Ah yeah, maybe this : If you're looking for an good and simple agenda on your computer desktop. I'm using it for a while now and I didn't miss a birthday, rendez-vous or phone call for a long time
speaking of which... psd images magically are thumbnailed recently. I don't remember doing anything special?
is this an adobe update? or vista update? ( late night adobe fairies @ werk while I sleep to ease my search burden? )
Foxmarks, a free extension for Firefox, synchronizes your bookmarks with an online database so it's easy-peasy to keep your bookmarks synched across different pc's
I still like milkshape very much, because it's an easy app to learn and suitable for lowpoly modelling. If you want to port something to an old game, it still has important plugins. I also like wings 3d, but I still need to learn the interface.
3 D Coat - Awesome (and dirt cheap) all in one sculpting, retopo, uv and painting app. Weekly alpha builds of version 3 have all the good tools in them like voxel sculpting etc. and can be found in the forums: Latest Alpha Builds
Runs great on mac but really flies on a 64 bit vista machine using cuda.
Scribbles - Stumbled onto this one while waiting for Sketchbook Pro 2010 to be released. I needed something cheap that would run on my mac. Fave features: infinite canvas, which is awesome for concepting, resolution independent zoom, so your image is always crisp and unpixelated. Main tools like pan, zoom and color pick are bound to ctrl/command/alt keys for easy compatibility with cintiqs and intuos tablets.
Line Form - Great vector toolset, especially the brush to curve tools and stroke adjustment palette. Can be used for inking and sketch cleanup.
What would people recommend for free or open source back up software for your PC? Maybe one with a built in recovery tool via burning a cdrom that points to the backup disk? IN case of complete system failure. Also, that can emulate partitions on your backup disk to backup an entire system.
OXYnary: Last week both my PCs (mostly Windows) broke on me and I used a Linux Mint Live CD that I had recently downloaded so that I could get to the files I had yet to back up, connect to the internet and find some ways to fix windows and use some media files. It did it all with no installs or tweaking needed.
It didn't fix my system but it helped me to do so. I may actually do a dual boot with it so I have a "plan B" with me at all times.
Better alternative to Windows explorer. Has built in support for .psd/.tga thumbs, dual pane layout, tabs, FTP, bookmarks and you can save "layouts".
For example I have a saved several different layouts so far which does;
1: "default" layout with 2 panes directed to my 2 most used directories
2: "FTP" layout that puts my local portfolio folder on the left pane and my FTP server on the right pane (it can also synchronize or compare the files from the 2 panes). This has replaced my old FTP program (which was WinSCP, also free)
3: "thumbnail" layout that maximises the program, puts it into single pane and thumbnail view for converting the whole explorer into a thumbnail viewer.
Each layout has its own hotkey (Alt+1-9)
You can also right-click to access the bookmarks (favorites), saves space compared to windows explorer favourites - and they're also hotkeyed too.
A lead told me about this a few days ago and it ROCKS!
1)make a layer in photoshop, name it UV and select som layer beside UV
2)record a new action, name it Hide UV
3)without clicking on any layers, click the little eye next to UV
4)repeat the steps with an action named Show UV
so as long as you name your uv layer "UV" you can toggle it on and off with the press of a button. This could be something universally known but it makes me all giddy.
true that, I made a sloppy-ass script to toggle any layers named uv, uvs, or prefixed with tgl_ a little while ago. it's kinda slow since it checks for any instance within the base level or a rather than just one, but sometimes that's necessary. If you don't want that you can just change the 2 variables in the script so it just searches for the first instance or doesn't search within layergroups
www.funkybunnies3d.com/Downloads/uv_TGL.jsx
you can drop it in program files/adobe/photoshop/presets/scripts and next time you open photoshop it's in the file menu or hotkeyable.
I just discovered probably the best web browser ever, K-Meleon. It does pretty much everything FF does, but 2+ times faster! Less memory usage too. http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
I just discovered probably the best web browser ever, K-Meleon. It does pretty much everything FF does, but 2+ times faster! Less memory usage too. http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
I'm a huge browser whore, but that one does nothing for me. I picked a heavy page I never visit, so firefox wouldn't have it cached: ign.com. Firefox was 5-6 seconds, K-Meleon was 16-17 seconds.
Plus I can't live without my mouse gestures, adblock plus etc.
hehe I just got 4 secs in KM and 14 secs in Firefox on IGN as well :P But my machine is aging so maybe that's why?
It just feels less sluggish to me somehow
For extra mouse gesture support, across all programs in windows (ideal for browsers like the previously mentioned K-meleon, and Google Chrome which I use)
Great for 3D Max/photoshop (with pen) too, extra bunch of easy-to-access hotkeys \o/
I know the latest update was in 2005, but its still a fine piece of software and I've had no problems with it (the UI could be improved though )
Another windows explorer-alternative. This one has 4 panels and most of the usual stuff that explorer-alternatives have, and imo is the best free one available.
This is great, ideal for setting up a colour scheme for a portfolio. ALso great to change a scene's atmosphere. Question is which colour scheme do I choose, so many possibilities.
livemocha.com it's some sort of language learning community. so not really art related. but it's really great for learning. there are various courses from beginner to advanced. you can submit your excercises and have them corrected by other users. chat with them with an inbuild translator, etc. it's really doing a great job. doesn't take forever to learn like in school...
Great free screen recorder, does voice over too. Can save out mov and swf files, and has output directly to youtube or to save in high quality to a screen toaster account.
Wonder why so few people in the dev community use chrome. Every time I force some die-hard firefox user to give it a give they end up making it their browser of choice.
Btw, ign.com 8 secs in chrome, 12 in ff
it's all about the extensions baby. I WANT to use chrome, but noscript and adblock rule my life.
I hear google has some now though so I'll have to do a little looksie
As for adblock, you by default don't get unwanted popups in any browser these days I think. My Kaspersky also strips web pages of ads, but that doesn't make much difference as you just get a big empty space where the ad used to be.
Extensions are coming for google. The dev builds support greasemonkey now too.
When I want to do something hard core like leech pictures or handle a great deal of links I use Opera.
The advantages of chrome can't really be appreciated in a bulletin point list. It's all about how well small features work, to the point where if I open any other browser now I'm constantly annoyed about little things that are off, bad autocomplete for urls, slow loading, etc. Anyway, big recommendation for me.
While I get what you're saying about Chrome, it won't be my browser of choice until I get AdBlock, Firefusk and DownThemAll or some equivalents thereof. The rest of the experience is good, but I use those extensions enough that browsing without them feels weird.
This is a super lightweight image viewer, no toolbars, no border, just the image. Only thing I'd love is an "Always On Top" feature, but on a second monitor this works pretty well for just getting the images up and visible.
Revo Uninstaller - Great program to replace Add/Remove Programs. It uninstalls programs and deletes all of the left over files and registry, at your behest.
Deskpins - Pretty straightforward. Another Program allowing you to specify windows to stay on top. Run it and then grab a pin and click the titlebar of the window you want to stay on top.
Hotspot Shield - Connects you to a VPN with an American IP. Handy for watching Hulu and etc outside of the states (while working, of course). In conjunction with Deskpins you can watch streaming tv shows while working. Personally, I am way more efficient while watching TV at the same time. Also gives you net privacy; if you want that kind of thing. This program used to be a monster for Vista users, causing driver conflicts and Blue Screens, but it's fixed in the latest versions.
I love this program. Free lightmapper. Imports all major formats. Interface is Max alike, viewport navigation is wasd and mouse so easy to get used to, and best of all, it automatically cuts up the scene and spreads out the uvs over multiple lightmaps much like for example Unreal handles it internally. It can also detect all faces smaller than X and force those too small faces to vertex lighting instead.
They also have a fairly ok free tree generator program.
I might be the only one who does this, but I actually use perforce at home. It's completely free for up to two users.
I have a small HP Media Server and I just run perforce on there and then have it mirror the depot to two hardrives. With VPN I can get onto my server at home and always upload what I'm working on with descriptions to keep me organized.
Perforce really comes it's own in large development environments but I love using it for just me as well.
One thing I have been using a lot lately is Google maps measurement tool. You can look at anything in Google maps and grab its width and length. This has saved me so much time when building urban environments. Now I only have to estimate the height of structures if i am trying to do everything to scale. Everything else I can just find an example of and measure it.
SuperCopier2 or Teracopy to replace the default file copy dialog - whatever suits you more.
Both will give you accurate estimated copy time, multiple progress bars, priority lists, faster copies, shutdown after copy, pause/resume/skip on error, optional shell integration, copy to favourite folders and a lot more usefull stuff.
Anyone got a program that'll let me copy a files location instantly? I used to have one. It'll be great for sharing files to colleges over our local drives here at work.
Mapzone (freeware) http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/?PAGE=HOME
A procedular software that generates textures. It is really powerfull, but not easy to use, needs time to discover it's real potential.
IM looking for a program that will add a right click option to a window that will allow me to pin it to the top.
I don't have dual monitors, and when I am looking at reference images while still in max or ps when they are full screen I have to constantly alt-tab back and forth.
So I want something in particular that will allow me to pin windows image viewer to the forefront on top of either program.
IM looking for a program that will add a right click option to a window that will allow me to pin it to the top.
I don't have dual monitors, and when I am looking at reference images while still in max or ps when they are full screen I have to constantly alt-tab back and forth.
So I want something in particular that will allow me to pin windows image viewer to the forefront on top of either program.
I find this quite helpful when checking a model quickly against ref if your modelling program has awkward support for unusual image plane angles. Overlays a transparent .PNG on your desktop that can animate and has variable opacity. You can also model underneath it
Anyone know of a good Ultramon equivalent? I could really use it at work but I don't want to fork over another £30 just for another liscence to use it here.
Replies
http://www.rainlendar.net (download the lite version, it's all you need !)
Ah yeah, maybe this : If you're looking for an good and simple agenda on your computer desktop. I'm using it for a while now and I didn't miss a birthday, rendez-vous or phone call for a long time
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_thumbnail_viewer.html
speaking of which... psd images magically are thumbnailed recently. I don't remember doing anything special?
is this an adobe update? or vista update? ( late night adobe fairies @ werk while I sleep to ease my search burden? )
Faogen fast and easy way to create ambient occlusion! it costs $69.95 but there is a free trial.
Foxmarks, a free extension for Firefox, synchronizes your bookmarks with an online database so it's easy-peasy to keep your bookmarks synched across different pc's
Adblock... not really directly connected to work... but does make the internet feel less cluttered.
This is a very handy program when your trying to find out what is taking up space on your harddrive
it shows you in graphical tree format what your storage looks like and allows you to access the folders with a few clicks
Milkshape (EUR 25 or USD 35)
http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
Wings 3D
http://www.wings3d.com/
Runs great on mac but really flies on a 64 bit vista machine using cuda.
Scribbles - Stumbled onto this one while waiting for Sketchbook Pro 2010 to be released. I needed something cheap that would run on my mac. Fave features: infinite canvas, which is awesome for concepting, resolution independent zoom, so your image is always crisp and unpixelated. Main tools like pan, zoom and color pick are bound to ctrl/command/alt keys for easy compatibility with cintiqs and intuos tablets.
Line Form - Great vector toolset, especially the brush to curve tools and stroke adjustment palette. Can be used for inking and sketch cleanup.
Great tool to create tillable textures over different nodes like in Mayas Hypershade
It didn't fix my system but it helped me to do so. I may actually do a dual boot with it so I have a "plan B" with me at all times.
Better alternative to Windows explorer. Has built in support for .psd/.tga thumbs, dual pane layout, tabs, FTP, bookmarks and you can save "layouts".
For example I have a saved several different layouts so far which does;
1: "default" layout with 2 panes directed to my 2 most used directories
2: "FTP" layout that puts my local portfolio folder on the left pane and my FTP server on the right pane (it can also synchronize or compare the files from the 2 panes). This has replaced my old FTP program (which was WinSCP, also free)
3: "thumbnail" layout that maximises the program, puts it into single pane and thumbnail view for converting the whole explorer into a thumbnail viewer.
Each layout has its own hotkey (Alt+1-9)
You can also right-click to access the bookmarks (favorites), saves space compared to windows explorer favourites - and they're also hotkeyed too.
Think of it as color theory training wheels...It outputs to Photoshop swatch files too.
http://www.colorschemedesigner.com
1)make a layer in photoshop, name it UV and select som layer beside UV
2)record a new action, name it Hide UV
3)without clicking on any layers, click the little eye next to UV
4)repeat the steps with an action named Show UV
so as long as you name your uv layer "UV" you can toggle it on and off with the press of a button. This could be something universally known but it makes me all giddy.
That's a nice trick but as long as you export your UV's as paths, you can toggle them with ctrl-h.
www.funkybunnies3d.com/Downloads/uv_TGL.jsx
you can drop it in program files/adobe/photoshop/presets/scripts and next time you open photoshop it's in the file menu or hotkeyable.
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
I'm a huge browser whore, but that one does nothing for me. I picked a heavy page I never visit, so firefox wouldn't have it cached: ign.com. Firefox was 5-6 seconds, K-Meleon was 16-17 seconds.
Plus I can't live without my mouse gestures, adblock plus etc.
It just feels less sluggish to me somehow
Anyways! To each his own!
For extra mouse gesture support, across all programs in windows (ideal for browsers like the previously mentioned K-meleon, and Google Chrome which I use)
Great for 3D Max/photoshop (with pen) too, extra bunch of easy-to-access hotkeys \o/
I know the latest update was in 2005, but its still a fine piece of software and I've had no problems with it (the UI could be improved though
And;
Q-Dir
Another windows explorer-alternative. This one has 4 panels and most of the usual stuff that explorer-alternatives have, and imo is the best free one available.
This is great, ideal for setting up a colour scheme for a portfolio. ALso great to change a scene's atmosphere. Question is which colour scheme do I choose, so many possibilities.
Great free screen recorder, does voice over too. Can save out mov and swf files, and has output directly to youtube or to save in high quality to a screen toaster account.
it's all about the extensions baby. I WANT to use chrome, but noscript and adblock rule my life.
I hear google has some now though so I'll have to do a little looksie
This is a super lightweight image viewer, no toolbars, no border, just the image. Only thing I'd love is an "Always On Top" feature, but on a second monitor this works pretty well for just getting the images up and visible.
http://www.utilhaven.com/fi/index.htm
Revo Uninstaller - Great program to replace Add/Remove Programs. It uninstalls programs and deletes all of the left over files and registry, at your behest.
Deskpins - Pretty straightforward. Another Program allowing you to specify windows to stay on top. Run it and then grab a pin and click the titlebar of the window you want to stay on top.
Hotspot Shield - Connects you to a VPN with an American IP. Handy for watching Hulu and etc outside of the states (while working, of course). In conjunction with Deskpins you can watch streaming tv shows while working. Personally, I am way more efficient while watching TV at the same time. Also gives you net privacy; if you want that kind of thing. This program used to be a monster for Vista users, causing driver conflicts and Blue Screens, but it's fixed in the latest versions.
I love this program. Free lightmapper. Imports all major formats. Interface is Max alike, viewport navigation is wasd and mouse so easy to get used to, and best of all, it automatically cuts up the scene and spreads out the uvs over multiple lightmaps much like for example Unreal handles it internally. It can also detect all faces smaller than X and force those too small faces to vertex lighting instead.
They also have a fairly ok free tree generator program.
Alternative to DropBox, but you can make any number of folders into a syncplicity folder instead of having a single dropbox folder.
It also comes with more free space (5gb after inviting 3 friends, instead of 3gb after inviting 4 friends).
Adobe color scheme generator: http://kuler.adobe.com/
Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/ - better than ms office and free!
and some max scripts:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/basejump-0 - Basejump - OMG usefull
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/affect-pivot-and-center-pivot - center the pivot via a shortcut key
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/light-lister-for-v-ray-advanced-1-50-sp2-sp3-3dsmax-2008-2009-x32x64 - replacement for the light lister - shows IES and Vray lights plus more options than the standard one
-N!
I have a small HP Media Server and I just run perforce on there and then have it mirror the depot to two hardrives. With VPN I can get onto my server at home and always upload what I'm working on with descriptions to keep me organized.
Perforce really comes it's own in large development environments but I love using it for just me as well.
You can find out more here: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/09/measuring-distances-in-google-maps.html
Both will give you accurate estimated copy time, multiple progress bars, priority lists, faster copies, shutdown after copy, pause/resume/skip on error, optional shell integration, copy to favourite folders and a lot more usefull stuff.
Mapzone (freeware)
http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/?PAGE=HOME
A procedular software that generates textures. It is really powerfull, but not easy to use, needs time to discover it's real potential.
Klok(freeware):
http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm
I don't have dual monitors, and when I am looking at reference images while still in max or ps when they are full screen I have to constantly alt-tab back and forth.
So I want something in particular that will allow me to pin windows image viewer to the forefront on top of either program.
I use this http://www.allwaysync.com/ . Simple and just works.
I find this quite helpful when checking a model quickly against ref if your modelling program has awkward support for unusual image plane angles. Overlays a transparent .PNG on your desktop that can animate and has variable opacity. You can also model underneath it
Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher.
I use to know all the good ones but it's been years since I've needed them.