Any software that just blows your minds for creativity and WOW ?
daveso
Posts: 7,794
is there a pice of software...preferrably under $100 or less, that just gives you a WOW feeling when you use it?
Software that just blows your socks off. Something that is unusal and extradinary.
I think Poser was like that, Vista Pro...Vue, even Bryce at the beginning.
I've seen some Mandala creation stuff that is pretty cool, but vastly overpriced.
There used to be a software called Amorphium that was extremely cool ... modeling clay stuff.... sort of pricy though...
Perhaps there is even something for DS that is one of those mind blowing creations.
I am just needing something to excite me.
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I feel cost is going to be your biggest setback since you have a very low price threshold. Also the more software I use and the more I do in 3D, the harder it is to have a WOW factor for me. The last program I used that gave me the WOW feeling was Ultimate Unwrap 3D pro about 2 yrs ago and I use it almost daily now, then again I am a modeler first and foremost.
Flame Painter is kinda cool, but I'm sure you already know about that one ;).
Laurie
There is Blender which blows my mind. It is under a hundred dollars and has a lot of untapped potential. It should work work with Linux which will be the only computer I have access to until sometime in February or March or April or whenever I can get a windows machine again.
Honestly, if you want a good modeler under a hundred I would say Blender. It has a learning curve, but I do not know of any 3d software that is better for that price.
I really really like Carrara, though prefer to render in Studio.
It is frequently on sale for $60 or less.
It could really use an update which it's very unlikely to get, but still worth it, imo.
Houdini. I'm quite surprised given how generous the licensing terms are (free for non-commercial, $200 USD annually for indie use) that it's not talked about more here.
Filter Forge
Filter Forge... You can get the Pro version pretty cheap when they have a big sale... It's great for making textures and enhancing photos too.
They might still be having an 80% off holiday sale, so it might be under $100...
For free there is Blender... Even though I suck at it still, it's firkin amazing...
Lots of fun and free, there is Sculptris... Few people seem to know that although you don't get an .mtl file when you save an auto-mapped model in Sculptris, you can take the OBJ and open it in Blender and apply the saved map in the materials room... Export the obj from Blender and you get a usable MTL... Fun stuff.
The New verison of ZBrushCore, just 150$, just getting into it.
Affinity Photo, a great alt to PS.
VWD - Virtual World Dynamics Cloth and Hair Simulation software for Poser, DAZ Studio, and Carrara. For around $75.00 US you can have it for DS (and Poser). An extra $15.00 and you can include Carrara as well.
Krita.....a perfect drawing tool for all sorts of art......use it for textures and what not and it's essentially free (you could endorse the makers though)....it's worth it
Substance Painter.......for 150 dollars a perfect texturing suite for all purpose
Inkscape........for vector drawing
Blender for modelling (it's has a steep leaning curve but the view from the top of the hill is beautiful since then modelling is a breeze)
Greets, ArtisanS
Blender, as already mentioned. It's completely free and sees a half million downloads a month (Wow!) Being completely open source and wildly popular it has numerous people creating plug-ins for it and it now does EVERYTHING. We use it for video editing, motion graphics, motion tracking, composting and of course it's main function, 3D construction. There's a free (that's right...no cost!) tutorial version ( https://blendersensei.com/?doing_wp_cron=1421621126.6905400753021240234375 ) and thousands of free models ( http://www.blendswap.com/ ) which are mostly royalty free, and thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of completely free tutorials and lessons. The forums are vibrant and full of people from all over the world who are enthusiastic about sharing knowledge. And all of it, every last little bit is absolutely free. There's no proprietary anything...no one keeps secrets closely guarded so that they can make you pay through the nose to learn or use it. There's even free rigged figures being developed ( http://www.manuelbastioni.com/manuellab.php ). Just a warning that you can get seriously hooked on it.
I use Clip Studio Paint (formerly Manga Studio 5) and Photoshop CC. Since I don't use Daz for making renders (I use it for artistic reference, actually) right now because I'm a Mac user who's effectively shunned from Iray, my focus is more on drawing programs.
Clip Studio is great because it's also Mac-compatible and you can make comics with it, too. It might be kind of expensive, but Smith-Micro frequently puts it on sale at deep discounts throughout the year (typically around holidays) at about $25 for the base. Pro and EX give you more robust features, though the only upside to EX is more animation capabilities + better comic book assembly. There is a 3D feature where you can use 3D models within the program for reference, but I think you're only limited to the anime flotsam/jetsam that's included with it. Blah!
Photoshop CC is not too bad, all things considered. Sure, you have to pay a monthly subscription for it, but considering just how much PS alone used to be before the Creative Cloud, $9.99/mo is a steal. My only gripe is that I think Adobe is packing it with too much extra stuff, but eh, I only use it for postwork and not actual drawing.
I'm also just learning how to use Blender, and while it's a little intimidating, I think if I can soak in enough tutorials, I hope to start making some pretty cool stuff. That's one of my big goals this year, haha.
I'll second Clip Studio, as it's going to be my next purchase, and Substance Painter.
Affinity Photo does look interesting like an interesting alternative to PS. Ty for suggesting! Plus it's free for Windows users. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to support Ron's brushes (from what I've read), so can't switch to it yet.
LuxRender, Reality. But nothing touches Blender for bang for the buck, nothing.
And it's not a question about sucking at it, I still pretty much suck at it, the question is have I scratched the potential limits of that software and the answer is simply no, I haven't come close.
I have made my own assets and that is awesome.
Carrara
it loads most DAZ and Poser content as well as importing rigged collada and FBX figures from other software
has a terrain generator
a tree generator
volumetric clouds
particles
Bullet physics
several modeling rooms (vertex, spline, metaball)
nonphotorealistic as well as raytraced rendering
dynamic hair
you can get it right here!!!
yes, it is
I found it via Amberlight, which I like ... but then I had one of Kai's plugins ... Fractal Flame I think it was called. 32bit, so it won't work in my 64 bit apps.
hmm.. Blender was always free. you have to buy it now?
I bought 8.5 Pro for $13.01 with B-Bot back in December in some crazy whacky sale thing. I was trying to model for awhile..actually started with Ray Dream Studio way back ... but never really got it going. I try alot of stuff, but my mind wanders so badly, I don't stick with stuff and really learn it. I'm like that with a lot of stuff. Probably why I'm looking for something exciting.
Houdini appears very interesting. Might give that a go. Thanks
No, I think that was a metaphor... It's still free!...
oh ..great
Not 3D, but take a look at Affinity Designer.
Don't know where you got that idea. On sale now for Windows and Mac. Inexpensive, but not free.
Most of what I've tried have been mentioned but I'll add my vote anyway:
Affinity Photo. I have it for Mac and Windows (I did have to pay for both though - not sure why someone said it is free for Windows). I used Photoshop for years when I had a copy from my employer but didn't fancy paying that much when I retired. Just so happened that AP came along and it does everything I need for a low price.
Blender - I wish I could devote more time to having a good crack at learning it. So far I've only used it for morphs and video editing but there is so much more.
Comic Life (again, Mac and Windows). I use this all the time because that's what I do with my DAZ Studio renders - create little stories for fun. It is a very quick and easy way to put them into a comic format.
I have Filter Forge too but they keep demanding that I upgrade and I hate that pestering. I don't create many textures so it goes unused most of the time.
On the technical side, GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner for keeping an eye on my GPU usage and controlling the temperatures. Both free.
Faststone Image Viewer - an old standby for Windows. Has lots of neat tools like resizing, cropping, format conversion, etc., which means you don't need to load a full blown (Photoshop/Affinity) editor every time you need to do the simple things.
On the negative side, I have tried and failed with both Poser and Carrara - just find the way they work doesn't suit me. Money wasted, unfortunately. Tried ZBrush but far too expensive and probably requires lots of dedicated time to learn. Loved the GoZ plugin though. Hexagon frustrated me with its constant crashing so I gave up. Would like to Give Mudbox a go but, again, I live on a small fixed income and software subscbiptions take a low priority.
Blender - for all the reasons mentioned above.
Photoshop CC - yeah, it's subscription based but still.....only $9.99 / month for photoshop is still far less then you would have paid for a perpetual license + upgrades
I just downloaded Substance Live - not really subscription based, but rent-to-own to get both Substance Painter and Substance Designer
Filter Forge when you can get it on sale.
It is free like ubuntu Linux but I paid for an ubuntu sub stick. I know it is free but I bought a stick that someone already put ubuntu on it. I guess one could buy a usb stick with blender on it if they need to due to poor internet connection or limited bandwidth but it is still free.
Modo Indie—on subscription, it's something like $15/mo—and is a full-fledged 3D suite. I tried Blender and really disliked the interface (although that was a while ago). Modo's UI is really thoughtful and powerful. Little touches like being able to align the workplane something you're working on makes doing so many things easier.
Substance Painter/Designer—also subscription (but rent-to-own with the ability to pause)—is a great painting program for 3D, but requires a decent graphic card. Designer is node-based, so not the easiest thing to get used to, but creates procedural textures that are very powerful and resolution-unlimited.
Rent to own with ability to pause? so if one month I cannot afford it I can pause it, but still be on the track of owning it?
Doesn't Modo Indie have a 100,000k poly limit? I remember thinking it could be limiting if you were making a complete outfit or a detailed building set. You're better off learning Blender, which has no limit ;). I will admit tho, I do like Modo's interface.
Laurie