Hello, here is another very quick update with the
Dogwaffler of the Moment newsletter.
You may also want to view this and other online
editions in HTML with images and links to
videos. Start here:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/newsletter
Trying out the Howler 9.5 -
Demo version is here
Upgrading to Howler 9.5 ...
Where is your Discount Coupon?
We
have had a few users contact us and indicating
that you couldn't find your discount coupon within
the emails you received through BMTmicro when
ordering earlier versions.
That is indeed the case for most users. If you
bought what was then the latest version at the
time when you bought it, there likely was no
discount coupon since there was no higher version
to upgrade to, at that time.
If you bought a version that was not the latest
anymore at the time, such as if you bought v7 when
v8 was already released, you may in some cases
have received an email with the coupon, either as
part of the order delivery, or as a separate
email.
But, don't worry, if you can't find it.
Simply contact us to request the latest
discount coupon available, based on your current
version.
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/about
Contact Dan if you had ordered from him directly
or you want to order directly from the author.
Contact Philip if you prefer to re-order your
upgrade through the same BMTmicro system as
before.
We'll need to know which version you had obtained
last, regardless of whether it still runs on your
current PC.
Even if you ordered yours long ago and are still
using something like v3.5 or v4, v5 or similar,
you'll get a discount of 35% or better. If you use
the freeware versions 1.2 you still will get a
discount and a thank you note.
New Presets for Foliage
Brushes
We've added some information
about what's new in v9.5, specifically with
regards to the Foliage brushes.
As you may remember, we've
added a self-shading capability, based on
ambient occlusion, whereby the foliage is
restricting the light from the surrounding
environment, thus causing the branches and
leaves to get darker, the more of them you
overlay. When you raw a first twig or branch
with leaves, it may look pretty bright all over.
But as you draw a few more brush strokes to add
a few more pieces of
foliage to the growing bouquet, the leaves on
the outer rim stay light, while the inner parts
get darker. The inner regions receive less light
because the light is blockued off by surrounding
branches and leaves. This easily adds great
depth perception or visual realism. It also
shows that while you're doing a 2D brush stroke,
the foliage brushes actually grow their
shrubbery in a 3D world, which is aware of depth
and lighting.
Here is a reminder of that
new capability:
Ambient Occlusion on Foliage
Brushes
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/features/foliage-brushes-with-ambient-occlusion.html
Here is an example of what
you can get with just a few brush strokes:
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/features/foliage-brushes-new-presets-in-v9.5/Ligustrum_02.jpg
We also have new presets for
foliage brushes. These are now seen here:
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/features/foliage-brushes-new-presets-in-v9.5.html
And here is an image with perhaps a dozen brush
strokes, using a variety of different settings,
including some of the new presets:
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/features/foliage-brushes-new-presets-in-v9.5/many-things.jpg
Deep Dive into the River
Canyon Tutorial
A few weeks ago, Dan created a
River Canyon tutorial. If you missed the original,
here it is again:
http://youtu.be/xIeP21SuA9I
This is a great tutorial to learn some awesome
tricks to create interesting looking mountain
scenes, with sediments, erosion, stratified
coloring, snow and clouds.
The original tutorial was done before the final
release, and there have been some additional
features and tweaks to the user interface since
then. Therefore, we thought it would be a good
idea to re-visit the major steps that are
presented in that tutorial, to learn a bit more
about the options, and to see it through the GUI
that you'll experience in the fianl 9.5 release.
Plus, we'll probably learn a few more tips and
tricks or alternate ways to get to some of the
results. It's all here to helpyou play and become
a better waffler.
So, in coming weeks, you'll find new tutorials
that talk about the main steps found in the
original River Canyon tutorial. We recommend, if
you're interested in following this, that you
start by reviewing the original tutorial. Here's
an example of something we just created on our
own, following the same steps with slightly
different options in some cases.
http://www.thebest3d.com/slideshow9.5/Deep_Dive_into_RiverCanyon1.jpg
To wet your appetite somewhat further, here's a
short fly-through animation where we take the deep
dive into the canyon. This short clip is about 700
frames long, and was
completely modeled and rendered in PD Howler 9.5's
3D Designer, with the addition of just one
post-work item: the lensflares engine was used
from the Timeline to add the Sun.
http://youtu.be/fHmWb_OFpMA
____________________________________________________________________________
That's it for now. We sincerely hope that you'll
like the new features as much as we enjoy them. If
you like Project Dogwaffle, please do tell your
friends on Facebook and other forums. It's as
simple as mentioning the link to this newsletter:
Thanks again for waffling and howling with Project
Dogwaffle!
Team Dogwaffle
No longer interested? We'd be sorry to see
you leave us, but....
To remove yourself from our newsletter, please
unsubscribe here: http://www.thebest2d.com/feedback/
You can also use this to change your email by
adding yourself with a new email address and
removing the old email address.
|
