Archive for the ‘3D’ Category
Blender 3D: Free is Never Completely Free
I had to respond to a very, very short MacGems article on MacWorld covering Blender 3D and awarding it a 4.5 out of 5. I think having a free piece of software around is a good thing, because it keeps 3D vendors producing meaningful updates to their software. But Blender itself is a victim of its own enthusiastic user base. Professional 3D software is never easy to use to someone new to the field, and while Blender has improved significantly since its last major release – it is not easy to use. In addition, like many open source projects, you run into feature niggles that can be terribly difficult to resolve. For example, I tried to import a small handful of 3DS format models into Blender – ones that imported flawlessly into several commercial 3D products. The results looked like a bad Star Trek transporter accident.
Free is never completely free. If a software product is missing a feature you need, or some feature is broken, the work around time you spend has an opportunity cost associated with it. If I have to just through several software packages to convert my models to work with Blender, or if I have to recreate my models in Blender, the cost of Blender just went up by the cost of my time.
Realtime Raytracing in Javascript
I have strong feelings towards Javascript. It is an efficient and terrible way to deliver Trojans through unsecure browsers but it also can be used for amazing things, including this realtime raytracing example in Javascript.
Three Questions to Ask Before Selling through Ultra Discount Site MacZot
Recently discussed on the Runrev list was the value of promoting and selling products using ultra-discount sites like MacZot. MacZot runs single day (or single weekend) sales of software products at a 50% or greater discount. Will you benefit from selling this way, or will you succeed in devaluing your product? Here are some questions to ask.
The Name of the Rose Image from Chikako on Renderosity
The Meshbox team produced this wonderful 3D model of a medieval monastery that caught my eye because it resembles the monastery from Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. She did a very lovely image render and posted it on Renderosity. Meshbox licenses 3D content for use in art, animation and computer games. The movie with Sean Connery is what most people know about, and while it is excellent the book is brilliant.
Shade 10 Update
The Shade 10 E release team has been hard at work with preparing Shade 10 E for market and its looking good. There are a huge number of workflow based improvements, feature enhancements and strictly speaking – brand new features.
Much of the work related to Shade 10 E is focused squarely on localization, re-writing much of the support material, but there’s been a few technical updates that will likely get rolled back into the Japanese version.
Shade 10 Sneak Peek: The Shade 3D Manipulator
Mirye Software Publishing began publishing Shade in January, 2009. We’ve gotten a lot of coverage for Shade since then – a full review of Shade 9 Pro in 3D World Magazine and a cover disk offering in 3D Artist magazine. Shade 9 was mostly ready to ship when Mirye picked up publishing rights, but Shade 10 has since been shipping in Japan. Im writing a series of article for The Shade Blog on the new features of Shade 10.
The first article was on the changes to the Shade figure window, but the second one is much more substantial – the 3D manipulator tool. Check out Shade 10: Introducing the 3D Manipulator.
H P Lovecraft Film Festival – October 2, 3, 4, 2009
It isn’t until the fall, but if you are a fan of the horror writer H P Lovecraft you should know about the H P Lovecraft Film Festival that happens annually in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been talking with our project manager at Meshbox about getting something especially interesting prepared for 3D artists released in time for this event.
Shade is Back: Shade 9 Released by Mirye Software
I am happy to say that Shade 3D is back with the release of Shade 9 through Mirye Software. You can download a 30 day trial of Shade 9 through Shadetrial.com. Shade is a powerful, professional 3D software with unique modeling, animation and rendering capabilities and available for Mac OS X and Windows. Read the rest of this entry »
Caligari TrueSpace 7.6 is Free
That says it all – Caligari TrueSpace 7.6 – the newest release of their 3D modeling and rendering tools was released for free. Get Caligari TrueSpace for free.
TrueSpace is a Windows only 3D modeling and rendering package that’s been available for over 20 years. Recently, the company was acquired by Microsoft for their Live Earth project. This runs parallel to Google’s acquisition of of SketchUp! a few years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
