popwfx

I just tried to use v4.5 (the stable version I believe) and loaded a 3b file I've been using for painting on a low poly model (which works in my old 3dc albeit slowly) and it crashes 3DC with this dialog: I have an 8 Core Intel Xeon computer with an NVidia 570 and 24Gb of RAM Does 4.5 not work with older files? I really need to work on this file which has many paint/spec/bump layers. Any help is appreciated.

Look at the 3 points I listed above - I enumerate a number of horrible scenarios about how the cloud print (with NO option of offline print) is horrible. It's not just about privacy (as if that's unimportant anyway) but about control and costs.

So someone sets up a business on Etsy or whereever - you print things to sell, the prices are online, the company knows so much about your financials, they might as well do your taxes too. Sad, I just saw one of these machines working close up for the 1st time and it was very cool! Watching the laser engrave was neat - so this would have been cool if I didn't have to give up control of my data or autonomy for future creations. Hope someone makes an opensource one of these. I still might get one if they are 'jailbreakable' and work totally offline - but I think they designed it so all of the processing is done on their servers - so even a jailbreak wouldnt work...

Nevermind. Nothing to see here. Turns out the glowforge's firmware requires you to be online and authenticated to their cloud in order to print/cut anything at all! http://www.tested.com/tech/548192-going-depth-glowforge-laser-cutter/ how lame!! This means problems like: Security / Privacy - So if I pay $4K for a device, you're telling me I'm also submitting to their company and servers ALL of my content and IP that I want to print? My art, my inventions? If I have a business selling things they also know my financials by knowing how many times I print what widget?? This is a MAJOR invasion -why do they not only get to know what I print, but get to keep the digital source file of my many hours work that they can repurpose, analyze or submit to 3rd parties?? DRM / IP control - The can authorize or NOT what you can print - let"s say you want to engrave your macbook and Apple says no or you have to pay a license fee to modify your own property - guess what this isn't an ink jet or laser printer you can use offline. Boom you are shackled to only print every time with their permission! What if want to cut a piece or fab a part to fix or augment your Samsung product - nope not after these guys get u and running. What exact are you buying here - the honor of using your space, electricity, and bandwidth for them to sell you something? Uncontrollable Costs of Use - The cloud verifcation only means they can easily change their policy to charge you per print - or per material type you print - or even per millimeter of cutting done by the laser!! Fair enough that they might want to sell their own materials which may cut better- but to deny cutting or prohibit you from forecasting the return on investment with such policies is ridiculous. Consumers need to wake up and stop accepting unreasonable and unethical control and business practices just to be an early adopter. Open source hardware is so much more freeing - we need more of it. Very disappointed that such cool tech is intentionally (read the article in the link above) crippled and used in such a controlling manner...

This looks really cool - as long as the thing is stable and likely to last 3-5yrs minimum then I think it is worth the price! I'm lusting after the pro version which has the airfilter built in. http://glowforge.com/ Plus the simple mode where it cuts where a sharpie draw lines are is pure usability genius for those times you don't need precision and just want to get something done quick.

The link I put says specifically: Trapcode Suite: Usually $899. Get it on sale for just $540 Color Suite: Usually $599. Get it on sale for just $360 PluralEyes: Usually $199. Get it on sale for just $120 Universe Annual: Usually $99. Get it on sale for just $60

Hey AbnRanger, That Red Giant 40% sale off everything is coming dec 9th http://www.redgiant.com/blog/2014/11/26/sale-our-40-off-sale-is-coming-dec-9/ Looks like the Trapcode Suite is $540 then...

Works well in Firefox 32.03! I like the interface. It's snappy and seems to work well. Would be awesome with textures or if that is too hard then options to view wireframes, antialiasing (for machines that can handle it), turn on smoothing, and or change lighting and view overall materials (or have different random flat color materials per surface), or have a checkerboard image display over UV mapped models. Having a stats panel for each model would be awesome as well as what the license is (copyrighted, gpl, free, whatever). Nice start though. I'm still working on obtaining the results I look for - I imagine that is the hardest thing, cataloging all the models and providing decent search results. But your UI is nice and responsive! Good work!

I mean I like the new autotopo tools in 3DC and all, but who here uses them for hero characters or key animateable assets? For background or static objects - yes. For my main characters or riggable assets - manual is the only way. Am I missing something? I don't think autotopo can work (I mean be ideal) for something if it has no idea where the bones are going or how you intend to deform the object.

That's great as long as nothing that is currently there breaks - we must keep 3DC's current manual retopo in place in addition to anything new. I really like it and nothing I've played with feels as nice. I'd rather not have it replaced - but am always happy for other options...

Is 3DC's pbr going to be bakeable to maps at all? Or alternatively, can its pbr be exported to Unity's pbr? I have no idea if these shaders or whatever are implemented differently by different apps or if it's the same in anything that claims to do pbr... Can someone please shed some light on this for me? (no pun intended)

I might be misunderstanding your humor, but yes, I think there has been a somewhat slow progression of exciting features in media apps the past few years. Really only boring, nothing features appearing, not the revolutionary kind of things you see at SIGGRAPH or research based. Photogrammetry and point cloud cleanup/manipulation, depth camera output all need vast improvements. Everything still seems so archaic in the tools these days. that's one of the reasons I like 3DC, great almost revolutionary features are added far more often than with the big boys. and stuff that opens up your creativity and frees you to create content, not struggle with workflow or techniques only necessary because of lame interfaces and algorithms. 3D scanning and printing is still way too "fiddly" and time consuming - bordering on bleary-eyed tedium. When is the 3D renaissance coming?? This planet needs more geniuses

I'm not saying it's not a good proposition for those that can't justify the cost (or make it back in project work), but they did NOT have to remove the option for perpetual licenses for those that do not want it. That part about it is control. And you haven't referenced the bigger question regardless of control, but that without upgrade fees, they have no incentive to improve the product, because what they are spending their time on developing is not new Photoshop features from research like SIGGRAPH, they are busy building cloud tech into the apps to allow for micro-transactions and the eventual nickle-and-diming to death of their customers. All that infrastructure on the back end and inside the app to measure and connect up on a feature basis takes away their dev time from features customers really need. They are building cash grab functionality now, not media content making functionality. I'm convinced any new exciting features will be drip fed from now on with that kind of a business model...

Unfortunately, no, I haven't tried Turbulence yet - mostly because I've been pretty happy with Particular. There are some great tutorials to do nice enough fire/smoke out there for it, and I've had a lot of luck with it without spending too much time fiddling or fighting to get what effect I want like I do with most other plugins. Personally, I suggest the whole suite if you have a project that needs even more than one of them, as Starglow, Shine, & Stroke are "go-to" staples. and of course my favorite is Sound Keys, because I like to drive animations from music or speech - it often feels more organic that way. Dunno about the new pricing they have up there, I think I'm on v11.x and should probably upgrade to 12, but I've got nothing presently needing it, so I'll likely take the risk and see if something bigger happens around Black Friday or Xmas... But don't get me wrong, the 20% deal is a decent one, I've just seen them give bigger ones occasionally though.

Good to know. I try and avoid discussing my personal opinions online, but the cloud is evil. I keep waiting for Adobe to repent or another company to step up. Just like a drug pusher, they lure in the low-end customers with free/cheap first one then they have full control. Subscription licenses are about bleeding people dry in the long run and controlling their use of the software. Just watch and see if Adobe ever starts charging by filter usage or number of layers in a Photoshop document. The in-app purchases is where this business model is heading. The problem is you get rabid customers who maintain the $29/mo fee is way cheaper than the $500 so they insist it is better. This feeds the corporate idea that subscription models are more lucrative. With a subscription model, there is no incentive of a business to actually implement better features next version requiring an upgrade price. You are a captive audience and they become a utility service like your power company. When has your power company ever bettered your electricity service?? The only thing they do is raise prices for the exact same service year after year. But a capital one-off expenditure of a Perpetual is something you can plan for in a business - it's hard enough planning everything else in a business, I don't have time to plan how many filters I'm going to use or how many polygons and bones I can have in a scene. But that's where this is heading - to the in-app purchase hell that is currently smartphone app development...

If you're not in a hurry, sometimes in Nov, Red Giant offers 40% off all their stuff, they did the last few years - obviously I can't predict the future, so this is a good deal too, and I'd grab it now if you need it. Though I've been getting emails from them directly for a few years and at least twice hit them up during their 40% off sales. If I recall correctly, it was around black friday maybe? Often in April too they have a big sale. Good software for AE! Nice of you to share here - maybe we should all make a thread for Sales and promo codes to share with each other - I always check Twitter & retailmenot.com for promo codes before I buy anything online, and often get at least shipping free. But you tend to miss those one-off blog coupons or someone at some event...

I got that email too, but I got fooled a while back on their blatant cash grab for that deal they had going a couple years ago. But despite its previous good uses, Messiah just seems like abandonware to me and this email sounds like another fishy cash grab. I've stopped using it ages ago and don't see it's benefit as it doesn't seem like any decent attention is given to the software or their service.

thanks

Aren't there different PBR implementations in each program (although in theory, physically based rendering should be the same everywhere)? So how practical is it to do PBR in 3DC, and bring that asset over to Unity (which PBR isn't around until the yet to be released v5 right?) or whereever and have it look identical to how it looks in 3DC when you paint/texture it? Is it practical? Will there be implementation issues that would be analogous to "cross-browser compatibility hell" for web developers? Or is this a seamless thing among all apps once implemented?

Just a side note to counter AbnRanger (whom I generally agree with on many things), and many other's view on the separation of LW's model and animation apps - the 2 LightWave apps is not a big deal. I have used LW for many years (along with other many other apps in the pipeline) - and quite frankly, there is not just one app that is perfect, and this is not fanboy appreciation for LW - I have no loyalty to any software, just to the art it creates. But, I do agree that LW's architecture is getting rusty and it prevents them from updating as fast and to as cutting-edge stuff as what artists clamor for; but the separation of apps from Modeller and Layout is not the worst problem of LW at all. It is quite easy using the Hub (which does have its hiccups if you don't set up your install correctly), which makes working in Modeller and Layout easily feel like just one app on a fast machine. The Hub syncs models between the two running apps instantly and with no problem. So as Bugs Bunny says, "What's all the Hubbub, Bub?". Integration might cool if done correctly, but there are a lot more things LW needs before that. I mean I totally agree with a lot of the criticisms of LW, but by no means is the separation of apps its biggest issue. What makes LW such a great 3D solution is that it does the basics beautifully (though the definition of "the basics" is rapidly changing) and very easily. Its interface is getting dated, yes; but it is easy to use and uses real english words as opposed to the cluttered christmas tree collection of 16px icons that many other programs are. Is its character animation clunky? Physics integration among particles, cloth, fur etc clunky? Yes, but you can do a lot of stuff in it and solutions exist for many of its weaknesses. And is the future of the app and the LW brand uncertain as it becomes more and more marginalized in the industry and starting to be relegated to hobbyists? Heck yeah. Do I generally tell people I use LW? Not unless they specifically ask, I try to let the output speak for itself. But it works, is easy to use (way better than Blender if you ask me), renders beautifully, is solid as hell , and a good part of a balanced breakfast a series of apps you could use in your toolbox/workflow/pipeline. Why not use LW, 3DC, Zbrush, Modo and more if you can quickly and easily move between them? Is it ideal to have to move between apps? No. But there ain't a single, full, comprehensive app that can do everything nicely out there - including Max and Maya. They all have their strengths and weaknesses (and I do use Blender too for some tasks), but LW still packs a punch despite its murky future. Nothing touches 3DC's UV and Retopo that I've used, so why not incorporate it? Can I do everything in 3DC? Do I want 3DC to be a renderer? Do I need to Rig in 3DC? Not at all. I love what 3DC does and I see it as an awesome part of the media apps I use. The point is not to defend LW, as much as to clarify that it is still a very useful tool in your toolbox that is easy to use; and if you have even a modicum of 3D chops, you should easily be able to recoup the crossgrade price in a single project. So why not? TL;DR If you can afford it, it is worth it, despite its issues.

In relation to all this panel talk, is there a Trello / Mantis/feature request or anything for multi-monitor support? i.e. can the 3D viewport window be moved to a separate montior and then I can use the 2nd monitor for Texture viewport and all other panels/tools?

I prefer this option as well. The way photoshop lets you have icon callout panels that either auto-collapse or collapse on command is nice. The icon usage (with hover tooltip for text) is a good use of space too. If they were permanently dockable like Photoshop too with a double click on the tab to collapse the section that would be cool too.

How do you vote against something on Trello? Is it only a thumbs up or no vote? I generally like tabs, but in all the UI design I've dealt with, rotated text is not very usable, if you have to have thin tabs like that in those vertical tabs in that screenshot, then you should instead put icons with HORIZONTAL tool tips on the tabs. Rotated vertical text in a UI is a no go for me and I strongly suggest against instituting this paradigm in 3DC. That being said, I like the concept, just not the rotated text.

It says PSD import, can it import Photoshop shape layers with Photoshop styles (like Stroke & Gradient Overlay) convert that to vector information on import, and then export this as SVG? If so, i'll get it right away. There is a Photoshop plugin product SVGHero that does this but it only works with CC and not CS6. Also can you fully turn off all Cloud features in this app? Thx!

thanks - but do you uninstall too beforeo copying these files over?