivity settings. Another nice feature....works for both PC and MAC.
If you go online Autodesk allows you to download a free trial version (full function) of their software so what have you got to lose? I found that at the very least, trying this program will improve skills in other paint programs.

Blender Dishes Up a New Look

2011-05-30T12:56:00.000-06:00


interface from Blender 2.4 (top, red) and Blender 2.5 (bottom green)

After a very long hiatus, I am back on the blog scene and feel excited to start fresh with a great new update on an older software package. One of my earlier posts introduced you to Blender, a freeware program that allows you to create 3d models, animate, render-even game creation, while saving you the big bucks usually spent out on such comparable programs like 3D Studio Max, Maya or Truespace. In this day and age when so many software companies are constantly updating versions of their software on your dime, with minimal changes or advancements to the program, Blender continues to provide us a valuable tool an, in fact, has added a sizable update to the interface. One of the problems I had found with the 2.4 and earlier versions of Blender was the network of dropdown menus-even locating simple functions seemed to take more time than was worth to learn the software. The newer 2.5 version has introduced a more user-friendly appearance, more accustomed to users of other 3d modelling programs. The user options allow you to tailor fit the look and feel of the interface, load or create themes to your personal preference. Another added bonus is the consistent look to the interface across all platforms, so when you view those online tutorials and the presenter is using a Mac and you're on a PC, your not saying 'my screen doesn't look like that-where is THAT button?'
Blender continues to grow in performance and gives anyone the ability to download (did I mention it was free enough?) this high performance program. Don't be misled into thinking this is a quick little point-and-click prog though. Time must be given to learning its' versatility but the end result withh astound you.

Fractalius...another Photoshop plugin

2010-03-27T14:36:00.001-06:00

Everyone is going to organize their favorite Photoshop plug-ins but I think all of use are always on the lookout for some new styles/effects to try out. Redfield is a name that has become synonymous with nice plug-ins like Water Ripples and Jama 3D so by all means, go to their website and see the variety of great effects plug-ins they offer for manipulating pics. I decided to touch the surface by looking at Fractalius, a great add-on that creates unusual effects based on what they call 'extraction of hidden fractal texture' within your image. It converts photos rather easy with very little adjustments to create effective illustrative qualities to an image (see the above sample) and allows you to take original artwork and add an airbrush quality to it similar to the type work you used to see painted on vans, with vibrant linear highlights and sparkles of light overlaying the image. Redfield even offers a few free plug-ins so stop by and take advantage of these handy additions to your Photoshop plug-in repertoire.

Squirlz Morph 2.1

2010-03-15T15:44:00.000-06:00

animated gif morph

created with Squirlzmorph

Every now and then I get the urge or the need for a morph and when you need a good, easy to use morph program you don't want to pay a lot for it. So how does free sound? Squirlz Morph 2.1 by Xiberpix is a handy to use morphing tool that is easy and very useful when creating morphs or blended images or warps. You can really do a lot with this useful tool and the learning curve is so easy. I made the above animated gif in 11 minutes. Squirlz gives you reference dots which show point-to-point registration of an image area and where it will morph to, but also allows you to create your own points. So often morph programs have a preset grid of dots which leave you battling a template within the program. Other functions within the interface include single click adjustment of images to equalize size of your pics, basic hue, contrast and brightness adjustments and a few more minor functions. I guess what I really appreciate about Squirlz Morph (aside from the great price) is an easy to use interface. No one wants to lose time learning how to operate something as simple as a morphing program.

Multimedia Builder

2010-02-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Interface of Mediachance

Multimedia Builder

For those of you interested in making an interactive, self executing standalone application, my suggestion is to check out Multimedia Builder by Mediachance. When I first viewed this program I was making a comparative analysis between programs like Authorware and Director to see which would be the easiest to learn with enough functionality and flexibility to meet my intended program. Now Director and Authorware are powerful programs that allow you to create a lot of fantastic self running programs, however, they also come with a hefty learning curve. MMB (Multimedia Builder) had me clicking and creating in a matter of moments with an easy to use, WYSIWYG layout format to your items, simplistic parameter adjustment and support to most major formats of visual, audio and electronic coding to help you make great presentations, games...I was amazed at just what all you could create with this wonderful program. The program allows you to gather all your elements on screen and test drive your application before finalizing it. MMB supports text, text buttons, images, rollover images, animation, HTML, Flash, scripting and various little effects to make your presentation come alive-it even allows you to create your own custom GUI (Graphic User Interface). The combination of versatility and ease of use-along with a very reasonable price tag-makes Multimedia Builder a must have. You may want to check out some of the other fine software programs Mediachance offers at their website.

Comic Life

2010-02-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

interface of Comic Life 1.5

For those of you out there who have always wanted to make your own comic book, Comic Life by Plasq is a fun, easy way to make nice looking comics in no time. You can certainly spend the time to set up templates in various programs like CorelDraw (retail CorelDraw Suite cost: $429) or Illustrator (retail cost $599) to pull this off, but (taking it from personal experience) the time involved to set up something like that usually leaves one bored with the whole process. Comic Life takes the grunt work out of creating page after page of comics by using their easy drag and drop interface to structure pages, add your own images, create sidebar text or text balloons, then save the whole project for print or email. The preloaded style boxes and font options are customizable, or you can rely on the pre-made shapes, colors and fonts provided. I was amazed at how fast you can stick something together and at a price of $29.95 ($24.95) Standard Edition) you won't be wasting your money. If you want to try it before you buy it, visit their website and download a 30 day trial version. This is so low-end to use, I would suggest it for almost any age user.

Silver Efex Pro; True Power for Black and White

2010-02-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

The problem a lot of projects have when trying to use black and white images is the lack of control over the contrast within an image. Most of the standard settings to desaturate an image in popular photo editing programs, like Photoshop, give you very little control over your contrast without having to venture into the channel settings, creating a lot of feathered masks and taking more time than you had anticipated. Nik Software has come up with an ingenius little plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture called Silver Efex. This, like all plugins from Nik, offers a variety of presets to change a color image into a dramatic black and white composition, or, allows you to create your own customized settings. You can set control points within an image, adjust the radius of the area affected, work directly on color channels and have the output placed on its own layer so as not to disrupt the original image. This plugin is not so much a time saver (although it does work fast, if all you want to do is change a pic from color to black and white, the standard filters can do that just as quick) but more for fine adjustments to photography. I have taken images and greatly enhanced specific areas within the image while leaving the secondary subject matter untouched. You can download a demo of this great plugin at their website.

Blue Vertigo

2010-02-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

home page of Blue Vertigo

Many designers develop a list of their favorite resources and tab them for quick reference. Certain sites are great for stock images, (like IstockPhoto), there are great free resource sites (like Dafont.com for free fonts), or even small utilities online like a color wheel generator to help you choose complimentary colors for website design. You can spend a good deal of time developing a refining your list of favorites on your web browser but sometimes you just feel like parusing the web for great new images to use or different looking textures. One site I have run across that has provided me with numerous resources for graphics is Blue Vertigo. This site has links full of stock photos, commercial photos, video footage, vector clipart, fonts, great corporate logos (when you need to hunt down a good vector copy of Visa/Master Card), sound files, Photoshop brushes, Poser downloads, icons and other goodies. I like to go through and build up new resources to bookmark and believe me, this site has plenty to look and choose from. They even offer a newsletter that will keep you updated when new sites are posted. Some of the photo websites they show are a fresh search for me and allow me to place out of the ordinary images in my projects. Give this website a look and I'm sure you will realize the value of having Blue Vertigo listed among your favorites.

Alien Skin's Bokeh

2010-01-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

Original Image (top)

Focus changed with Bokeh (bottom)

Alien Skin software has been a favorite of mine for quite some time offering professional plug-in packages for Photoshop, such as Eye Candy and Xenofex (see my past post for a review on Eye Candy 6). Once again they come up with a great little utility to help you enhance your digital images with the plug-in Bokeh. It's one of those don't always need it but when you need it, there's nothing else like it helper tools. In the past whenever I wanted to draw emphasis on the foreground subject matter I would mask off the foreground, feather the selection, invert it and add a gaussian blur. The results would work sometimes, but the control over the depth of field look was rather limited. With Bokeh, you get a great interface that comes with a long list of preset blurs to simulate the look of a Canon or Sony lens, or allow you to adjust and save your own settings for other projects. Caution must be used with Bokeh however, as one tends to be given too much control and before you know it, the foreground subject matter you selected seems to 'pop' off that page a bit too much. This plug-in is great for sports images or food product shots in a natural background setting. You can even add some vignette to the image to help give a more realistic blend to your masked selection.

Demo copies of Bokeh can be downloaded from their website. The price for Bokeh, when weighed against trying to reshoot an image, may be worth the money to invest in this great tool for electronic photo manipulation.

Bryce-the Ultimate in Landscape Generation

2010-01-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Bryce 6 interface

For over a decade Bryce has provided electronic artists one of the finest landscape/terrain generation programs. The latest version (6.1) allows more flexibility in usage and some of the best quality renderings you could expect from a mid-range program. Within minutes you are able to create stunning landscapes, complete with foliage, imported 3d objects, 2d planes that support aplha channel graphics AND adjust lighting shadows from the alpha channel (a big plus)-there is just so much this package offers. You can rely on the installed textures, objects, lighting and sky settings or advance into any of these areas and give it your own settings. Web support for this program is enormous with literally thousands of sites online to help with tutorials, downloadable models, textures, etc. to give you endless possibilities for your ideas.

In the past Bryce was known pretty much for its terrain generation quality but with the added support of Daz models and animations your ability to make stunning landscapes with animated characters is so much easier.

Other features include real world lighting with IBL (image based lighting) support, MAC Intel compatible (another big plus), image based brushes for advanced terrain editing and mesh export of Boolean objects.

For those interested in test driving this program, both Bryce and Daz are available for free download with limited program capabilities (they want to entice you to buy full versions but allows you to get familiar with the interface) so visit their site and find out more about this truly remarkable program.

Blender

2010-01-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

user interface of Blender showing

multiple views

If any one were to ask me to give a one sentence synopsis of Blender, I would have to say 'I can't believe this is a freeware program.' What a package for 3d modeling, rendering, animating, rigging and game creation. Believe it or not, this is a free program. All you need to do is devote a vast amount of time to get used to the interface (navigation was a bit tricky for me having been trained in 3D Max, but after a while it becomes easier) and location of the myriad drop-down menus. Luckily, Blender has a vast support area online and in downloadable files to train you through the basics, up to the more complex operations Blender can provide.

MODELING

Blender comes loaded with 3d mesh primitives for you to build from, polygon mesh, NURBS, bezier and b-spline curves, metaballs and font support. The process of building objects is similar to most popular/conventional packages.

RIGGING

Fast skeletal creation with interactive 3d paint for vertex weighting, fast auto skinning, bone layering for group organization. Overall I feel the rigging works as well as the high end software packages that sell for thousands of dollars.

Additional features include UV unwrapping, shader construction, particle systems and much more. One of the hardest areas I found to delve into was the 3d real-time game creation. This part of the Blender options is not for the weak at heart. The good news still boils down to the fact that you are not paying for this fantastic program so go ahead and visit their website and ive it a try.

Terragen

2010-01-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

(A) Terragen interface

(B) sample Terragen image

Planetside software, providers of Terragen bring us a low cost (because it's no cost) landscape and natural environmental creator/renderer. In no time at all you find yourself wading through a variety of options for terrain, water, atmospherics and lighting to create stunning still images or animations. Written for use on MAC or Windows PC systems this small but professional program let's you edit all the same settings you would find in larger, more expensive packages like Bryce, but with the interface is what I would call user-advanced as opposed to user-friendly. It does have a large amount of drag onscreen component capabilities but from my experience, not as easy to navigate a Bryce. The results are something else that always leaves me shaking my head with disbelief that they offer a freeware program this goos. Terragen has been used in a variety of commercial products by letting the artist create near photo-realistic images. For those feeling adventurous, they can continue on to Terragen 2 which gives a much larger scope of options to create landscapes and animations. With a great forum and a few nice plugins to add nice effects, this program is well worth the effort to sit down and explore. You'll be amazed at how good a picture you can make in a short amount of time.

ParticleIllusion

2009-12-31T12:02:00.000-07:00

screenshot of ParticleiIlusion interface

includes (A) composition window (B) particle sample viewer

(E) emitter library

Most NLE editing systems worth their salt will include some sort of particle emission system to add splash, sparkle and shine effects to video productions. The degree of versatility depends on the software but quite often you are left facing a somewhat steep learning curve. If what you want is something that will add these effects with a more user-friendly, drag and drop approach then I suggest you look at ParticleIlusion by Wondertouch.

You may face limitations with playback if you plan to use an animated background for reference in the composition window, but so far, most small clips I have attempted (10-15 sec. range for titling) works great for creating sparkle trails with an alpha channel to drop in as targa sequences. It comes with a great selection of flares, sparkles, star trails, jet streams, fire, smoke.....more than you will probably ever need. What I really appreciate is the quickness of this application as you set an emitter point, move the timeline, set a new location, intensity, etc. and it automatically sets an editable keypoint for you. Their website shows tutorial videos for emitter basics, editing and use with HD.
Go there and download a trial copy to play around with and I feel you'll be lost just testing out the different particle systems in the viewer.

Indigo Renderer

2009-12-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

sample dashboard for Indigo Renderer

In my continuing pursuit of alternative render engines for 3d programs (especially in support of Sketchup) I ran across Indigo Renderer. Indigo gives support to 3 major 3d modeling/animation packages (3D Studio Max, Maya, Cinema 4D) and two smaller, freeware programs (Blender and Sketchup). I downloaded the trial version and used it with Google Sketchup-the results were fantastic.

Not only did I find the default settings (just click the button and away it goes) to work with ease and give a great output but the camera match angle and material editor worked great as well. The interface for the material took me a moment to get used to as I had to assign a material from Google's material panel, then replace it through the Indigo material dialogue, but if that's the hardest thing you have to do with this plug-in then you really can't complain. The rendering does take a while to go through all the passes it needs to give you photo-realistic results, but it doesn't lock up your system so as long as you have a sturdy enough working RAM package on your machine (and who doesn't now days?) you can let it render in the background while you go onto other projects. Indigo offers excellent support as well through their website with additional materials to load, group forum to help you with questions, tricks and resources and support for Indigo with usage of whichever of the 3d packages you choose to use. My hats off to the people who produced Indigo. This is just the kind of ease-of-use plug-in I had hoped for.

the GIMP

2009-12-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

before & after manipulation on

separate layer in GIMP

Few paint/photo editing programs can boast a low price and versatility to the public. Industry standards like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro work great and offer extreme functionality but price is a huge consideration, even with student discounts or special offers from the companies. Some paint programs give you a low (or free) price but lack the versatility of the larger named programs. The exception to this rule is the GIMP.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freeware program for Windows,MAC or Unix systems that gives the user most all the same functions as the heftier standards. Image support for all major image file formats, layers, brushes, selection tools, effects, filtering...the list goes on and on. You can adjust the layout of the interface with customizing options and the online manual is a great bonus (so often programs can leave you out there on your own to figure out how to use it). There seems to be a fairly good sized support for this program and the amount of plugins and tutorials for GIMP continue to grow. For those on a tight budget, how can you not love the price-free! Some sites even carry a portable version of this great little program.

Poser 8 vs. Iclone 4

2009-12-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

interface from Poser 8 (top)

and IClone 4 (bottom)

I decided to do a comparative analysis of these two programs as they have very similar output functions. I have been a follower of Poser through it's progressive advancement stages of bringing an easy to use application for people who want to create 3d models for static images, animations and modeling. The Poser software package has passed through a variety of owners since it's conception (published by Fractal Design, MetaCreations, Curious Labs, e Frontier and Smith Micro) providing easy to use models for posing, animating and support to other software programs. Their presence as a partner to such programs as Daz 3D Studio, Bryce, even venturing into usage with Cararra, Maya and Zbrush , makes Poser a reliable standard.

There is a new kid on the block however that makes a big push into the 3d puppeteers's programing arena: Reallusion IClone. IClone has gone through some early versions when they showed ease of usage as a major factor in their program. Template animation sequences for characters gave people the ability to make quick flicks. The downside was the versatility they showed in customizing character's appearance or modifying animations sequences were easier seen than done. The latest version (ver. 4) shows vast improvement in easy to use/tweak functions, and much more. Faster, smarter manipulation, great import video support, recognition of alpha channels....all of these functions available in Poser as well, however, mesh creation and manipulation in IClone excels with nice visual interface for facial puppeteering and UV mapping.

If I were starting to venture into 3d puppet/model software programs today for the first time, I would certainly have a great versatility with either program. Those familiar with the Poser package would probably feel comfortable sticking with it's reliability and vast network of addon plugins and models. There are more Poser (and Daz) websites on the web than you can imagine. IClone is newer to the game and will have a lot of catching up to do to match Posers online community. IClone has to keep in mind that the abundance of functionality in a program weighs up against it's program learning curve. If I am a game designer and have the option to make a finished sequence with nice background effects and posed figures, do I spend the time and money on this all-in-one package or rely on cross-program construction from two or more programs?

Eye Candy 6

2009-12-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

64 bit interface for Eye Candy 6

and sample chrome effect to eye.

Alien Skin has come out with it's latest update in the quality line of plugins for Photoshop with Eye Candy 6. For those of you who have previous versions of Eye Candy (4 or 5 in particular) you may want to uninstall them before putting on this new set as a lot of the effects are repeats. The biggest updates to the newer version comes with it's 64 bit support for Adobe Photoshop CS4, allowing you to have an interface on youur main work area rather than clicking on the list of effects from a dropdown. For me this is no large convenience as the Photoshop work area is already littered with a variety of pull down menus and I value the space to view my actual work more than the little knobs and dials to adjust. One great improvement they made was it's ability to handle large images and scale the effect adaptively, a setback in earlier versions. As with versions 4 and 5, ye Candy 6 has the capability to place the effect in a separate layer (big benefit), offers a variety of presets as well as the ability to store your own effects for recall (BIG benefit when working on client files that you need to reproduce an effect for) and one more big change, the ability to apply the effect in CMYK mode. I don't know how many times I've tried to apply an effect/filter in Photoshop only to see the list of nice warps and filters grayed out until I convert the image to RGB, back to CMYK, and then you lose true color reproduction from there. My vote is to have one of these plugin packages, whether 4,5 or 6 (and 3 is a keeper as well-I do wish they would continue lines specifically for After Effects) as part of your Photoshop arsenal. If you go to the Alienskin website they have a demo version you can download and try before you buy, as well as demo versions of their other fine plugins (Blow Up 2, Bokeh, Exposure 2, Image Doctor 2, Snap Art 2 and Xenofex 2).

Sketchup Renderers: A Quick Glance at Three

2009-11-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

Sketchup renders(top/bottom): Sketchup, IRender nXt, Podium, Hypershot.

Google Sketchup is one of the easier 3d modeling software packages out there to use with easy to load models from the web and single click application of materials. Where a lot of people feel a void comes in the final render. The program itself offers a variety of linear, sketchy options for final output but for that semi-realistic, shaded effect you really need to invest in a separate render engine. There are a wide variety of packages out there, most noted being Vray, but with this sophistication of a top notch renderer like Vray comes a semi-steep learning curve. There are a lot of sites out there dedicated to learning Vray, materials for Vray....invest some time to use this one, but if what you want is a fairly nice job of ambient light, shading, shadows without a lot of hassle, take a look at one of these three plugins for Sketchup:

Irender nXt

IRender allows quick setup for a nice looking render. Options for settings include usage of artificial light (with downloads for various lights off the web that automatically adjust to your scene or let you change the settings), natural light, override Sketchup sun settings, limited variables of materials (reflective quality of material, course or smooth setting for bump maps), adjustment of background colors for your render (or image as background), finished size of output option with a fairly quick render time. Where it might fall short for some is it's inability to handle alpha channel images well so trying to place a tree image (i.e. imagecel foliage) is next to impossible. A bonus to this render engine is it's recognition of Sketchup shadow settings in the render.

Podium

SU Podium for Sketchup is another fantastic photo-realistic renderer that is easy to operate and offers a variety of variables for you to set. The interface comes with a couple different settings and seems to react very nice in the Sketchup environment, materials can be adjusted for reflection and lighting attributes, great for outdoor architectural shots. Creating lights takes a little bit of patience but the final outcome is worth the effort. A bonus for it's ability to recognize alpha images so realistic looking people, trees, etc. that are masked can be interpreted. Preset lights can be downloaded form certain sites so Podium ranks very high in my book.

Hypershot

Hypershot is one of the best looking renders from the least amount of effort. This plugin opens in a new window allowing rich looking textures to be dragged and applied on screen, slower render time that IRender or Podium but very satisfying results that carry ambient occlusion similar to that you see from Vray. Excellent render for interior shots-I agree with Bunkspeed Hypershot's analysis of their product that touts "not like any typical or standard rendering software packages'-simple, fast and accurate. Only part that takes some getting used to is the camera adjustment but with simplistic adjustment of variables I find Hypershot to be a reliable asset for Sketchup.

TVP Animation 9 Pro

2009-11-25T14:58:00.002-07:00

the dashboard of TVP Animation 9 Pro

TVP Animation is not for the weak of heart. This software packages encompasses almost every tool you could imagine needing to create fantastic animations. The downside is, it encompasses almost every tool you could imagine needing to create fantastic animations. The learning curve on this one is somewhat steep, but once you get the hang of it, the versatility redeems the product and opens your imagination to hundreds of techniques to use for your next animation. This is not a beginner’s program and documentation on it takes some hunting (great tutorials on this one can be found here or here) but I feel the creators of TVP Animation 9 Pro wanted to cover all the possibilities when it come to an animator’s needs for versatility.

using the blue pencil tool to rough in images

One of the best key features I found with TVP is the ability to use a blue pencil to sketch in your work, then drawing on top of that with a black pencil and with one command, erase all the blue pencil rough marks you made to clean up your images. In addition to this great still image tool, TVP offers light box mode, allowing you to view your series of images in an onion skin fashion with great control over opacity and color of the skinned images. To list all the tools of this complete animating software program would take a booklet, which may leave some frustrated, however since the earliest concept of this program in 1991 (with the release of TVPaint!), this French software package continues to polish it’s product. This is by far one of the best animating software programs I’ve seen to date. If you go to their website you can download a trial copy of TVP but be prepared to dedicate a little time to learning it’s features.

Videohive

2009-11-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

screenshot from website VIDEOHIVE

There are dozens upon dozens of royalty free image websites varying in price depending on what size image you purchase, usage and these can be a great time-saver to a designer. Thumbnail sized images from IstockPhoto run you about $3, which is easy enough to pass along to the client. But what if your needs are for stock footage video? Pricing on that can get costly and your project budget may not be able to afford background video to dress it up-that is, unless you go to Videohive. Video file pricing starts at $1 with a variety of animated stock footage, motion graphics DVD menus and project files-even free video files for those who sign up for their blog. Loopable backgrounds and working files for AE users to tweak a project to include their personal editing in a motion graphic title, this site is a time-saver as well as a money-saver. Bookmark this site as a great reference for stock video.

ZBrush 3.5

2009-11-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Pixologic continues to refine one of the most valuable tools for sculpting, painting and rendering in 3d with the release of Zbrush version 3.5. The earlier version of Zbrush were leaders in the field of modeling with the usage of Zspheres, often imitated with other programs (i.e. 3D Studio Max's metaballs) as well as the 2.5D process for creating work.

2.5D can be described as the bridge between 2D and 3D art, allowing the artist to create work with 3D characteristics like lighting, textures and shadows while maintaining a base model which can be accessed to change the model pose, structure, etc. Output can be used to create stunning images from Zbrush, or mesh models and maps can be exported for use in other 3d animating/rendering programs. I utilize Zbrush to create figures and organic shapes to be taken into programs like Bryce or 3D Studio Max for final work. The thing I appreciate the most about Zbrush is it's ease of use. The interface takes very little time to get used to and you find yourself doodling for hours in this program while being fascinated with its abilities. The learning curve on this program grows with your interest in it being the perfect match to drive you to want to learn it. So often I try various modeling programs that leave me frustrated and telling myself I can do this or that process easier in another program. Zbrush just leaves me wanting more from it-and it delivers!

Elefont

2009-11-22T13:03:00.003-07:00

Elefont - Simplistic 3d text

Elefont is a small little app that does what it does quite easily, however, most people will find it's usage somewhat limited. The nice thing about it is it takes up very little space, and works quick. The downside to it is you really need to use it in conjunction with another program to view the text as 3d with shading, color, etc.-best used with Bryce or POVRay, it can also be used with Sketchup, however the triangulation of most fonts will leave you clicking a bunch of faces in order to get the coloring you want.
I made the example to the left in a matter of minutes. The top portion of the image shows the dashboard of Elefont-very basic. You type your text in (another downside to this app...no allowance for multiple line entries), choose the font you wish to use, then adjust it using any or all of the buttons (font, curve quality, extrusion length, bevel type and bevel scale) then save it as a DXF or Moray/POV (UNO/INC) to be used in another program. I took the text into Bryce, un-grouped it and put different materials to each letter (recognizes each letter as an individual element). If you need titling in your Bryce renderings, this is a nice little utility but most people will probably have the same capabilities in another 3d modeling program.

Flax

2009-11-20T12:19:00.003-07:00

What the Flax?

There are dozens upon dozens of programs out there, and I'm sure still more being created as I speak, whose main purpose is to create little Flash snippets for your website with little know-how. One of the more useful and versatile ones I've come across is Flax, not just because of it's ease of use, creative options for effects and predefined titling effects, but because the interface consists of 5 small boxes (highlighted in red -see image) which you can lay directly over a presentation, website or what ever you're working with on screen and see how it looks. The realtime display will show you your work and update as you change font, color, effect, timing, measurement....just a great little application that spits out a finished Flash file (.swf) to use in presentations, webwork. You can get lost just playing around with the settings for 100's of variations.

My Graphic Arts blog

2009-11-17T15:32:00.004-07:00

First Foot Forward...
Greetings to any and all visiting this site. I continue to highlight my own work on my website, however I intend for this blog to be a resource of information regarding graphic art programs and various resources on the web for visual media production. Initially I started this blog to review graphic programs as well as animated movies. I have decided to split these two blogs up, so if you would like to see my other blog on animation, go here. Please feel free to contact me with requests or feedback.