The Free (or really cheap) App Thread

[gare]

Okay, I'll go first:

ArtRage is ideal for those of us who can't afford Painter! It doesn't have layers or nozzles, but you can paint away using textured canvases, and an assortment of natural media. And you can trace a loaded image, and ArtRage chooses the colors for you. Mac and Win.

http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Let's all share, okay?

My Best,
Gare

[gare]

Microsoft has licensed technology from Washington State U. to present us with a free public beta of Paint.Net; http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/ . but you need to install Net Framework first.

In short, no, it's not even close to Photoshop, but has some of
the tools such as cloning, History, Layers, and layer modes. I guess the best news is that it's free. A possible annoying thing you can turn off, thank goodness, is palette transparency.

If you're on a really tight budget, pick it up--it takes up only 6MB of HD space (which says something; if it's so small, why is PSCS2 almost 600MB???). Xara should license it!


My Best,

Gare

[gare]

I haven't seen anyone else post this link, so here goes: Sandy Lodge created a free utility called Obaction Mover for Windows that quickly enables Poser v3 and up users to import an obj model as a fully jointed and poseable Poser figure.
http://www.sandylodge.demon.co.uk/
and this has been ported to the Mac, too...
http://www.lamarchefamily.net/nakedsoft/

The util is not exactly well-documented, so here goes my version: You use a Poser 4 figure as the seed model, specify your obj file as the difference model, and then Objaction Mover creates a hybrid file (the mesh becomes original, thus eliminating copyright issues). Take the new file and decode it, producing *.cr2, and a Poser resource file. Put them into the existing folders in Poser, access the new model through the Figures menu, Poser will prompt you for the obj resource file, tell it where it is, and then save out your new creation in Poser format.


My Best,

Gare

[gare]

It's Expression redoux, and it's free!

See some info at: http://photoshopnews.com/2005/06/10/...f-adobe-rival/

[gare]

See: http://www.download.com/Deep-Paint/3...ml?tag=lst-0-1
_________________
Pierre-Etienne Courtejoie

It's a 54MB download.

[gare]

I'm listing several places here, where you can get free, or reasonably-priced fonts. Support CottageWare!

All of these sites feature Mac and Win fonts, and I've not listed "grunge" fonts because the general novelty has worn thin, I believe.

http://www.blambot.com/
http://members.aol.com/fontner/
http://www.nicksfonts.com/


My Best,
Gare

[nitrobutler]

Check this site out!
It has many resources, From Brushes to Text generators! And more.
http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/

[gare]

Okay, most digital cameras save to jpeg, which means if? you alter the file in any way, including rotating, you further degrade the image if you save to jpeg. nxView is freeware, Windows, Mac, Pocket PC, and Linux, and can rotate a jpeg losslessly. And it's a very fast browser, and can call Photoshop faster than Adobe Bridge. [shhh]

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html

My Best,

Gare

[gare]

Check out morguefile.com. Many, many free for commercial use high-res stock photos, presumably recued from magazine morgues.

My Best,

Gary

[SCync]

Bumped into this really neat app. Great for 3D skinning or just for creating right sharp 2D textures. Great for web-heads looking for seamless tiling. There's a lot to learn, as the UI is pretty busy, but also pretty intuitive after you've tried a tutorial or two. Nice blending options.

You might want to poke around the site to get an idea of what it's all about. (Man does this guy need a lesson in site design! [shhh])
Give it a boo, if that rows your boat.

http://www.texturemaker.com/download.php