Free 3D Modeling Progams - Great to use with Xara

[Gare]

Fortunately, I don't think there's an Administrator on tg anymore, so I'm going way O/T here.

One of the things I go on about in books is using not one, but several different programs when an inventive solution is needed to visualize something you have in your head. Although the programmers have really stretched the bounds of what a vector drawing program should be able to do with a bitmap image, I think you still need a good bitmap editor every once in a while, even when your work is all vector-based.

Here's a gem of a shareware program ArtWeaver Free. The thing is almost literally Photoshop version 5. And it has two important functions: Threshold and Posterize, under Image|Adjustments.

Now, Barb started this thread with my encouragement (because "free" is a good software price, and these apps don't compete with Xara), so I thought it would be logical for her worser half to pick up the mantle...which is in our living room at the moment.

I created this image by first loading a character in DazStudio and rendering it. I took the render into ArtWeaver and selectively posterized areas so it took on a comic strip-like tone. This was deliberate, this is what I wanted from my approach. I then used Xara's Bitmap Tracer, did a lot of cleaning up...because so far, it's been the programs and not the artist creating this, and here is an approach to working with anatomy in Xara, starting with your free application.



The point is you choose the shortest distance to achieving your artistic goal by working between applications, and then you have more time for pure experimentation. And even if you choose not to use the vector conversion itself, I think a posterized copy of an anatomic pose lends itself to learning a lot about the shading and lighting of the human body.

My Best,

Gary