This is issue #139 of the Dogwaffler of the Moment, the newsletter about Project Dogwaffle.
PD Artist v11.1 is here: the Summer Splash continues!
Hello again,
This newsletter can also be found online here:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/newsletter/139-Summer-Splash-Artist-11.1To catch up on earlier issues of our newsletter, start here: http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/newsletter
In this issue:
What's New in PD Artist 11.1, Summer Splash?
If you have PD Howler, you don't need PD Artist. It's all part of PD Howler. If you however have an old version of PD Howler, or even PD Pro 4 or 5, before the split into the Howler edition vs. Artist edition came about, then you could still be interested in getting PD Artist 11.1..... you'd give up animation tools and tools for working on video clips, but why pay for those if you only do still imagery?
To put it poetically: PD Artist is for those who don't blink (or at least see no difference between before and after blinking).
As you will recall, PD Artist is essentially a subset of PD Howler, where we removed most of the features for motion: video tools and Animation. There are a few exceptions: custom brushes in PD Artist can still be animbrushes too, i.e. coming from an AVI video or by loading an image sequence. You can load an image sequence into the brush and paint with it - just onto a single image, at that point, no longer on another animation, nor another image sequence or video. That's a privilege reserved for the Howler edition - painting with video on video, howling fast and versatile. The Howler edition also adds a group of filters not found in the Artist edition. The Particle Modeller is one of them. If you're intrigued enough by now and think you might want to use some of Howler's tools after all, get Howler. If you are focusing on PD Artist, for a number of good reasons, including budgetary considerations, read on. You'll explore new features that are shared between PD Artist and PD Howler, so we may send you to PD Howler documentation in some cases, and it certainly doesn't hurt to learn from Howler tutorials. Even if you end up applying only the parts coming for PD Artist.
So, if you ignore the tools, filters and details that relate specifically to animation, you can look at what's new in PD Howler 11.1 and get a fairly good idea of what's new also in PD Artist 11.1, for the most part:
- as of this writing, the latest is RC56 (release candidate 56). This may evolve some more.
- much focus is on using the GPU, and recognizing which GPU is in use by Dogwaffle (this is important when you have several graphics subsystems, such integrated graphics etc...)
- Puppy Ray GPU has received great new features for more realistic water:
- caustics
- absorption in deep waters, loss of red first, then green and eventually blue channels
- scattering for murky waters
- fog over water (in addition to fog into the distance)
- improvements in quality of rendering
- better indirect lighting and sky lighting
- Antialiasing is improved when using the multiple frequencies on water surfaces. (the Multifreq option)
- Fixed a bug in specular reflections. Specular reflections were isometric instead of perspective.
- Detail textures (bump maps) now use the fog depth distance instead of rendering only in the first unit, so that objects far away can still have some texture.
This is by far the biggest part of this ".1" minor update. Check a few previews here for installation and getting started with the new Puppy Ray GPU features:
http://www.thebest3d.com/pda/index11.1-intro.html
and of course here, the starting page for all things Puppy Ray:
http://www.thebest3d.com/puppyray
But wait, there is more:
- a new Default color picker
- a rounded look for interface items like slides and buttons; select among 3 styles
- The L-Systems feature has been internalized, replacing the plugin version, and further improved too, using XML format for the saved settings instead of binary file format.
- Curve tool: Rendering a brush stroke or Painting a brush along a curve now also supports the animbrushes. For example, if you have a looping walk sequence coming from your favorite 3D or 2D animation tool, you can now render it across a path along a predictable, previewable, editable path before you commit it.
- We added a number of new watercolor media presets in the Media browser. Maybe you'll find some that you like? Happy painting!
- Shading on particles and foliage brushes is now an adjustable slider instead of an on/off checkbox. The dark side of a bush or tuft of grass doesn't have to be so dark after all.
- Fixed a bug in foliage rendering. Ambient color was not properly initialized, resulting in foliage being darker than expected.
- Fog color indicator was in the wrong place on the particles brush panel.
- 3D Designer... We removed the "reverse" checkbox because it had little impact on erosion. We replaced it with "Viscosity," which is another parameter in the algorithm that already existed, but was not displayed from the interface. It was already shown in the interface of the separate Erosion filter under Filter > Stylize. Now it is also accessible in 3D Designer. Subtle as it is, you may find it useful for the different look, such as that difference between lite rainfall erosion on hard marble or granite vs. heavy wash erosion on sandstone.
- Other tweaks and fixes
Learn more about PD Artist 11 and the 11.1 update here:
http://www.thebest3d.com/pda/index11.html
Much of the info is also shown on the PD Howler pages:
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/11/index-update1.html
One tool that has been updated in the Howler edition is the Particle Modeler (for volumetric clouds). It is not available in the Artist edition, as it is part of the Animation submenu in Filters. We have added support for Sprites and animated sprites in the Particle Modeler. If you're interested in this feature, please consider upgrading to PD Howler. We can get you a big discount for upgrading.
How to Update to v11.1 if you have PD Artist 11
Simply re-use your download links from the delivery email if you had ordered from thebest3d.com through the BMTmicro delivery. If you no longer have your email, let Philip know: http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/about
If you ordered directly from Dan or through www.squirreldome.com (with various fullfilment options, such as paid by paypal and delivered by download link from dropbox), please contact Dan for a new link if you didn't get one yet, or wait a few more days.
Launch Promotion for PD Artist 11.1
Good for about 2 weeks only.... Use this code to get a 22% discount, while it lasts: EMWG0005P
Order here:
https://secure.bmtmicro.com/servlets/Orders.ShoppingCart?CID=1836&PRODUCTID=18360035
If you have PD Artist 10 or 9.6 you can get better discounts with your upgrade discount coupon. Contact us if you need a new coupon.
Learn more here: http://www.thebest3d.com/sales
DOTM: tiny imaginary(?) creator's creatures - Foraminifera from Mars?
Enough said..... Check this project.
http://www.thebest3d.com/foraminifera/index.html
New Tutorials and Videos
Looking for more tutorials and latest examples of renderings or animations and videos?
For latest tutorials, look here:
www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/tuts
Be sure to check our main video channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/pdhowler
There are many playlists for different topics. If you want to learn about Puppy Ray, you can look here:
http://www.thebest3d.com/puppyray
We particularly recommend the new videos from Immortal Moments:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCokbGIIM9CTT35_B2erkjIg
PD Artist - samples in Puppy Ray rendering
https://youtu.be/XyFskrWvy5g
There are a few more on our channel.
Also, if you've ever wondered how to save two images in one file, namely the Main image and the Swap image, and in fact also layers, if any, and the global selection mask, here's a tutorial for you:
How to save several image assets into a single file:
http://thebest3d.com/landscapes/tutorials/how-to-save-main-and-swap-image-in-one-single-file/index.html
Kontent is King
In this section, we'll occasionally introduce content which you can use royalty-free. Well, in some cases 'just' free, for non-commercial use, but you can learn a lot and then do your own.
Here's a starting point for landscapes: http://thebest3d.com/landscapes/
You'll find elevation maps and color maps - just a few at the moment, but more over time.
We'll be adding new elevation maps here over time, so you can return and grab some new maps to do your own renderings with.
By-the-way, some of these elevation maps may originate in clouds, or vice-versa: just because they're shown being made and used for terrain height maps, or color maps, that doesn't mean you couldn't also use it for other purposes, such as sky maps.
The Last Draw: The Last Draw: Is it Real, or Puppy Real?
Created with Puppy Ray GPU - you can do this with PD Artist 11.1 or PD Howler 11.1:
And that's a wrap, for now.
Thanks for waffling and howling!
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