Graphics
Home architecture software
12/11/08
I need to make some cutout graphics of houses and so I took a run through the available software. Here are the ones that I considered. Read More...
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Converting Indesign to Scribus
01/09/08
Having recently had to convert an Indesign project to the ope source Scribus format I found the process a little time consuming but workable once I dug into the Scribus documentation. Sometimes the styles would be forgotten or incorrectly applied for text and adding CMYK text colors was a little complex but overall it worked well and I was able to create a Scribus version of my Indesign file. Read More...
Quick and simple 3d models with Google SketchUp
17/04/07
When I needed to make some simple 3d models of objects I started looking for some cheap (free) software to use. I know there is blender, art of illusion, wings 3d and a few others but they really seemed a little bit much for my simple needs. Then I came across the free SketchUp 6 software from Google.
Although the interface was not always obvious on what it was doing or could do, I found everything I needed searching through their online help or by watching their training videos. The only downside is that the free version can only export to the proprietary SKP or KMZ file format.
Google does offer a free viewer software for Windows and supposedly the latest version of Blender can import the KMZ file and then export it into another format. Otherwise you need to pay $100's for the Professional version of SketchUp to allow export in a few 3d formats (3ds, DWG, OBJ and more) or buy the Deep Exploration Standard Edition from Right Hemisphere. Deep Exploration additionally allow you to export the native SketchUp format to MANY other 3d formats while allowing some okay 3d manipulation as well. Unfortunately this also costs $100's.
Regardless, I found the quick manipulation of objects in SketchUp to be easy to learn and useful for creating quick visualizations.
Although the interface was not always obvious on what it was doing or could do, I found everything I needed searching through their online help or by watching their training videos. The only downside is that the free version can only export to the proprietary SKP or KMZ file format.
Google does offer a free viewer software for Windows and supposedly the latest version of Blender can import the KMZ file and then export it into another format. Otherwise you need to pay $100's for the Professional version of SketchUp to allow export in a few 3d formats (3ds, DWG, OBJ and more) or buy the Deep Exploration Standard Edition from Right Hemisphere. Deep Exploration additionally allow you to export the native SketchUp format to MANY other 3d formats while allowing some okay 3d manipulation as well. Unfortunately this also costs $100's.
Regardless, I found the quick manipulation of objects in SketchUp to be easy to learn and useful for creating quick visualizations.
Evil Adobe activation process for CS2 products
14/02/07
So, I upgraded my SATA PCI card in my Windows XP Pro computer and now all of my Adobe products are saying that they have become deactivated. Instantly none would work and would offer me the chance to activate over the Internet. The newest product that I had just purchased reactivated quickly but another, Indesign CS2 said there were too many activations and that I needed to call in to get a number change.
The automated phone system kept saying my numbers were incorrect. After 2 tries I decided to try the option to connect to a service agent, at which point the system hung up on me.
I do not consider this a way to treat customers of their expensive products. I am loosing work because of this very impressive activation process. I can only hope if I add memory to my computer or a newer firewire interface that everything will not break again. At least they could add a warning that your Adobe programs will become deactivated if you change anything about your computer. At the very least they can inform me of mow many activations I have left.Even my After Effects trial was instantly deactivated.
I'm trying again but I'm just listening to "What a night" and other music from their phone service instead of finishing work for my clients. Thanks Adobe.
The automated phone system kept saying my numbers were incorrect. After 2 tries I decided to try the option to connect to a service agent, at which point the system hung up on me.
I do not consider this a way to treat customers of their expensive products. I am loosing work because of this very impressive activation process. I can only hope if I add memory to my computer or a newer firewire interface that everything will not break again. At least they could add a warning that your Adobe programs will become deactivated if you change anything about your computer. At the very least they can inform me of mow many activations I have left.Even my After Effects trial was instantly deactivated.
I'm trying again but I'm just listening to "What a night" and other music from their phone service instead of finishing work for my clients. Thanks Adobe.
Making a family tree chart of everyone
18/08/06
I really thought this would be no big deal and that any software I used (currently Legacy 6) would allow me to make a chart of everyone in my family tree, even those distant cousins. Apparently that is not the case. You can pick someone and see their descendents or ancestors but you normally cannot pick more than one person and rarely can you see everyone.
Legacy sells a $40 add-in software to allow you to see a chart of everyone (more than the cost of the Legacy Family Tree software). However I have found at least 2 softwares that can do this. Family Tree Maker 2006 and Genbox. Oh, and I just heard that Family Historian can do this too though I have not tried their demo.
Since Family Tree Maker does not have a demo and seems to be associated with Ancestry.com (with whom I had a bad customer experience and later were the subject of a legal class action from others feeling the same way) I tried Genbox. Although it looks good and there were loads of configuration options, I do not know if I would want it as my main geneology storehouse.
That being said their "Everyone" chart was wonderful and they even had a convergent chart where you could pick from 2 or more people and chart where the family lines converge. Even better, the charts can be edited before printing by simply dragging people boxes around on the screen!
To make either work if you already have a geneology program, simply export your family tree to the generic Gedcom format and then reimport it into either of these 2 programs. Since Genbox has a 30 day demo anyone can quickly try it out to see if it meets their needs. And that either program is still cheaper than the single add-on by Legacy.
Legacy sells a $40 add-in software to allow you to see a chart of everyone (more than the cost of the Legacy Family Tree software). However I have found at least 2 softwares that can do this. Family Tree Maker 2006 and Genbox. Oh, and I just heard that Family Historian can do this too though I have not tried their demo.
Since Family Tree Maker does not have a demo and seems to be associated with Ancestry.com (with whom I had a bad customer experience and later were the subject of a legal class action from others feeling the same way) I tried Genbox. Although it looks good and there were loads of configuration options, I do not know if I would want it as my main geneology storehouse.
That being said their "Everyone" chart was wonderful and they even had a convergent chart where you could pick from 2 or more people and chart where the family lines converge. Even better, the charts can be edited before printing by simply dragging people boxes around on the screen!
To make either work if you already have a geneology program, simply export your family tree to the generic Gedcom format and then reimport it into either of these 2 programs. Since Genbox has a 30 day demo anyone can quickly try it out to see if it meets their needs. And that either program is still cheaper than the single add-on by Legacy.
Free HDRI images
12/08/06
Now that I am finally getting into my Vue 5 Esprit package I found that there were not many HDR (otherwise known as High Dynamic Range Imaging) images included. This great 3d rendering option can really enhance the lighting in a rendered 3d scene but it needs those fancy HDR images to work right.
Below is a list of websites that I found offering free HDR images, ideal for testing those new lighting effects.
Once you've downloaded the images that you want you can use them in Vue 5 by going to the Atmosphere Editor and choosing the Environment Mapping Model. Then, under the effects tab you can double click on the big black square to load either an existing HDR image from Vue's install or to browse your hard drive to find other HDR images (i.e. the ones you downloaded.) Oh, and after you accept the image Vue will ask you if you want to "automatically setup your scene for image based lighting?" and you should choose yes.
Add a nice metal sphere to your scene and see what things look like
Below is a list of websites that I found offering free HDR images, ideal for testing those new lighting effects.
- http://hdri.3dweave.com/
- http://www.hdrimaps.com/downloads.html
- http://www.evermotion.org/index.php?unfold_exclusive=84&unfold=exclusive
- http://debevec.org/Probes/
- http://www.shademaster.nl/
- http://www.3dvalley.com/textures.shtml
- http://www.aversis.be/extra_hdri/00.htm
- http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/10152791/
Once you've downloaded the images that you want you can use them in Vue 5 by going to the Atmosphere Editor and choosing the Environment Mapping Model. Then, under the effects tab you can double click on the big black square to load either an existing HDR image from Vue's install or to browse your hard drive to find other HDR images (i.e. the ones you downloaded.) Oh, and after you accept the image Vue will ask you if you want to "automatically setup your scene for image based lighting?" and you should choose yes.
Add a nice metal sphere to your scene and see what things look like
Using Linux for Vue network rendering
10/08/06
I have run 4.22 Rendercows of the 3d software Vue Esprit using Wine on knoppix. I saved the Rendercows on USB pen drives and just boot the systems off of a Knoppix CD. The computers don't even have hard drives... just memory, CDROM and the oh so tasty CPU. This should make for cheapy rendercows.
You should be able to boot those additional render cows using only the pen drive (if the motherboard supports it) or off of PXE bootable ethernet cards (ideal if the motherboard has these built-in). For under a grand you would be able to build an ok x4 RenderCowBarn (well I guess adding power supplies and cooling might make it a little more than a grand.)
You should be able to boot those additional render cows using only the pen drive (if the motherboard supports it) or off of PXE bootable ethernet cards (ideal if the motherboard has these built-in). For under a grand you would be able to build an ok x4 RenderCowBarn (well I guess adding power supplies and cooling might make it a little more than a grand.)
Vue 5 Esprit network rendering
09/08/06
I use the Vue 5 Esprit software for making 3d graphic images and animations. There is an add-on for network rendering that, when it works, drastically cuts the rendering time. Below are some of my tests using it over a wireless network.
Below are the test runs of rendercows (Vue's networking client) using the included 4Seasons.vue sample animation file set for 391 frames and 160x120 preview rendering.
So this would seem to say the following things
That being said I do not find the rendercows in Vue 5 very network friendly or stable. For instance the status would be irregular: stopping an unused rendercow would always give an alert saying that it was in the process of rendering, from the main Vue 5 machine, some clients were not showing their idle status correctly, rebooting one of my rendercow clients caused the Vue 5 program to quit without warning, client manager only shows names of connected devices, not IP or port numbers used, no simple network check to see if the remote computer is available (they just appear magically if they were previously used, no pre-existing list of the expected rendercows.)
Since the network rendering is sold in packs of 5 I can run one additional rendercow. When I get the chance I will have that one be on the other side of a VPN network.
- A1/A2 3Ghz hyperthreading machine (simulated 2 processor)
- B 1.7 Ghz Pentium
- C 2Ghz Celeron
Below are the test runs of rendercows (Vue's networking client) using the included 4Seasons.vue sample animation file set for 391 frames and 160x120 preview rendering.
17m25s - no network rendering on machine A
25m57s - Machine A with one rendercow running
8m13s - Machine A & B running rendercows
7m42s - Machine A running x2 rendercows and Machine B as well
4m25s - Machine A running x2 rendercows and Machines B & C as well
So this would seem to say the following things
- If you do not have additional machines, you are better off not using rendercow
- The rendercow seems to make good use of the hyperthreading already but there was still a small gain in speed when running x2 rendercows on a hyperthreading machine.
- Even on a low speed network (yes it is a wireless 802.11g but actual signal strength probably is not allowing me more than 20mbps) benefits can be significant.
That being said I do not find the rendercows in Vue 5 very network friendly or stable. For instance the status would be irregular: stopping an unused rendercow would always give an alert saying that it was in the process of rendering, from the main Vue 5 machine, some clients were not showing their idle status correctly, rebooting one of my rendercow clients caused the Vue 5 program to quit without warning, client manager only shows names of connected devices, not IP or port numbers used, no simple network check to see if the remote computer is available (they just appear magically if they were previously used, no pre-existing list of the expected rendercows.)
Since the network rendering is sold in packs of 5 I can run one additional rendercow. When I get the chance I will have that one be on the other side of a VPN network.
Looking for a design shop like CafePress
06/08/06
I have been wanting to take a look at some of the online design shops for making some customized items but I am having difficulties in tracking down the right company to work with.
There are so many customer comments on: customer services, final quality, shipping time/costs, retaining copyrights, setup fees and such that it is evidently becoming a work in progress.
Here are a list of the final shops that seem to be pretty well known.
I'll post more as soon as I decide which one to go with, at least for starters.
There are so many customer comments on: customer services, final quality, shipping time/costs, retaining copyrights, setup fees and such that it is evidently becoming a work in progress.
Here are a list of the final shops that seem to be pretty well known.
- CafePress (service issues, quality concerns & shipping time/cost)
- Spreadshirt (only one with a European center)
- Corporate Casuals
- CustomInk
- Zazzle (possibly signing away image rights)
- Embroidery Superstore
- Queensboro Shirt Company (Cheap embroidery setup)
I'll post more as soon as I decide which one to go with, at least for starters.
Quick 3d model tutorials
13/01/06
While looking for a convertor for VRML2 to anything useful (including textures) I came across Nendo at http://www.izware.com/nendo/.  While it did not import my VRML as advertised I chanced upon their howto section and suddenly was immersed in a very good tutorial on making a 3d airplane from a cube.
Very clean and easy to follow.  There's about 20 other tutorials and if they are anything like the first then they are well worth it.  The program is commercial for $49 but the tutorials can be seen in the free demo version. Well worth the looking at for a newbie to 3d models.
Very clean and easy to follow.  There's about 20 other tutorials and if they are anything like the first then they are well worth it.  The program is commercial for $49 but the tutorials can be seen in the free demo version. Well worth the looking at for a newbie to 3d models.
Make quick photo contact sheets in XP
27/11/05
When my father-in-law gives me these CD's he bought while traveling and said he wanted to see the photos that were on them. I thought it would be no problem and happily agreed. To my dismay there turned out to be nearly 2000 photos in various folders and I was at a loss.
I remembered that with Windows XP there was a way to select a photo and then use the Photo Printing Wizard of Windows XP but I could not get it to work on the folders I had chosen. Everytime I clicked on a folder the list of wizard tasks on the left never offered the print tasks.
So, finally, I discover that a folder can be identified as a "Picture" folder by right clicking on the folder, choosing customize and then selecting "Pictures" or "Photo Album".
However the trick is to do this to the folder above the folder where the photos are. This means that if the photos are in /home/photosnew/printme you need to make the "photosnew" a "Picture" folder. Then you can select one or more other folders inside of it and see the print picture wizard.
Once that was done I selected all of the folders and used the printing wizard to make a contact sheet for all 2000 photos. It came to about 63 pages (35 photos per page) but it looked good and all of the photos had their file names on them.
Note, the Photo Printing Wizard of Windows XP did not search deep into my folders. For example, some photos were in /home/photosnew/printme/originals and I was in the photosnew directory when I selected the other folders (2 levels higher). I had to move the photos from /originals to /printme and then everything went fine.
I remembered that with Windows XP there was a way to select a photo and then use the Photo Printing Wizard of Windows XP but I could not get it to work on the folders I had chosen. Everytime I clicked on a folder the list of wizard tasks on the left never offered the print tasks.
So, finally, I discover that a folder can be identified as a "Picture" folder by right clicking on the folder, choosing customize and then selecting "Pictures" or "Photo Album".
However the trick is to do this to the folder above the folder where the photos are. This means that if the photos are in /home/photosnew/printme you need to make the "photosnew" a "Picture" folder. Then you can select one or more other folders inside of it and see the print picture wizard.
Once that was done I selected all of the folders and used the printing wizard to make a contact sheet for all 2000 photos. It came to about 63 pages (35 photos per page) but it looked good and all of the photos had their file names on them.
Note, the Photo Printing Wizard of Windows XP did not search deep into my folders. For example, some photos were in /home/photosnew/printme/originals and I was in the photosnew directory when I selected the other folders (2 levels higher). I had to move the photos from /originals to /printme and then everything went fine.
Making Windows and MacOSX Icons
31/10/05
If you fall into one of those rare groups of people needing to make icons for both Windows and MacOSX the simplest solution I found was using the Axialis Icon Workshop. Not only can it save to both operating system formats it also has some nice image object tools to make fancy buttons really fast and starts at only $35usd.
While it is easy to convert icons between MacOSX/ Windows or to quickly make your own it seems horribly difficult to edit these icons later due to the lack of layer support. So, if you are only looking to make a few icons that cannot later be "tweaked" then this is not bad at $35. The included images also help to make it a very comfortable starter package for icon development.
There's a bunch of other stuff to do batch image conversions, a photoshop plugin, export packages for commercial sale or presentation but those are in the Corporate Edition which is $60usd.
While it is easy to convert icons between MacOSX/ Windows or to quickly make your own it seems horribly difficult to edit these icons later due to the lack of layer support. So, if you are only looking to make a few icons that cannot later be "tweaked" then this is not bad at $35. The included images also help to make it a very comfortable starter package for icon development.
There's a bunch of other stuff to do batch image conversions, a photoshop plugin, export packages for commercial sale or presentation but those are in the Corporate Edition which is $60usd.
Inkscape Limitations
25/10/05
Well, at first I was simply amazed by what Inkscape .42 could do for vector graphics. Flowing text inside vector outlines, easy to use gradients, great text kerning, and runs in Windows, MacOSX and Linux!
But then I wanted to make a PDF of the work I'd done and wham, bang lotsa problems. I had to export to postscript for the PDF but Inkscape does not export gradients or alpha channels. Also the touted "Perfectly compliant SVG format file" seems to have problems opening in Batik and other SVG viewers, seemingly because of text flow issues. Even without the gradients the A4 PS export always ended up being too big in the PDF output and so became cropped.
Supposedly I can export the PDF using Scribus (linux only Desktop Publishing Software) but I have yet to try that. I guess I will have to find a Knoppix CDROM to give it a try.
All I could finally do was try exporting PNGs and making PDF's of those... which sorta worked but the PDF file size was way to big.
So, it is nice for editing SVG directly and saving nice PNG's, maybe for making icons, logos, widgets... but otherwise I was loosing too much time to show the work to clients.
But then I wanted to make a PDF of the work I'd done and wham, bang lotsa problems. I had to export to postscript for the PDF but Inkscape does not export gradients or alpha channels. Also the touted "Perfectly compliant SVG format file" seems to have problems opening in Batik and other SVG viewers, seemingly because of text flow issues. Even without the gradients the A4 PS export always ended up being too big in the PDF output and so became cropped.
Supposedly I can export the PDF using Scribus (linux only Desktop Publishing Software) but I have yet to try that. I guess I will have to find a Knoppix CDROM to give it a try.
All I could finally do was try exporting PNGs and making PDF's of those... which sorta worked but the PDF file size was way to big.
So, it is nice for editing SVG directly and saving nice PNG's, maybe for making icons, logos, widgets... but otherwise I was loosing too much time to show the work to clients.