Hello again,
here is another update from the "Dogwaffler of the
Moment" newsletter.
See more and learn
more in recent online editions with HTML
formatting, with images and links to related
videos. Start here to see all past newsletters:
- The ultimate entertainment platform.
- Play, connect, create and more.
Steam was initially created to facilitate buying,
trying and playing games. But now it is also a
platform for finding tools to create games. In
other words: both gamers and game developers hang
out on Steam. A lot of independent game developers
are releasing their new games on Steam, where it
gets the thumbs up or thumbs down, and sometimes
becomes a huge success.
This is in fact a very good example of what Steam
was meant for: Curvy 3D is indeed created by a
game developer, Simon de Rivaz, who also makes
games, see http://www.aartformgames.com
(Note: aart with two 'a's!)
Simon created Curvy 3D for his own needs in making
content for his own games, and gradually it became
a great modeler for other game developers. Ok, so
maybe that was not the exact chronology of events,
but it's still a good story :-)
Learn more about Curvy 3D and how it also ties
into Project Dogwaffle too with a plugin
connector: http://www.thebest3d.com/curvy
jWildfire 2.4 now Exports
to Dogwaffle .anb Brushes!
What are ".anb" files,
aka animated brushes?
Animated brushes made for
Dogwaffle are stored in files ending with .anb
extension. Those can be used in Howler and also
in Artist and earlier, older versions such as
the free PD Pro 5.
An animated brush is essentially a
sequence of images, called frames. If you have
just one frame, one image in the brush, it's not
an animated brush yet, but it is a custom image
brush. The moment you add at least one more
frame, whether it contains the same or a
different image, you are in the presence of an
aimated brush.
When you paint with it, Dogwaffle advances frame
for frame through the images of the loaded brush
and eventually, when it reaches the last image,
cycles back to the first frame to continue
painting as long as you drag the mouse. The
image sequence in such a brush can represent a
clear animation, such as a dancing character
rendered in 3D or drawn by hand. Ir can also be
a short video clip from an AVI file. When you
save it as .anb file you make it easy to be
re-used as a brush.
jWildfire is a free program developed by
German programmer Andreas Maschke. See http://www.andreas-maschke.com
for more about jWildfire. That's also his blog.
The main official site for jWildfire is at http://www.jwildfire.org
Who uses jWildfire? In short: anyone with
a love for pixels: colors, shapes, depth and
passion are words that come to mind when you
experience creative moments with jWildfire. The
program is free, it is great, and it can stand
alone or be used as a companion for creative
elements to be re-purposed and used in other
programs, including of course PD Howler and PD
Artist.
JWildfire is a free and
user-friendly image-processing program, software
mostly known for its sophisticated
flame-fractal-generator. It is Java-based,
open-source and runs on any major
computer-plattform. There is also a special
Android-version for mobile devices.
Here are details from Andrea's announcement about
this most recent 2.4 release:
JWildfire 2.40 release:
now with documentation Wiki
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just released JWildfire V2.40. Beneath many
small additions there are two major new
features:
there is ... finally
... yes! ... an official documentation! It
is hold in a wiki ( http://wiki.jwildfire.org
) and continously evolving. There is not
only conventional documentatiuon, but also
tutorials. For the release there a 4
tutorials for beginners and one advanced
tutorial.
the possibility to
create animated brushes for use inside a
painting program for "painting with
fractals". Currently, the native format of
the painting software PD Howler is directly
supported, for use in other software the
generation of image-sequence is supported.
Complete list of changes:
now with official
documentation-Wiki! See the
"Documentation"-button at the Welcome-window
or just visit it directly: http://wiki.jwildfire.org
4 new beginners
tutorials in the Wiki (Basic flame-editing,
Basic color-editing, Basic formula-editing,
More on formula-editing)
ability to create
animated brushes (to be used in a
painting-program) from within the Easy Movie
Maker. Currently the ANB-format from the
super-cool painting-software PD Howler ( http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/
) is supported.
added the possibility
to have different types of output in the
Easy-Movie-Maker, there are currently three
choices:
FLAMES (create flames)
PNG_IMAGES (create
flames and render them as PNG-images)
ANB (animbrush in PD
Howler's format)
Maybe I will add direct
video-encoding as additional option, currently
looking for a component who can do this job...
advanced tutorial for
creating animbrushes in the Wiki (not only
for PD Howler)
the action performed
at a double-click in the main-flame-editor
can now be changed in the prefs. There are
the following choices:
RENDER_FLAME: render
the current flame, this was the default
behaviour until now
SWITCH_TRIANGLE_CAM_EDIT:
switch between triangle- and camera editing
(this is the new default)
NONE: do nothing at
all
the default
fade-to-white-level for flames was increased
from 200 to 220 to create more smooth
defaults. You can change this in the prefs
by modifying the value the property
tinaDefaultFadeToWhiteLevel
new "cpow3"-variation
by Gregg Helt
new
"post_heat"-variation by zephyrtronium,
transcribed by chronologicaldot
added an
instancing-option the the IFlames-editor,
does not wortk for all flames, but when it
works, much less ressources are needed
emoved the
FAQ-section from the software
FIXED: some fixes the
startup scripts on Mac by Gregg Helt
FIXED: a bug regarding
the hiding of samples (affected only
"crop"-like-variations)
FIXED: after
cancelling the Batch-renderer the cancelled
image was saved, though (and was in the most
cases a blank image)
FIXED: a problem
regarding saving render-state of iflames
FIXED: a problem
regarding projecting invalid points (which
sometimes appeared at points with random
color at coordinate (0,0)), thanks to
chronologicaldot for the reminder!
PD Howler and PD Artist on
Sale through the end of March
PD Artist 9.6 is on sale
through end of the month. Get 30% off
automatically, or use your discount coupon for
even better savings when upgrading from a prior
version. Contact
us if you don't have your coupon. Note
that you'll get a full installer, so if you've
had an earlier version you benefit from the
discount even if the old version doesn't run
anymore on your current PC.
To celebrate the launch of
PD Howler 9.6 on Steam, we're also offering a
discount here. It is not as good as what's on
Steam, mind you, but still very strong: 40% off,
automatically gets you down to about $53 and
change. If you're looking for the absolute best
deal, the slightly better deal is still to be
had at Steam as of this writing.
Sneak Peek: First Look at
PD Particle 9 - "From Outer Space"
It's been very long since we
had any update or news about PD Particles, apart
from the occasional new pictures or price
reductions. PD Particles is currently still at
version 1, with the latest free update to v1.2
dating back several years.
If you don't remember PD Particles, here are some
refreshers and reminders:
PD Particles 1 is
currently priced at $1.99 and will remain so for
the foreseeable future.
Ok then, it's been silent around PD Particles for
far too long, so let's make some noise!
We're
happy to announce that we are working on a new
version of PD Particles: Particle 9
This will be based on the core code from Project
Dogwaffle 9, and adds some new interface designs.
There will be no dropdown menus at the top of the
window, but a tabbed dialog to expose the options,
giving fast access to the desired options. There
will be media choices at the bottom. And the rest
is still TBD.
Below is a picture of what it looks like in its
current, preliminary and unfinished early stage.
We are in beta mode.
Another (painted) Bunny -
coming Soon!
First sneak peek preview of PD
Particle 9 - from outer space.
Notice that we don't call it PD Particles, but
rather Particle without the 's' at the end. Being
French myself, I might say that the 's' is silent.
Being German-speaking Swiss, I'll be picky and say
it is missing altogether. Being American at heart,
and a dreamer at best, I'll say that it is a
particle from outer space. Particle 9. Now, don't
confuse it with Element #9, as seen on the
periodic table of elements, aka Fluorine. Sure,
Element #9 has some descriptive similarities with
the spirit of our Particle 9: Element #9 is the
lightest of the Halogens, while Particle 9 is the
lightest of the Dogwaffle programs. Element
#9 however is a rather toxic gas, thus unpleasant,
and has a slant towards a pale yellow appearance.
In contrast, our Particle 9 is very user friendly,
colorful and bubbly in a naturally positive sense,
and it has a slant on dog themed creativity. So
there.
Stay tuned for more news in coming weeks, as we
come closer to releasing the new PD Particle 9. If
you save a quarter a day, you'll be ready to buy
it without tapping into your reserves. That's a
promise. We haven't finalized the price for
Particle 9 yet, but frankly, how much would anyone
pay for just a single particle?
Tutorials
We've had a bunch of new
tutorials posted to our YouTube channel:
We also heard of new tutorials in the works by
several users of Dogwaffle. This is exciting and
we hope to bring more examples of these to you in
coming weeks.
Here are some of our recent additions, some
specific to what's new in Howler 9.6, others
useful also for users of PD Artist 9.6:
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