Software Gone Wild

SOFTWARE GONE WILD (or, Artistry For Less)

For students and/or starving artists, there ARE alternatives to plunking down $500.00 or more apiece for good graphics

programs. The following graphics programs and utilities are either free of charge or less than $130.00. All are stand-

alones, but usable with each other, or to augment programs like Photoshop, Bryce, Painter and Illustrator. While

these are low-cost or free, they're NOT low-rent; the output can look just as polished and slick as Photoshop's or

Quark's with enough talent & effort on the part of the users.

PROJECT DOGWAFFLE PULEEZE don't crab at us about the name; complain to the developers. That said, this

paint, video & digital editing program has many filters and video options. For those who want glitter or sequin effects,

its "Noise Generator" is even more precise than Photoshop's. Be aware that Dogwaffle has a SAVE but not SAVE

AS function in the freeware version (the commercial version is $125.00). To save versions of edited files, use EXPORT

in the FILE menu and forward the work to a graphics folder. Both versions are available at either www.thebest3d.com

or at www.3dcommune.com.

TERRAGEN Terragen is a terrain-generator from www.planetside.co.uk. For now, Terragen is free

or home use and makes near-photorealistic visualizations and landscapes. It does a fine job of rendering water, sun-

light and snow effects. The site also offers a plain-text user guide, along with advanced tutorials. The images look

better as ray-tracings, or matched with fractal programs for abstract effects. While commercial users can also use it

for free, the developer asks such users to link back to their website. Planetside released a paid ($299.00) version,

Terragen 2 and has released freeware version 9.43 but will not be adding significant features to it as their focus is now

their flagship, Terragen 2

POV-RAY One of the oldest ray-tracers around, POV-Ray is a freeware program that generates

beautiful, photo-realistic images, available at www.povray.org. As POV-Ray is compatible with numerous other formats,

we have had success using it together with Terragen, Dogwaffle, and Photoshop. Images can be saved as JPEGs or

GIFS, then refined with artistic effects applied in Photoshop, and have additional effects applied in Dogwaffle or Quark.

Besides the program, the POVRAY.ORG site also contains numerous tutorials as well as texture and plug-in resources

which are compatible with other programs besides POV-Ray.

THE GIMP GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a Linux paint and image editing software

ported to Windows around 2000. GIMP has a full set of presets and filters including some that create metallic, dayglo

& gel effects with type (some effects on our GALLERY page were made with GIMP). GIMP also does pencil, paint,

charcoal and brush stroke effects along with marble & plastic. Lastly, GIMP does great things with color including

transparencies and gradients. The best place to download GIMP is www.gimp.org, the official site. Other sites offer

GIMP, but the official site also has manuals and tutorials.

IRFANVIEW Current version 4.22, Irfanview is one of the older graphic image viewers. While the

basic program is available at www.tucows.com or www.cnet.com, the developer site www.irfanview.com is the best

place to obtain plugins or user manuals. The program can crop and edit images and apply color effects. It can also

re-size images. The latest version of this viewer has expanded support for various file formats, and the function list

has expanded as well.

APOPHYSIS For anyone who plays with fractals, this flame creator is available at www.apophysis.org.

This website offers the core Apophysis program, plus the latest beta version. It produces mathematically-generated

abstract designs which can be postworked in Photoshop or converted into Flash animations. They recently introduced

a 3D version of the program. The site also offers tutorials on more advanced effects, links to similar sites and plugins.

We attempted to showcase programs that are inexpensive or free, and are generally of use to mainstream users and

artists. If there are any programs that we overlooked, please let us know. We will add them to an expanded version

of this page.