The software side of Black Friday is starting to move slightly forward. Here’s a round-up of the current discounts I could find:
* The innovative and now greatly refined PD Howler 2021 and 2022 (aka Project Dogwaffle), both strongly improved and speeded up since any version you may have tried years or even decades ago. It’s a digital painting tool that’s especially good for landscape artists, but can also do Bryce-like 3D landscape creation/rendering, some superb particles (inc. particle brushes), animation, spline-based fast inking for comics (‘Penny Paint’ module), and much more. Bear in mind you may already have a copy of 2020 stashed away but not yet installed, as it was temporarily given away free in August 2021. However, that was build 37, a relatively early build, and later builds of 2020 have many further improvements including brushes working faster on larger canvases (build 50).
Windows 7 users should target the most recent version of 2020 (discounted to $29) or buy 2021 (at $30) and then ask for PD Howler 2021.3 (build 85) — which the changelog suggests was the ‘last good’ version before it went all ‘Windows 10’. Other purchasers should just go for the latest 2022 version, and they will also get a free Howler 2021 licence along with 2022 “and you are allowed and encouraged to give 2021 as a gift”. Nice, though bear in mind the recipient ideally needs to have lots of RAM and CPU threads available. If all they have is a dusty old laptop then they probably need the lightweight SAI2.
Actually it gets better. This sales page currently has 2022 for just $20, and presumably you also get the 2021 freebie with that(?).
* Humble Bundle: the Campaign Cartographer software, plus a lot of fantasy and some sci-fi map making packs that work with it. Two weeks left. Bear in mind there’s now a wide range of fantasy map-making software available, and the venerable Campaign Cartographer is by no means the only choice.
* 15% off Silo & Milo. Basically, you get a discount that covers your local sales tax.
* 10% off U-Render, which is kind of ‘Blender’s real-time Eevee, but for Cinema 4D’. Again, doing little more than covering some of your local sales tax, but any discount is welcome in these difficult times. Depending on how you can juggle the versions to align with each other, there may be a ‘Poser 11 – Poserfusion – Cinema 4D – U-render’ route in there somewhere.
* DxO ViewPoint for $50, down from $80. Automatically straightens the ‘fish eye’ camera-curvature lines in your architectural photos or renders, and does a fine job of it. Highly recommended if you want ‘architect magazine perfect’ verticals on pictures, and want it done in seconds.