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Hey y'all!
I'm new to plugin making and as such want to ask what y'all which graphic design programs you would recommend for: 1) newbies, 2) those w/ more experience, and 3) advanced "designers." What would y'all recommend and why?
Thanx! Ace
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I recommend Mechanisto for all those who don't want to spend very much money (or indeed any at all). But it very much depends on your temprament whether you like it; some people seem to have never been able to get anywhere with the program. Then again, there are all these great (url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~squibix/ev")tutorials(/url) available these days...
Mechanisto is great for beginners, but is so unlike most graphic applications that it can be very hard to switch out of mechanisto later on, which you may want to do. It is a very good application (especially for EV Graphics) and is easily to learn for newbies.
I hear infini-d 4.5 is great, but I cannot find it anywhere. If you can get your hands on it, use that.
------------------ --ares (url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com/")Saber Studios(/url) -- (url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url)
"A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." -- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Personally, I use Mechanisto for making ship graphics and sprites. If you spend some time tinkering around with it you usually get the hand of it. Also the guides and tutorials really help beginners to Mechanisto. Some other programs I have heard of that are good are Strata3D, Amorphium, and Infini-D. I personally have only tried out Strata3D. I found it to be rather tricky, but it seams to make good graphics once you get the hang of it.
------------------ He would, after all, be an ambassador; between the old and the new-between the creatures of carbon and the creatures of metal who must one day supersede them. -a quote from Arthur C Clarke's short story, "A Meeting With Medusa"
Ok, I've already got Mechanisto, Mechanisto Helper, and I downloaded MechanistoTutorial, unstuffed it, but when I clicked on it, all I get is a message telling me "too large to be opened by simpletext." I dunno what to do about that. However, what about creating planets (such as seen from space)?
Thanx Ace
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Originally posted by CaptAceHarddrive: However, what about creating planets (such as seen from space)? (/B)
For drawing planets visit (url="http://"http://www.flamingpear.com/")http://www.flamingpear.com/(/url) and download yourself a copy of Lunar Cell. This photoshop plugin has to be the best program for creating pics of planets in absolutely no time at all.
-Edit- Oops I forgot to say that Lunar Cell isn't completely free, but for the quality of it's creations it's well worth the $20, or $40 for the entire space plugin pack.
(This message has been edited by Al Coholic (edited 12-13-2001).)
Originally posted by CaptAceHarddrive: **Hey y'all!
**
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Strata 3d (free)is easier to learn than Mechanisto and more powerful. (nb, the older Strata 3d is better than Strata 3d base, if you can still find it) Bryce is the standard choice for making landing pics (older versions are free occasionally with magazines) Some kind of image editor is also a requirement: Colorit is sometimes free Painter has appeared as a freebie on magazine covers Photoshop is the preferred choice for those who can afford it.
Graphic Converter (shareware) is a must.
------------------ M A R T I N • T U R N E R (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url)
Strata3d 3.0.2 (the version before it split into three parts) can be found on download.com, the last time I looked.
Color-It is essentially PhotoShop without layers to most beginners. If you can get it for free, then it's better than PhotoShop LE, the cheap version of PhotoShop, which has -no- undo history (THIS IS A BAD BAD THING Undo histories are your friends. ;)).
Infini-D is discontinued commercial software. It is possible to find it all over the internet, but it is illegal if you get it for free without permission from the author.
Another good modeler is PiXELS3D, which can be found on pixels.net. The slightly older version is free, however it is a tad buggy.
If you're going to buy something expensive, Bryce 5, I hear, is quite good for landscape modeling. Also, Cinema 4D has gotten excellent compliments from many people. If you want to get very expensive, you can get LightWave, which costs several thousand dollars, unless you are a student, in which case it only costs somewhere around $800 US. LightWave is about the best you're -possibly- going to want for EV/O/N graphic modeling.
Mechanisto isn't very powerful (though with enough skill, stuff can get quite cool with it), it's very different from other modelers, but it's free and small.
Hope this helps...
------------------ YakKa Foob MoG. GRuG PubbuWuP ZiNk WattooM GaZoRK. CHuMBLE SpuZz.
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **Graphic Converter (shareware) is a must.
i've got it, now what do i do with it.
i mean, not a tutorial, but what is it good for, i.e. doing 3D effects, creating sprites (i know it can make pics into mask really well, used it for my Starcraft conversion) ect.
------------------ Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -Isaac Asimov, Foundation "The loss enemies does not make up for the loss of friends." -Abraham Lincoln Everybody with telekinetic powers, raise my hand. -me GodÂ’s coming, and boy is she pissed!
Originally posted by Archon: **i've got it, now what do i do with it.
You're scary. Okay, first for converting graphics to the correct format for EVO. Also, for manipulating said graphics; cropping, shrinking, adjusting contrast, dithering, changing the CLUT...
But even more -- a graphic program is a useful adjunct to almost any 3D ap. You can create textures, you can create bump maps, in some programs you can create actual objects out of grey-scale data (or EPS file data...but that's a whole project in its own.)
------------------ everywhere else, it's -- "Nomuse"
Originally posted by Commander Arashi: **You're scary.
heyyy... sorry if i didn't know what it was for... they put it on our computers at school and never really told us what it was or what to do with it.
did i mention that i have a friend from berkeley? oops spelled berkeley wrong there ------------------ Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -Isaac Asimov, Foundation "The loss enemies does not make up for the loss of friends." -Abraham Lincoln Everybody with telekinetic powers, raise my hand. -me GodÂ’s coming, and boy is she pissed!
(This message has been edited by Archon (edited 12-13-2001).)
If you can get the $300 dollars or so, Cinema 4D XL, and Photoshop Elements academic versions are the way to go. C4D Go is also good route for cheap and Strata for Free. I started doing sprites in Graphic converter but with no history or layers it was quite a chore. You need Photoshop Elements.
------------------ (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/thorprime")NovaBurst Home(/url)
Originally posted by ThorPrime: **If you can get the $300 dollars or so, Cinema 4D XL, and Photoshop Elements academic versions are the way to go. C4D Go is also good route for cheap and Strata for Free. I started doing sprites in Graphic converter but with no history or layers it was quite a chore. You need Photoshop Elements.
I do love my PhotoShop 4.0 Don't know how I lived without layers. "Elements" misses a few bets, tho...no adjustment layers, for one. Yeah, I know, 4.0 doesn't have nested Undo, so... (Just last night was making some textures I photographed in Japan into seamless tiles and adding bump maps. They'll be on my site when done.)
Sorry if I was "abrupt," Archon. Please accept my post in the gentle humor it was intended. It just struck me as odd that someone would be striking off into the mountains of 3D modelling without having traversed the foothills of 2d graphics.
Seriously, tho, Graphic Converter belongs right beside ResEdit in the basic tool kit of any plug-in designer.
A proper suite, in my humble opinion, would include a good basic graphics program (Printshop, Photoshop 2.0 and above, etc), a low-end 3D modeller and renderer (Mechanisto, RenderBoy, Pixel 3d), a sound recorder and format converter (I still like D-soundPro, but SoundEdit is fairly cheap and SoundAp works fine), ResEdit with EVO-specific resource templates and guides (all available here), and a basic word proccessing program with spellcheck (Word is great, though SimpleText has it's uses; I do most of my HTML in SimpleText).
Originally posted by Commander Arashi: **a low-end 3D modeller and renderer (Mechanisto, RenderBoy, Pixel 3d), **
I don't think RenderBoy quite cuts it, I used that program for several years. I have made more progress in Mechanisto in a few months than with RenderBoy in those long, boring years.
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Originally posted by Colours: **I don't think RenderBoy quite cuts it, I used that program for several years. I have made more progress in Mechanisto in a few months than with RenderBoy in those long, boring years.
and you forgot to make a note about how pixels 3d is more of an mid-range 3D prog...
------------------ DeAdBoY- (url="http://"http://www.grybs.com/harzius")Harzius Productions(/url) (url="http://"http://www.IcedEarth.com")Iced Earth(/url) George Harrison, 1943-2001
Originally posted by DeAdBoY: **and you forgot to make a note about how pixels 3d is more of an mid-range 3D prog...
I did? Well, if that's the case, how kind of you to mention it.