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All posts for the month February, 2012

Free Blender 3D Tutorials

Posted by wraylewis on February 25, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

3DBuzz.com is a great site to learn all about software for programming, 3D modeling and animaton, and game creation. (Yes, you can create your own 3D games in the free Blender software, or the free Unity software).

The folks at 3DBuzz have begun to focus in on Blender (about time), and have a set of 63 (yes 63) tutorials, each lasting from 4 minutes to 20 minutes, that do the best job i”ve seen yet on getting someone up to speed on this powerful software.

You can download them here.

If you’re a noob, Blender is a free open source program with powerful 3D creation, animation and video compositing tools.

See more at Blender.org.

Also, check out Sintel, an animated film made entirely with free open source software, primarily Blender.

Author Interview Tonight! AND Free eBook Today Only!

Posted by wraylewis on February 25, 2012
Posted in: WORDS. Leave a Comment

I am being interviewed live tonight at 8 pm EST here:

And, if you didn’t get Kelm’s Revenge, the first in my illustrated Nursodian Tales, the first time I offered it free, you can get it FREE TODAY ONLY at:
NOTE: you do not need a Kindle to read Kindle books. In fact, my Nursodian Tales look best on the new Kindle Fire or an iPad or an Android tablet or a computer (PC or MAC), since all pictures are black and white when you read them on legacy Kindles.
To get my stories, or any other Kindle ebooks, you first get a free reader app for your device here:
And, then, when it’s installed, use it to create a Kindle account (you use your existing Amazon account to “register” your device).
Now you can access and download ANY Kindle ebook, free or otherwise!
If you already have a Kindle, you can access any books you already own on the new device once it’s registered.

LibreOffice + Jutoh = Easy eBooks!

Posted by wraylewis on February 13, 2012
Posted in: GIMP, Jutoh, LibreOffice, LuxRender, Open Office, Pose2Lux, Poser, Scribus, WORDS. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

I just put my third eBook up on Amazon, and boy was it easy!

I’ve tried several routes to creating content and then putting it into EPUB (a number of eBook sellers use this) and MOBI (Amazon uses this) formats, with various levels of hassle.

This time, it was a cinch!

My story had original cover art, twelve original illustrations, 8,000 words, an acknowledgments section and an about the author section.

As usual, I created the graphics using Poser, Pose2Lux, Luxrender, GIMP, Preview, and, for the cover, Scribus.

I wrote the story using the FREE LibreOffice* suite, inserted the illustrations with ease, and saved it in ODT format.

Jutoh (all of $39) can import many different file formats, but is designed to most easily work with ODT. With (for me) a very short learning curve I was able to create both EPUB and MOBI files from the same ODT raw materials, check them for errors (didn’t find any) and preview them in both EPUB and Kindle readers – while still in Jutoh.

This makes tweaking layouts a snap!

Here’s a link to LibreOffice.

Here’s a link to Jutoh.

And, for what it’s worth, here’s a link to the story.

*LibreOffice is an offshoot of OpenOffice. OpenOffice also uses ODT as its native format. OpenOffice intellectual property is owned by Oracle, and has been donated to the Apache folks. Since OpenOffice is open source, the LibreOffice folks took off from there – many of them long-time volunteer developers of OpenOffiece. The two programs are quite compatible with each other. Right now LibreOffice seems a bit better, but we haven’t seen any new versions of OpenOffice from the Apache folks, so that could change at any time. Don’t we love competition!

Buddy Mondlock – Awesome Songwriter

Posted by wraylewis on February 12, 2012
Posted in: MUSIC, Singer/Songwriters. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

I know I keep going back to the Kerrville Music Festivals, but they are an incredible place to not only discover, but hang out with great songwriters.

One year, there was the kid from Chicago blowing everyone away around the campfires.

That was 25 years ago, and it was no surprise that he went on to co-write with Garth Brooks, Guy Clark and Art Garfunkle, to name just a few.

He’s been covered by Nancy Griffith, Janis Ian, Peter, Paul and Mary, David Wilcox — again just to name a few.

I got to hang out with him a bit back then, but not enough for him to remember me. I did have the great pleasure about a year ago to reconnect, and host Buddy with a house concert in my home!

Check him out here!

BTW, my favorite cover of his killer song The Kid is on the folk supergroup album Cry Cry Cry.  It’s still available on iTunes, and will introduce you to a range of great songwriters. Check it out as well!

 

Use Filter Forge For Artistic Image Borders

Posted by wraylewis on February 6, 2012
Posted in: ART, Filter Forge. Leave a Comment

NOTE: FILTER FORGE ADVERTISES ITSELF AS A PHOTOSHOP PLUGIN. THAT’S TRUE, BUT IT WORKS AS A STAND ALONE PROGRAM AS WELL. EVERYTHING I’VE DONE ON THIS SITE USES IT AS STANDALONE. I DON’T OWN PHOTOSHOP, I USE GIMP.

On the Filter Forge page on this blog, I showed how access to Filter Forge’s 8,600 filters can get you incredible textures for 3D projects. In a later blog comment, I showed how one of the filters can turn an image into a watercolor. Today, I’ve used a Filter Forge filter to give an image for my next Nursoda tale a dreamy, magical border. This is one of about 7 borders available with that filter.

Now, Filter Forge isn’t free, but right now the basic version sells for $59, and gives you access to all 8,606 filters they have online for download into the standalone program.

Over $800 Worth of 3D Software For FREE!

Posted by wraylewis on February 4, 2012
Posted in: ART, DAZ Studio. 2 comments

I HAVE NO FINANCIAL INTEREST IN ANY OF THIS. I PROMOTE FREE CREATIVE SOFTWARE IN GENERAL.

For a limited time, the folks at DAZ3D are offering three pieces of 3D software for free that have a combined list price of $830.

Now, these items often go on sale, but even then they have a combined price of about $400.

Here’s what they’re offering:

DAZ Studio 4 Pro. Entry level DAZ Studio 4 is always free, but the Pro version lists for $430, and goes on sale for around $200 from time to time. For the next few weeks, DAZ Studio 4 Pro  (including the 64 bit version) is free.

This not only lets you do 3D scenes and animations using existing assets, but includes a lot of extras, such as tools for creating DAZ content yourself, as well as a lot of exporters to other 3D programs.

Bryce 7 Pro lists for $250, and sometimes is on sales for just over $100. It allows you to create custom terrain and environments for your 3D scenes, and comes with a boatload of content – plants, rocks, skies etc. It’s also free for the next few weeks.

Lastly, Hexagon 2.5. It lists for $150, and sometimes can be had for around $70 or so. Hexagon is 3D modeling software, so you can use it to create your own props, and even create characters which can be rigged and animated using DAZ Studio Pro. Again, for the next few weeks, FREE!

Interested?  Then go here:

DAZ Freebies

BE PATIENT!!! As you go from page to page, add the items to your shopping cart (for $0.00), and then check out (no actual charge, and you don’t give them a credit card number for these freebies), it’s pretty slow.

As you might expect, they have a lot of traffic right now!