Useful graphic apps

Al Hart · 26 Oct 2010, 04:34

By the way, do you know how to turn a normal map into a bump map? I want to use Bitmap to Mesh with a normal map, but first I have to turn it into a bump map...

[Edit - I presumed you wanted to turn a mesh into a bump map - I may have answered the wrong question.]

We wrote a (not free) app to turn a mesh into a bump-map. The trick is to look at the mesh from head on and make the closer faces either brighter or darker. A bump map does not have colors, but uses intensity of gray scale to represent Z-distance offsets.

We did this by extracting all the faces and running them through an OpenGL renderer which turned the distance from the camera into shading intensity. This worked well, but it was hard to find a good application for it.

You might be able to get a similar effect by making the object white, using a parallel projection, turning off all lighting, turning off edges, and adding fog. Then the amount of fog should represent the distance from the camera plane, and product the bump map.

shura · 26 Oct 2010, 07:21

Thanks for sharing Pilou, Chaoscope is really beautiful!

Gaieus · 26 Oct 2010, 07:25

@al hart said:

You might be able to get a similar effect by making the object white, using a parallel projection, turning off all lighting, turning off edges, and adding fog. Then the amount of fog should represent the distance from the camera plane, and product the bump map.

I have made reasonable displacement maps like this actually. Best is to use hidden line face style (to get rid of face shading completely) and hide all edges in the style panel.

You may want to exaggerate the geometry a little bit to get the desired effect with the fog but grouping the whole thing and scaling along the Z axis makes it easy.

pilou · 26 Oct 2010, 07:27

Chaoscope
The more easiest program : 3 keys F3,F4 ESCAPE
Maybe a day it will gives the 3D Export
Usefull for make crazzy background

Click image if scroll bar

notareal · 30 Apr 2011, 15:47

MeshMan - Mesh Manipulator

(www.holmes3d.net)

@unknownuser said:

What is MeshMan?

MeshMan is a 3D modeling tool. It loads and manipulates 3D mesh geometry in a few useful ways. It supports multiple subdivision schemes for smoothing a mesh, decimation for thinning a mesh, transforms for rotating, scaling, or translating a mesh, can tessellate a mesh into triangles, and supports a few other minor manipulations.

The primary file format MeshMan works with is the OFF format, a simple format for storing 3D data. For more information on the OFF format, see the pages for my RoffView OFF viewing program and the related OFF Tools page. MeshMan works only with the most basic type of OFF files and does not load the texture coordinates that RoffView can handle. This is because handling that extra data is beyond the scope of MeshMan's manipulations. MeshMan can also open simple OBJ files, and can export to several other formats, including STL and PLY.

Burkhard · 4 May 2011, 20:42

@zacchia said:

sure this is very helpful if you work with a lot of files:
http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/index.asp
You can see all files as small tumbnails. It reads different files and you can also save them as different. Also convert files with batch command or polygon reduce with batch command and much more is possilbe. I could not be without it!

Skp files are only for 32 bit available

valerostudio · 19 Aug 2011, 12:31

http://www.artrage.com/Hands down one of the best 'painting' programs out there. The Ipad app is amazing and super cheap and the desktop versions are much much cheaper than Corel Painter and Artrage has all of the same functionalities.

Mike Lucey · 19 Aug 2011, 14:43

Thanks for the headsup on Artrage. I did not know it was now available for the iPad. Must check it out AND yes the iPad Apps are great value for money. This seems to be a GOOD trend. I imagine an app like Artrage would rock on the rumoured iPadHD

bjornkn · 19 Aug 2011, 21:22

A program I've been using for many years, but still not often mentioned is Xara http://xara.com
It comes in different versions, and is a very fast and nice vector drawing program as well as capable of doing a lot of bitmap editing as well. Great for materials as well as all kinds of images, brochures, pdfs, Flash animations etc.
And it is also excellent for making great web sites, which looks pretty much identical in all browsers - which is not an easy task to do by hand

EscapeArtist · 29 Oct 2011, 22:28

Don't know if this has been mentioned already:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/algoakekcdmbbikdjgjdahbfihboglmi?hl=en-US

For Chrome. 3DTin.

3eighty · 30 Oct 2011, 05:05

@zacchia said:

sure this is very helpful if you work with a lot of files:
http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/index.asp
You can see all files as small tumbnails. It reads different files and you can also save them as different. Also convert files with batch command or polygon reduce with batch command and much more is possilbe. I could not be without it!

Is there a free version someplace?

(edited by solo as free copy sounded suspect, I'm sure you meant version)

Pg09 · 30 Oct 2011, 12:27

Hello!
Is there a free panorama maker that i could use for my photos?

Jim · 30 Oct 2011, 12:41

@pg09 said:

Hello!
Is there a free panorama maker that i could use for my photos?

Hugin?

utiler · 30 Oct 2011, 22:40

@bjornkn said:

A program I've been using for many years, but still not often mentioned is Xara http://xara.com
It comes in different versions, and is a very fast and nice vector drawing program as well as capable of doing a lot of bitmap editing as well. Great for materials as well as all kinds of images, brochures, pdfs, Flash animations etc.
And it is also excellent for making great web sites, which looks pretty much identical in all browsers - which is not an easy task to do by hand

Ditto!!! Very powerful app!!

Pg09 · 5 Nov 2011, 17:54

@jim said:

@pg09 said:

Hello!
Is there a free panorama maker that i could use for my photos?

Hugin?

Nice, gonna try it.

Thank you!

RichardCherry · 22 Nov 2011, 20:38

Here is an app that I use quite frequently:
Wood Workshop (Freeware) by Spiral Graphics
http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm

It's not only great for creating wood textures it is also great for creating stone patterns as well. It has lot of flexibility and is quite powerful for freeware.

tridem · 23 Nov 2011, 08:18

that's great! I believe to have already saw and then forgot it, in the past. thanks

mitcorb · 24 Nov 2011, 13:59

I just visited the Spiralgraphics link that Richard Cherry suggested above and noted that there was a link to another app called Genetica with a Free, Pro, and Studio version. Genetica is similar, but with extended capabilities for those not familiar. I suggest checking it out. I would guess free capability with resolution up to 3000 x3000 would be ok with folks?

JMdesigns · 28 Nov 2011, 12:51

Great info

mitcorb · 4 Dec 2011, 14:24

@utiler:
Great find! Amazing extension for GIMP and also open source.