Tag: Art

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Verge 3D Hands-ON

Verge3D is a toolkit for enabling artists to create web experiences with minimal or no coding using Blender, Max or Maya.  Founded by team members from the Blend4Web project Verge3D allows you to create content using your graphics application of choice, then using their (locally installed) web based tools you can add logic using their visual programming language Puzzles.

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Verge3D is available in a free fully functional trial version (watermarked) available for download here.  Verge3D is available for Windows, Mac and Linux for Blender 3D as well as Windows only for 3DS Max and Windows and Linux for Maya.

Check out Verge 3D for Blender in action in the video below.

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MyPaint 2.0.0 Released

MyPaint 2.0.0 was released a few days back.  MyPaint is an open source natural media painting application that first started development in 2004, designed from day one to work with Wacom style tablets.  The 2.0.0 release adds several new features including:

  • Linear compositing and spectral blending (pigment).
  • Layer views.
  • Brush strokes dependent on view rotation and view zoom.
  • Additional symmetry modes: vertical, vertical+horizontal, rotational, snowflake.
  • Expanded flood fill functionality: offset, feather, gap detection and more.
  • New brush settings: offsets, gridmap, additional smudge settings, posterize, pigment.
  • New brush inputs: barrel rotation, base radius, zoom level, gridmap x/y, direction 360, attack angle.
  • Several other fixes and changes, see the full changelog for details.

The release also contains various different bug fixes and features.  MyPaint is available for Windows and Linux with binaries available here with the Mac OS X version available on MacPorts.  MyPaint is open source with the source code hosted on GitHub available under the GPL 2 open source license.  You can learn more about, and see MyPaint 2 in action, in the video below.

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Humble Low Polygon Assets Bundle For Unity and Unreal Engine

Humble are running a new bundle of interest to game developers, this one is the Humble Best of POLYGON Game Dev Bundle.  It’s a collection of 3D model packs from Synty, with projects in both Unreal and Unity formats.  As with all Humble Bundles this one is organized into tiers, where if you buy a higher dollar value tier you get all of the lower value tiers as well.

Bundle Tiers

$1 USD

  • POLYGON Prototype
  • POLYGON Adventure
  • Simple Town

$15 USD

  • POLYGON City Pack
  • POLYGON Samurai Pack
  • POLYGON Knight Pack
  • Simple People
  • Simple Dungeons

$20 USD

  • POLYGON SCI-FI City Pack
  • POLYGON  Western Pack
  • POLYGON Heist Pack
  • POLYGON Vikings Pack
  • Simple Military
  • Simple Apocalypse
  • $10 Synty Discount Code

When you purchase a Humble Bundle you decide how your money is allocated between charity, the publisher, Humble and if you choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS if you use this link.  Learn more about the bundle in the video below.

As with any asset purchase, it’s important to read the license if you intend to use the assets in a commercial project.  The Synty Store license for Humble is available here.  It appears the Humble license is on a per seat basis and includes just a single seat license, so if you are working with a team, you may have to purchase multiple bundles.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxkNhRbQlJ0&w=853&h=480]

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TextureLab–Open Source Procedural Texture Generation

Today we are checking out TextureLab, a free and open source texture generation tool for Windows and Linux.  While fairly early in it’s development, TextureLab aims to be similar in capability to Substance Designer in function.

TextureLab features include:
– Export all textures at once or save them individually
– Unity Export
– 25+ nodes and counting
– Cross-Platform (It’s built using electron and vue)
– Fast! All filtering and texture generation operations are done on the GPU
– Free and Open Source

TextureLab is licensed under the GPLv3 open source license with the code written in TypeScript and hosted in an Electron app.  TextureLab is not the only open source alternative to Substance Designer under development, we have already looked at MaterialMaker , TexGraph and Imogen in the past.  You can learn more about and see TextureLab in action in the video below.

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Voxelator Free Vector Application

Today we are checking out Voxelator, a free browser based Voxel painting application from the creator of the Pixelator application we covered earlier.  In the video below we go hands-on with Voxelator.

There are some licensing limitations to be aware of for using Voxelator:

Voxelator is a free software and you can choose which license to attach to the models you produce with it, and use them for any purpose — commercially included (provided you did not use any external resources with limiting licenses).
With that said, you may not do the following with Voxelator:

  • You may not attempt to download its source and use it locally from your computer.
  • You may not attempt to upload Voxelator to a different domain or site.
  • You may not attempt to embed Voxelator in an external domain, using an iframe or any other technology.
  • You may not attempt to redistribute Voxelator in any way, not commercially and not for free.
  • You may not reuse Voxelator’s code for any purpose.

    • You can run Voxelator on any browser supporting WebGL 2 and ECMAScript 6 support, although Chrome is the primary supported browser.  You can learn more about using Voxelator here.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Pf7iCR4zQ&w=853&h=480]

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    ArmorPaint 0.7 Released

    ArmorPaint just released version 0.7 containing several new features including additional texture file formats, plugin support and even live preview support for Unity and Unreal game engines.  ArmorPaint is built on top of the Armory3D game engine (tutorial available here) and is an open source alternative to Substance Painter.

    Details from the release notes:

    • Added support for .psd, .bmp, .gif formats
    • Added single material export
    • Added blend modes for layers
    • Added blend modes for brush
    • Added plugin manager
    • Added ‘auto-save’ plugin
    • Added ‘hello-node’ plugin – custom material node
    • Added ‘console’ plugin – run commands
    • Added ‘profiler’ plugin – performance graph
    • Added ‘converter’ plugin – convert .arm files into .json
    • Added ‘import_tiff’ plugin – support for .tiff format
    • Added ‘import_stl’ plugin – support for .stl format
    • Added ‘import_gltf’ plugin – support for .gltf/.glb format (alpha)
    • Added ‘uv_unwrap’ plugin – auto-generate uvs / unwrap active mesh
    • Added ‘theme-editor’ plugin
    • Added box selection to node editor
    • Added per-fill-layer uv control
    • Added option to split .obj mesh by groups or materials
    • Added ‘decal tool – scale x’ option for non-square decals
    • Added ‘menu – file – reimport mesh’
    • Added ‘menu – viewport – split view’
    • Added ‘preferences – restore’ button
    • Added ‘preferences – native file browser’ option
    • Added ‘preferences – viewport – vignette’ option
    • Added ‘preferences – usage – dilate radius’ option
    • Added texture export presets
    • Added ‘layer’ material node – drop layer onto node canvas
    • Added ‘layer mask’ material node – drop layer mask onto node canvas
    • Added ‘blur (image)’ material node
    • Added experimental dxr build
    • Added path-trace (dxr) viewport mode
    • Added ao (dxr) bake
    • Added bent normal (dxr) bake
    • Added lightmap (dxr) bake
    • Added thickness (dxr) bake
    • Added normal-map bake from high-poly
    • Added height bake from high-poly
    • Added dilation pass to baking
    • Added ‘up axis’ option for relevant bake types
    • Added support for drag and dropping multiple files at once
    • Added popup for editing RGBA node sockets
    • Improved gizmo
    • Improved height paint
    • Improved .obj importer
    • Improved .blend importer
    • Improved outliner
    • Improved node drawing performance
    • Improved layer handling performance
    • Improved key detection on linux
    • Fixed handling of accented filepaths
    • Fixed brush mask on linux
    • Fixed copy-paste on linux
    • Fixed window title updating on linux
    • Fixed file association
    • Fixed envmap import
    • Fixed object mask for fill layers
    • Fixed height displacement scale
    • Fixed blurry text on windows
    • Fixed texture filtering option for image node
    • Fixed key repeat for text edit
    • Updated dark and light themes
    • Updated menu bar structure
    • Reduced gpu memory usage
    • Faster texture loading
    • Undo for layer opacity and blending
    • Undo for node canvas
    • Adjustable viewport clip distance
    • Remember window size and position
    • Open node search on link drag
    • Resizable ui panels
    • Duplicate material
    • Use brush ruler (shift) to draw lines
    • Auto-set 2x scale on high-res displays
    • Flat shading for viewport modes inspecting pbr channels
    • Picker tool works on non-base layer
    • Picker tool shows texture coordinate in 2d view
    • Export single texture from textures tab
    • Eraser takes hardness and opacity into account
    • Export textures as udim tiles for udim projects
    • Download ‘texture-synthesis’ plugin preview
    • Download Unreal Engine live-link preview
    • Download Unity Engine live-link preview

    If you want to build ArmorPaint from source you can learn more about the process here.  You can see ArmorPaint in action in the video below.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqHl-q45UbU&w=853&h=480]

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    Building ArmorPaint From Source

    ArmorPaint is an open source competitor to Substance Painter, from the creator of the Armory game engine (tutorial series available here).  It is available for just 16 Euro in binary form, but can also be built from source code.  This guide walks you step by step through the process of building ArmorPaint from source.

    There are a few requirements before you can build.  Download and install the following programs if not already installed:

    First step, we clone the repository.  Make sure to add the –recursive flag(that’s two ‘-‘ by the way).

    Open a command prompt, cd to the directory where you want to install ArmorPaint’s source code and run the command:

    git clone –recursive https://github.com/armory3d/armorpaint.git

    Depending on your internet speed this could take a minute to several minutes while all of the files are downloaded. 

    In Explorer, go the installation directory, then navigate to armorpaint\Kromx\V8\Libraries\win32\release and using 7zip extract v8_monolith.7z to the same directory as the .7z file.

    Next in the command prompt run the following commands

    (Assuming you are reusing the same CMD that you did the git clone from)

    cd armorpaint

    node Kromx/make –g direct3d11

    cd Kromx

    node Kinc/make –g direct3d11

    explorer .

    If you receive any errors above, the most likely cause is node not being installed.  The final command will now open a Windows Explorer window in the Kromx subdirectory.  Open the build directory and load the file Krom.sln.

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    This will open the project in Visual Studio.  If you haven’t run VS yet,you may have to do some initial installation steps.  Worst case scenario run through the initial install, close and double click Krom.sln again.

    First make sure that you are building for x64 and Release mode at the top:

    image

    In the Solution Explorer, select Krom then hit ALT + ENTER or right click and select Properties.

    Then select Debugging, in Command Arguments enter ..\..\build.krom then click Apply.

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    You are now ready to build ArmorPaint.  Select Ctrl + SHIFT + B or select Build->Build Solution.

    image

    Assuming no errors, are exe should be built.  Now go to the folder armorpaint\Kromx\build\x64\Release and copy the file Krom.exe, then copy to armorpaint\build\krom.  You can now run Krom.exe and you’re good to go. 

    image

    Step by step instructions are available in the video below.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6h2KOP47ZY&w=853&h=480]

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    Krita Receive Epic MegaGrant

    Krita, the open source drawing/painting/animation package just received a MegaGrant from Epic Games, the makers of Unreal Engine and Fortnite.  The MegaGrant program was announced at GDC 2019 and is a $100M giveaway to game developers, educators, technology companies and perhaps most importantly open source tool makers such as Krita (and Dust3D, Blender and Lutris so far).

    Details of the grant from the Krita announcement:

    Epic, the makers of the Unreal game engine, have supported Krita with a $25,000 MegaGrant!

    Epic has supported other free software projects, such as Blender and Lutris before, and now supports Krita. The purpose of this grant is to fund improvements to our development process so Krita’s development gets more sustainable. This is something we have already started on, and which want to accelerate. With an estimated five million users, making sure that we can release as stable a version of Krita as possible in as dependable a way as possible is pretty important!

    The grant represents about 10 months of funding that Krita currently receives, so it should make a tangible impact.  You can learn more about Krita and the Epic MegaGrant program in the video below.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk_CFiTf2Ck&w=853&h=480]

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    Maxon and Red Giant Merge

    Maxon, the makers of the long running Cinema 4D 3d application have just announced a merger with Red Giant, a provider of tools for the VFX and post processing industry.

    Details of the merger from the Maxon news release:

    Portland, OR and Friedrichsdorf, Germany – December 17, 2019 – Maxon, the developers of professional 3D software solutions and Red Giant creators of unique tools for editors, VFX artists, and motion designers, today cooperatively announced that the two companies have reached a definitive agreement to merge under the media and entertainment division of Nemetschek Group to better serve the post production and content creation industries. The transaction is expected to close in January 2020, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

    Maxon and Red Giant are already well known and established in the digital content creation (DCC) industries, and share synergies in philosophy and long-term goals. Both companies have earned a peerless reputation for the quality and accessibility of products, and uncompromising commitment to service and support of the artistic community. Each company’s workforce features the industry expertise, organizational maturity, and executive experience needed to fully leverage this unique opportunity.

    Maxon, best known for its flagship 3D product Cinema 4D, was formed in 1986 with a passion for providing extremely powerful, though exceptionally accessible 3D software solutions. Artists across the globe rely on Maxon products to create cutting-edge visuals. In April of this year, Maxon acquired Redshift, developer of the GPU-accelerated Redshift render engine.

    Since 2002, Red Giant has built its brand through award-winning products such as Trapcode, Magic Bullet, Universe, PluralEyes and its line of innovative visual effects software. Their unique, industry-standard tools are staples in the fields of film, broadcast, and advertising. Red Giant has differentiated itself in the industry through its artist-driven approach to software creation and its popular training and award-winning short films.

    The merger should have minimal impact on either companies customers.  You can learn more about each company and the merger in the video below.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyVNQPN5MhI&w=853&h=480]

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    HitFilm 14 Pro Review

    Last week on Humble the Humble Software Bundle: Filmmakers bundle was launched.  The star application of that bundle is HitFilm Pro 14 by FXHome (although the bundle contains other software, services and tons of stock footage and special FX).  In the time since the bundle was released I have been learning HitFilm Pro and what follows in my review.

    Please keep in mind, my use case for a NLE is very casual, so I do not use advanced features such as camera matching, 3D importing and such.   I did however find HitFilm to be extremely easy to use, to perform exceptionally well and to be extremely capable, at least for my needs.  Suffice to say with the current Humble bundle, HitFilm is a gigantic recommendation for anyone needing a video editor.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4m8ySCrG5A&w=853&h=480]

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