I hope readers picked up some nice software and 3D content bargains over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, perhaps with the aid of my numerous posts here. If you have any PayPal left-over after bagging the best savings, please do consider becoming my Patron on Patreon. Even a few dollars each month will be very welcome, and will really encourage and help me out in the present hard times. Many thanks.
Monthly Archives: November 2021
Lighthouse now collected in one volume
Brian Haberlin’s Lighthouse is now out in collected trade paperback and Kindle ebook. It’s a fine science-fiction graphic novel when you put all the issues together. The adaptation of Jules Verne’s The Lighthouse At The End of the World (1905) is fairly loose, and transfers the setting into the far-future and remote space. But the story grips right to the end.
A couple of the initial reviews of the first issue, by fly-by comics critics who have not returned to review the full run, were a bit sniffy and grudging. But I found Lighthouse great fun when read together as one completed graphic novel. It’s a little talky near the beginning, and you have to suspend disbelief. But it’s a good story, well told.
The art is made with the aid of Poser, which I suspect may have put a dampener on some reviews of #1.
In contrast, the one amateur reviewer who made it as far as issue #4 noted, in a long and positive review…
The interiors here are mindbogglingly gorgeous. I love seeing how detailed and extraordinary computer artwork can be nowadays. The linework is exquisite, and the varying weights and techniques being used to create this level & quality of detailed work are astonishingly brilliant. The use of backgrounds [and their creation of a] sense of scale and overall sense of size and scope is phenomenal.
That said, be warned that you might be put off by the trade paperback’s half-hearted front-cover. It seems as though the publisher for some reason wanted potential buyers to think it’s set at sea and underwater. On the website the additional background graphic also implies it’s a historical adaptation of Verne. It isn’t either.
There’s currently one short review of the October 2021 trade paperback, from poet Bernie Gourley, and he was pleased with the quality of the story…
I found the story compelling. The source premise of being far from help and at a severe disadvantage is thrilling.
I looked long and hard for proper reviews that stepped beyond a glance at #1. There are none from publications, though the couple of amateur reviewers (see above) are positive. It’s a bit sad that a comic of this scope and quality (not to mention technical innovation) can be all-but ignored by the comics establishment. But that is what seems to have happened here.
New for Poser and DAZ in November 2021
Time for another survey and pick of what was new for Poser and DAZ, in November 2021. As usual, freebies are only noted if the renders can be used commercially.
Science-fiction:
Grounds Add-On 1 and Grounds Add-On 2, both for Flinks Space 2 backgrounds + props set. A range of grounds for ‘moon landing’-type scenes and vignettes.
Wasteland Shop for Poser by 1971s, and there is also a DAZ version.
The Wasteland Shop is probably home to the guy who builds the Racing Cheetah robot NE-10-O. In OBJ, though, which is likely to only be good for static scenes. Still… good robot cats are rare, so I’ll mention it here.
Cyberpunk backstreet by 1971s, and there is also a DAZ version.
AJ Another World by AppleJack. Various useful additions to someone’s ‘alien foliage’ collection.
Sci-fi Desert Portals scene, in .OBJ on ArtStation so also good for Vue. Could be paired with the new Pharaonic Relics set for DAZ. Note also the excellent ‘tall ancient wall’ in the latter.
Fantasy:
Free Anime Slanted Eyebrows, also useful for faeries and Vulcans. These are LIE overlay images only, for the Layered Image Editor. Most people (including me until recently) have never heard of LIE, but it lurks within the Surfaces tab and for things like tattoos can be used as an alternative to a geoshell.
Head Monster for G8M, seven merchant-resource head-shape morphs.
Halloween:
The free OsoS Hulking Horror for DAZ. I assume it’s not fan-art.
MortemVetus has his Ultima Mortis M4 back online at Renderosity.
Christmas:
Happy Holideer for the HiveWire Mule Deer
A free Xmas Roof setting with iced-up chimmney.
Clothing:
A free Nutcracker Hat, also likely to be useful for Moebius-style sci-fi character uniforms.
Related to clothing, a pack of Fashion Catwalk Animations for G8.
Storybook:
A free Zottelchen and Zottel.
A free Inflatable Dolphin.
Toddler – Ginger Outfit, a ‘gingerbread man’ toddler costume.
Fallen Leaves – Scatters and Drifts also seems useful for storybook-type scenes.
History:
Burial Sites: Mound for Poser, an Ancient British style burial mound from Cybertenko. The grass is removable, so you could add Flink’s or take it to Vue as a Poser scene and use an ecosystem on it.
The new Corbelled Stone Hut might serve as a mound interior.
Reed Huts 2 for DAZ Studio. ‘Laketown’ style primitive stilt-huts and fishing platforms.
Stranded Pirate Ship scene.
A Dutch 19th century Wooden Rowing Kubboat, which would also have been seen in the waterlands around New York City until the 1920s.
dForce Victorian Gentleman Outfit for G8 and textures.
Free 1950s room-sized computers for Poser.
A 1990s type Urban Skatepark. Might also match with the new Dynamic Destruction Vol. 1 for DAZ, an abandoned building with Dynamic Destruction morphs.
Animals:
Cat Zeus, a chunky ginger grimalkin or ‘top cat’, with poses and dForce hair.
Songbird ReMix: Hummingbirds of North America pack.
Animations and Still Poses for Woolly Mammoth. There’s a video demo at YouTube.
Prehistoric Amphibian Diplocaulus and Dragonfly Prey for DAZ.
Shaders and textures:
A free body/face Cycles shaders for A3. In Poser, Blender’s Cycles renderer is renamed SuperFly, so it might have been named as ‘SuperFly Shaders for Aiko 3’.
A set of Handmade Textures for Use with G’MIC’s ‘Artistic Stylize’ filter.
Useful scripts:
Blender to Poser automatic converter, a Blender Python script to quickly extract just the content-asset from a Blender .blend file, and nothing else. Also uses Poser-friendly settings. (For Poser only, as the results are not DAZ-friendly).
Chain Control for Poser 12, for flexible/animated tails, whips and suchlike. Note that Poser 12 has Windows OS requirements for downloading scripts from Renderosity. Windows 7 users may not be able to get the script, even if they purchased it.
Copy Dynamic Hair Room Settings now has a Poser 12 version of the script. Scroll down the freestuff page to see the link.
Tutorials:
Mandelbulb 3D : Power Tips for Creating Fractal Worlds. With Scappin Matteo who’s an expert in the free Mandelbulb3D.
That’s it for November, more after Christmas! Please consider keeping a little bit of your Black Friday spend back, to go toward my Patreon instead. Even a few extra dollars a month is a great encouragement and a help with my many different projects. Many thanks.
‘Cyber Monday’: Octane, Lazy Nezumi, Turbosquid, Wacom
A quick look at what’s been added to the discounts, for ‘Cyber Monday’…
* Otoy has a small discount on its Octane renderer, both the annual Studio and Enterprise subscriptions.
* Lazy Nezumi Pro (a well-established brush-stabilizer plugin for Photoshop and others), 50% off. Mostly not needed now, but you may have a much-loved older version and want to upgrade.
* The expensive Turbosquid 3D models have 35-50% off, if you were hankering for something unique there.
* Wacom have good savings on their Intuos Pro drawing tablets, if you prefer a tablet rather than a pen-monitor.
No change at Flaming Pear, for their Flood 2 and Suns and Moon-generator Photoshop plugins. No discounts on the affordable comics production software Comic Life, or at the comics fonts stores. And JitBit Macro Recorder never moves in price.
Black Friday’s final dribbles: BVH to Cartoon Animator, painterly shader packs for Blender, Expressi, Udemy
* BVH to CrazyTalk Animator (now Cartoon Animator), a healthy discount and down to $10. Convert .BVH figure motion capture to animations for the G2 figures (not G3). Such things still work fine with G2 figures in Cartoon Animator.
* The Blender Market sale includes Painterly shader, Inkwood 2.0 – Ink Drawing Shader, and Pastelini 2.0 – Pastel Painting Eevee Shader.
* Expresii, Japanese-style brush-painting software. 30% off until 2nd December. Only at the Microsoft Store, seemingly.
* Udemy’s “Make Motion Comics” with Photoshop and After Effects (2 hours), and Poser Pro Game Dev Fundamentals (4 hours) which may still interest some. Both £10 each.
That’s it for now. I’ll be taking another look on ‘Cyber Monday’.
Black Friday rolls on: Moho animation software, Raffy Raffy, Skin for Keyshot, theHunter is free
* 40% off Lost Marble’s Moho animation software, formerly Smith Micro’s Anime Studio but now back with the original developers. Both 13.5 perpetual-licence versions are discounted, and you don’t get the sort of add-ons escalator cost ride you get with Reallusion. I assume buyers will also get the interesting Live Face update coming with 13.5.2. Though note also that the Poser import was bjorked in Moho after 12.5.
* Raffy Raffy’s fine big/fast Vue and Blender landscapes, half price. (ArtStation is very slow at present, presumably due to all the sale downloaders).
* Realistic Skin Shader for Keyshot, in the ArtStation sale.
* PD Howler 2020 (v13) is now discounted to $23 on ArtStation, should you specifically want 2020 for some reason, rather than 2021. Ideally it’s: 2021.3 (build 85) for Windows 7 and 8, and 2022 for later Windows users.
* Epic is giving away the excellent theHunter: Call of the Wild videogame for free. It’s too slow for many trigger-happy gamers, who expect to be potting bears and elk every 30 seconds. A player may not see anything for an hour or more, until you learn how to be stealthy and judge the wind. But for those who like ‘zen’ games it’s a very fine big open-world wilderness-walking and tracking simulator. You can of course use a camera if you want, rather than a rifle, so you won’t ‘harm’ the furry-ones. Runs on OS’s back to Windows 7.
No discounts yet for Flood 2 and the other Flaming Pear plugins, Keyshot, EvilInnocence, or Comic Life.
Black Friday surges: Realistic Paint Studio, Paintstorm, Rust-Icator for Poser, Transmutr
New today…
* Realistic Paint Studio at 50% off.
* Paintstorm Studio at 50% off.
* Rust-Icator for Poser at 50% off. Overlays without changing the original surface. Works with any texture you care to feed it, though obviously it comes with a set of rust overlay shaders.
* Transmutr, 50% off with BF2021 coupon code. “Convert various 3D formats to SketchUp files”, and there is a poly-reduction option.
Black Friday for Poser and DAZ: Renderosity, DAZ Store
* Black Friday sale at Renderosity. 50% off everything. Except software, obviously.
* DAZ supposedly have “up to” 60% off most items in the Store. Though most in my WishList are 30-50%, and I only see scattered 50%’s after the first page on a lowest-first sort. But they also have an ‘additional 30% off’ coupon-code for existing buyers at the store — click the orange message at the top of the main Store page to see your code.
‘Black Friday’ is here: DeviantArt Core, World Creator, Gaea, 3DCoatTextura
New since yesterday…
* DeviantArt has Core Membership at 50% off, until 1st December 2021.
* The real-time landscape maker World Creator has a 30% discount.
* The advanced landscape creator QuadSpinner Gaea has a 30% discount, until 3rd December 2021.
* 3DCoatTextura has a substantial discount until 29th November. It’s the cut-down version of 3DCoat 2021, the one with the new UI. The main 3DCoat is also on sale.
‘Black Friday’ keeps flying: Richard Rosenman, Clip Studio EX, Human Generator, Unity tooning packs, Naninovel, Sketchfab, HUM3D, mags
New since yesterday…
* Richard Rosenman has his excellent Photoshop plugins at 40% off, with the BLK40 coupon code.
* Clip Studio Paint, 41% off the multi-page EX version until 30th November 2021. Also the far commoner discount on the lesser version.
* Human Generator for Blender, 25% off with BIGUPDATE coupon code.
* Unity Asset Store, 50% off. Including the big two tooning packages Toony Colors Pro 2 and Flat Kit: Toon Shading and Water.
* 50% off Naninovel — Visual Novel Engine for Unity.
* 30% off Sketchfab Store purchases of 3D models, with the BLACKFRIDAY coupon code. Ends 28th November 2021.
* Hum3D have 50% off 3D models, and their HUM2D sister site has packs of vehicle cutouts of the sort you might drop into an architectural picture.
* 50% off a subscription to ImagineFX magazine. Ends 30th November 2021. And, for the pros and students, the same for 3D World magazine.
‘Black Friday’ keeps on rolling: Serif, EyeCandy, Nik Collection
New since yesterday…
* Serif currently has 30% off everything in its budget Affinity range.
* Modest but worth-having discounts on Eye Candy 7 for Photoshop. Should run even on older versions of Photoshop.
* DxO’s Nik Collection 4 for Photoshop is heavily discounted.
Further Black Friday sales: Instant Terra, E-cycles for Blender, Gigapixel AI, CorelDraw
* Instant Terra and Instant Terra Unlimited offers perpetual licenses at 50% off, until 29th November 2021. As I wrote a year ago… “this 3D landscape software offers fast procedural terrain generation and real-time preview, with a new World Browser module to ‘download elevation data for any region of the world and generate a corresponding terrain’ with isolines.”
* The addon E-Cycles renderer for Blender at… “(25% off) + pre-order discount (33% off) = $299 -> $149 using the coupon code ECBF!!!” I presume you leave off the !!! and the code is actually ECBF alone.
* Topaz Labs has a $99 bundle on GigaPixel AI, DeNoise and Sharpen. Having tested, the only one of those I rate is GigaPixel AI. If that’s you too, then switch to the regular store page where you’ll find GigaPixel AI for $75 (25% off) and can thus save yourself the extra $25.
* A small 15% discount and a small bonus for CorelDRAW, still a most capable illustration software and with a perpetual licence compared to *shudder* Adobe Illustrator. But be warned it needs the latest Windows OS’s.
* Already mentioned in a previous post, but there are now deeper discounts on DxO Viewpoint 3. If you need such a thing, this is an excellent and unique ‘one-trick pony’. It automatically straightens verticals and horizontals in room / architecture photos, which are often taken with curved lenses. It’s far more than just another ‘lens fixer’ plugin.
And coming soon, QuadSpinner’s well-reviewed and advanced Gaea landscape software will have Indie, Professional and Enterprise versions at 30% off, from 26th November to 3rd December 2021.
More Black Friday ‘live’ sales: KitBash 3D, AKVIS, Corel, Rebelle, XfrogPlants, PzDB
More Black Friday (26th November) sales that are currently ‘live’…
* Escape Motions has worth-having discounts on their flagship and latest Rebelle 4 watercolour painting software, and others. Rebelle 4 added realistic oils to the very realistic watercolours. Too realistic for some, as it basically requires you to learn how to paint in watercolours. Which is not easy for many.
* Corel has small Black Friday Deals on Painter Essentials and others. Mostly 10% to 15% off, and a couple of free bundles thrown in. Note that most of the Corel software now seems to require the latest Windows.
* AKVIS Black Friday 2021, offering 30% off including their worthy-but-expensive Photoshop plugins Sketch, Decorator, Charcoal etc.
* KitBash3D‘s 3D scene packs, with “50% off the entire store”.
* XfrogPlants have chunky discounts on bundles of pre-made 3D plants.
* The Poser third-party library indexer/finder PzDB for $20. If you’re a Poser user who hardly uses the later DAZ .DUF format, then you really only need 1.2 and not 1.3. Works fine with Poser 12, as it’s an external ‘drag and drop’ library. (May have problems with the latest Windows 10 and 11).
Previously:
DAZ freebies page updates
The DAZ freebies page has updated. Three Genesis 2 everyday outfits, some pose packs, one Genesis 2 hair.
Fantasy Attic’s Christmas page
Fantasy Attic’s Christmas Gift Page for 2021 is seeking nice donated Poser/DAZ freebies to give away, in the ‘Advent Calendar’ style page (one reveal per day, through to Christmas). Also 2D backgrounds etc.