Contents tagged with [Graphics]
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[Graphics] An awesome Blender 3D Tutorial Wikibook!
Blender 3D: Noob to Pro is a great, free tutorial for the free, open source Blender 3D graphics modeling and rendering software. I still cannot believe how little press and attention Blender 3D gets. To me, it's the coolest gift the open source community has yet made to those heroic independent graphic artists who strive to create great computer art without access to a huge corporate budget. Well, the GIMP was another such gift, but Blender 3D rocks! If this tutorial makes Blender 3D more accessible to CG artists who haven't tried it yet, that would be a huge win.
More Blender 3D Wikibooks! -
[Tools] Some Graphics Tools
Summary: This is a list of some great Open Source and free graphics editors and utilities that may be generally useful. Also, one interesting non-free, closed-source Microsoft Beta project is included because of its coolness factor.2D Graphics Editors:- "The GIMP":- The canonical attempt at a free Open Source graphics editor. The user interface is a bit strange, as the GIMP came from the Linux community. Seasoned Photoshop users may want to see the next link, though.
- "GIMPshop": - "Basically it is just a hack of the current GIMP-sourcecode changing the menustructure, naming and key-bindings to be more like Photoshop." See "Announcing GIMPShop": for details.
- "Inkscape": - "Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative Commons meta-data, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path, and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS, Postscript, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats."
- "Paint.NET": is a .NET replacement for Windows Paint. It adds considerable graphics and image editing capability and is both free and Open Source (MIT license).
- "ImageMagick": is a free, Open Source (GPL) system for creating and editing bitmapped images. It includes support for text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves and has many advanced features. "ImageMagick" supports over 90 graphics formats and can convert between them. You can download the Windows-ready binary here.
- "Microsoft Acrylic Beta": - "Acrylic" is the codename for "an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media." It evolved from Creature House Expression 3, which Microsoft bought in 2003. Acrylic lets you seamlessly blend vector paths and bitmapped images. This is a powerful new tool, but do be aware that it is currently a Beta of something that will be part of Microsoft Expressions, a new licensed Microsoft product.
3D Graphics Editors:- "Blender 3D": - Blender is an extremely capable free, and Open Source 3D graphics editor. See the Gallery for examples.
- "Wings 3D": - Wings 3D is a powerful 3D subdivision modeler. See the Site Gallery for some simple examples of what Wings 3D can do.
- "Autodesk Gmax": - A free, but not Open Source, 3D modeling and animation software product based on the award-winning Autodesk® 3ds Max® software. Registration required. While Gmax is targeted towards game graphics tweakers, it is useful beyond that market.
Image Viewers/Editors:- "IrfanView": - This is a "must have" graphics viewing and tweaking tool. It's great for basic image processing, resizing, and format converting. Free "as in beer" but not Open Source. IrfanView also provides excellent screen capture functionality and has many other useful features.
- "ForceVision": - An award-winning free, but not Open Source, image viewer and bitmap editor.
Other Graphics Tools:- "Cropper in C#": - A great .NET screen capture utility. The C# source is also freely available and can be downloaded from the site.
- "Open Source Graphics Tools"
- "Freeware Graphics Tools"
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[Java] Five-star Instructional Graphic Award: "Java Technology Concept Map"
I admit to being intrigued by the Java Technology Concept Map not only for its Java-oriented content but for its very innovative graphical presentation using Concept Map techniques. Concept Mapping derives from Mind Mapping, a technology I have personally used quite profitably for many years, not only for software design and development, but also for a lot of other things -- including general thinking. The Java Technology Concept Map, with its interesting graphical design and dynamic Flash presentation (you can also download a PDF version) shows just how far we have come from those original simple mind maps we used to draw on whatever scratch paper was handy! The designers of this instructional tool deserve an award, so CSharpener hereby bestows the "Five-star Instructional Graphic Award" upon them!
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[Graphics] Is Blender Insufficiently Appreciated?
This is a bit of a plug for Blender, a fantastic Open Source project that is perhaps the most under-appreciated project on the net. What is Blender? Well, it is just "the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X."
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[WebDev] Cool Site: CSS Zen Garden
Thanks to IXml* for making me aware of the CSS Zen Garden site. If you are having any trouble at all selling the idea of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to the clueless, just show them this site and let them click their own way to enlightenment.
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Quake II .NET
I happily got Quake II .NET running on a laptop the other day. It was fun to watch it run under the Microsoft® .NET Framework! I have no time for computer games, anymore, but several years ago I played a lot of Quake II with some great co-workers. Now, Vertigo Software has made a managed C++ port available for free. See the Quake II .NET>FAQ for details, including where to get the original Quake II source code and demo from id Software. I didn't discover Quake II .NET myself but found out about it in this post on Clemens Vasters: Enterprise Development & Alien Abductions Weblog.