telophase: (Asoka - shimmy!)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2006-08-22 09:51 pm
Entry tags:

Free 3D program

If there's any chance at all that you think you might want to, someday, dabble in 3D programs, Daz 3D is offering Bryce 5.0 free until September 6. This is the same program I paid $80 for two years ago. They also tend to offer a reasonable amount of free downloads.

They're doing it because they're going to be releasing 6.0 soon and, I suspect, want to get people hooked on it. :D

You don't have to be interested in doing 3D renders themselves to use it - if you have trouble with perspective, it's a most excellent tool to build a room or scene and then rotate it around any way you want, print it out, and use it to draw your guidelines and your backgrounds.

ETA: You may need to reload the page a couple of times: the banner advertising it rotates on and off. You may also want to poke around the site and download DAZ3D, which is their version of Poser and also free.

[identity profile] chibi-nasu.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Good to know. I'll check it out, probably. If I remember to do so once I get off work...

[identity profile] kintail.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Oh hey, that could be very useful! Thank you! *downloads*
ext_1336: parker needs help (bsg: starbuck cheers)

[identity profile] winterfish.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the heads up! *runs off to download*

OT

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
I think you should reprint all your Tpop columns here, or at least link to them when they come up so we can discuss them here, as in:

Also, learn the fundamentals of drawing. You don’t need to be very good at it, but just good enough at page composition and visual flow that your artist doesn’t have to rewrite large amounts of your script to make it work as a comic.

HEY! That is directed at me, isn't it?! Isn't it?!

I'll have you know I did little pumpkin-headed stick-figures for quite a bit of Spindrift, only I couldn't get the scanner to work, so... this sounds like the artist whom Henson was trying to hire to do conceptual art, who kept claiming that he'd done it but his scanner was broken, and finally disappeared without producing anything.

Re: OT

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
Heee. :D It wasn't directed at you personally, because it's veeery common for writers to write "Panel 3: Hero punches Villain and runs up the hill".

Bring the pumpkin-headed stick figures to AFest!! Or, hell, mail them! XD

You seeeeee I put the ARTISTS HIT DEADLINES! thing in, huh huh huh?

Oh - I'm going to do at least one or two more on collaboration, although not in a row - I figure there's lots of people who won't want to read four weeks of How To Make Manga With Someone Else.

Re: OT

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure that I kept the pumpkin-heads. Which is a shame, because I actually did have this nice page all laid out with inserts and stuff, and dislodged snow falling from one panel into the next.

I noticed the ARTISTS HIT DEADLINES! That was very good!

Next time you can point out that the fact that writing is easy and fast compared to drawing, in the sense that anyone can put words on a page while people who can't draw know they can't draw, that does not mean that artists should not apply the same critical eye to their own scripts that they do to their own stories. (ie, in many RSOM entries done by one person, the writing was utterly unpublishable and incoherent, whereas most of the art was at least competent. They would have been better off with a collaborator.)

Re: OT

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
You know someone just commented on my column going "How do you get the picture to show up?" IT'S NOT A BLOG, DUDE!

I think they may be falling into much the same trap that many amateur writers do - that of assuming that because it's coherent to *them*, it's because they know the characters and the story and have all the backstory in their head. Plus, they show it to their parents and their friends, who all tell them it's good.

Heh - last week I advised a wannabe manga writer on the Tpop blogs that when trying to find a collaborater, basically jumping on someone with his 40-issue story was rather off-putting and that he should try a much smaller project, like RSOM-size, when auditioning artists.

Re: OT

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Hee! I saw that!

Oh, I think the root problem that causes incomprehensible scripts is the same, whether it's written by an artist or a writer; it's just that fewer people delude themselves that they can draw when they totally, totally can't. Um. I think.

If you're just auditioning an artist, you can tell all you need to know from two or three pages of sequential art. What I discovered, though, was that just doing character designs will often tell you if you have compatible visions and can work together.

Of the artists I did not end up working with, there were only two people (out of seven or eight) who even got past the character design stage. One of them was later bounced by management, for reasons that made me wish I'd pushed him harder over issues I had with the character designs; the other had a compatible vision, so there was no negotiation over character designs. Her first tries were perfect. The problems came later, when we went to sequentials. But generally, if you can't agree on things like what a sexy man or athletic woman looks like, there is no point in going to sequentials.

Re: OT

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
it's just that fewer people delude themselves that they can draw when they totally, totally can't. Um. I think.

You'd be surprised. I keep seeing writers post looking for artists on DA, and the people who post ... I have *no* idea what possesses them to think that they're ready for publication.

Actually, I sort of understand, really: there's a point when you're starting out before you pass this sort of invisible threshhold, where you really don't realize how far you ahve to go to be considered an accomplished artist. You do something that kinda works, and you think it's just a weeee bit more, maybe a couple of tips from a pro artist, and you'll be drawing pro work. And you completely fail to catch on that your fundamentals are weak.

It doesn't help that people who aren't artists also can't really tell the diff between your work and pro work. When I complained about my work on Can't Sleep, I got friends telling me, in all honesty, that they had seen pro work exactly at my level. No. They hadn't. But they couldn't see how the details made the difference, and they also mistook reasonably good writing for a reasonably good comic.

I shall probably be using your experiences as examples, though I think maybe continuing to refer to you as "a writer of my acquaintance" to prevent artists from identifying themselves might be in order. XD

Re: OT

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
* And of coruse, obscuring other identifying details.

Re: OT

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
There is often an enormous difference between bad writing done by a pro, and bad writing done by an amateur. The bad pro writing is indeed bad. But it's bad on a higher level. I know the difference when I see it, but it's difficult to explain when the bad amateur writing is past that threshold you mention.

I shall remind you of the horrid details of my experiences in e-mail!

Re: OT

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
There's the same sort of thing with pro artists, too - there's some point where flash and dazzle temporarily overwhelms the senses and you don't notice the fundamental problems with the image or the composition, because other parts of it are so good. or it's so blatant that you can't possibly believe they did something that bad and still got published *cough (http://clamnuts.com/rants/2005/11/rob-liefeld-cant-draw-feet.html)robliefeld (http://grotesqueanatomy.blogspot.com/2004/05/now-thats-grotesque-anatomy.html)cough (http://delirium.nightgig.com/index.php/?p=13)*

I shall await them!

Re: OT

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, that was really entertaining. The funny thing is, someone had mentioned a published superhero comic artist who always drew characters standing behind small rocks and so forth because he couldn't draw feet, but I didn't remember the name.

Captain America seems to have a keel, like a bird.

[identity profile] frostedelves.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Whee, fun! I remember first seeing Bryce years and years ago and being so blown away by the wonderful alien rock canyons and fancy skies. And I can get a better tool now for free? Modern technology is so cool! XD

Also, I poked around and found that the same site has male and female figure-posers as free downloads too. I don't have them installed yet, as they're still downloading, but that sounds just as potentially useful if the musculature is good...

[identity profile] wyrdness.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 10:33 am (UTC)(link)
I feel stupid because I can't find it ;_; I shall probably find out it's blatantly staring me in the face and be embarrassed later.

[identity profile] wyrdness.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
I was right! I must be pre-sentient, no, precocious, wait, that's not right either...

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
If you poke around the site you can find Daz 3D, which is their version of Poser, that they offer free because they make their money selling you figures and clothing and objects and scenery for the figures.

[identity profile] rachel-renee.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't find it either....

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Reload the page. The banner rotates.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
:D The banner rotates in and out. Which took me a while to realize, because inexplicably every time I loaded the page for a while there, the Free Bryce 5.0! banner was showing. XD

[identity profile] rachel-renee.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I had loaded the front page a couple of times and didn't get it. This should be a neat tool!

[identity profile] wyrdness.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe you just thought we were messing with you:

Us: It's not there!
You: Of course it is! *Opens page*
Us: Is not! *clicks about the site* Wah! I want Bryce!
You: *looks at the image declaring free Bryce! on a huge image* Err...
ext_3386: (Default)

[identity profile] vito-excalibur.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been hearing really good things about Sketchup (http://www.sketchup.com/). One guy in my class is using it in preference to the software we're supposed to be using.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Pretty much. XD Actually, I was wondering if everyone's Banner-Blocker Sense[TM] was kicking in and causing them not to see this GINORMOUS BANNER AD right in front of them. XD

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, interesting! thanks, I'll check it out. :D