Tag: Art

PixelORama is a free, open source (MIT licensed) pixel art application written using the Godot game engine in GDScript.  Version 0.5 was just recently released with the following features:

• Choosing between 6 tools – pencil, eraser, fill bucket, lighten/darken, color picker and rectangle select – and mapping them to both of your left and right mouse buttons.
• Different colors and brush sizes for each of the mouse buttons.
• Support of two types of custom brushes: “From files” and “per project” brushes. Custom brushes from files get loaded from the “Brushes” folder that comes with Pixelorama, and per project brushes get saved with the rectangle select tool.
• Creating a new canvas with a size of your choosing.
• Are you an animator? Then you’ve come to the right place! Pixelorama has its own Animation Timeline just for you!
• Import images and edit them inside Pixelorama. If you import multiple files, they will be added as individual animation frames.
• Export your gorgeous art in PNG format.
• Save snd open your projects as Pixelorama’s custom file format, .pxo
• Undo/Redo support!
• Horizontal & vertical mirrored drawing!
• Tile Mode for pattern creation!
• Split screen mode to see your masterpiece twice! And a mini canvas preview area to see it thrice!
• Create straight lines for pencil and eraser by holding down Shift while you draw.
• The middle mouse wheel isn’t forgotten, you can use it to pan around the canvas and by scrolling up and down, you can zoom in and out!
• Keyboard shortcuts! I’m pretty sure this is a lifesaver for most of you.
• Just like onions, Pixelorama has a multiple layer system! You can add, remove, move up and down, clone and merge as many layers as you like! It is also possible to rename them!
• Rulers and guides!
• Scale, crop and flip your images!
• Greek localization support!

You can learn more and download it here on Itch.io, while the source code is available on GitHub.  You can learn more and see Pixelorama in action in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TJ1WcCA6k&w=853&h=480]

Art GameDev News Godot Applications 2D

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Autodesk have just released their annual update to Maya, Maya 2020.  Detailed release notes are currently unavailable so all we have to go off right now is the press release features:

Maya 2020 highlights include:

— Over 60 animation features and updates to the graph editor and time slider.

— Cached Playback: Experience faster animation playback and more predictable results with new preview modes, layered dynamics caching, and more efficient caching of image planes.

— Animation bookmarks: Mark, organize, and navigate through specific events in time and frame playback ranges.

— Arnold GPU: Access Arnold 6 for production rendering on the CPU and GPU.

— Bifrost for Maya: Significant performance improvements, Cached Playback support, and new MPM cloth constraints bring even more power to the visual programming environment.

— Viewport improvements: Interact with and select dense geometry or a large number of smaller meshes faster in the viewport and UV editors.

— Modeling enhancements: Spend more time modeling and less time cleaning up your models, with new Remesh and Retopologize features.

— Rigging improvements: Simplify rig and character TD work with matrix-driven workflows, nodes for precisely tracking positions on deforming geometry, and a new GPU-accelerated wrap deformer.

While not currently updated, you will eventually be able to download a 30 day trial of Maya 2020 here.  Additionally Autodesk have released a short 4min feature video for Maya 2020 available here.  You can learn more about this release in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv45OPTnewg&w=853&h=480]

Art GameDev News 3D Applications

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Humble are running a new bundle of interest to game developers, specifically 2D animators.  The Humble Software Bundle: 2D Animation is based around two key pieces of software, Crazytalk 8 Standard and Crazytalk Animator 3 Pro, both from RealIllusion.  As always the bundle is broken into tiers, the tiers of this bundle are:

1$

• Face Filter 3
• Makeup PRO

18$

• CrazyTalk 8
• Dress Up Show Time
• Dress Up Work Wear
• Stylized Classic Avatars
• Garry Pye’s Comic Faces

25$

• CrazyTalk Animator 3 PRO
• G3 Animals Dogs
• G3 Human Motions – Smooth Moves
• G3 Animated Props – Fun Stuff
• G3 Elastic Motions – Come and Go

With Humble Bundles you can decide how your funds are distributed, choosing between the developer, Humble, charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GameFromScratch if you purchase using this link.  Check out the video below for more details on the bundle.  Stay tuned for more hands-on content with CrazyTalk and CrazyTalk Animator in the near future!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tXs27kdO9w&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Art 2D Applications

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Only a few months after the massive Blender 2.80 release, the Blender foundation have just released Blender 2.81.  Blender is an open source 3D application that is gaining a ton of traction in both film and games media.  The 2.81 release brings several new features including several quality of life improvements such as outliner and file dialog modernization as well as excellent new features like vastly improved sculpting and grease pencil brushes.

Highlight features of interest for game developers in this release include:

• Massively improve sculpting with new brushes, masking support, better usability and more
• Poly Build tool for rapid polygon creation and editing, excellent for retopology
• Quadriflow and Voxel remeshing
• Improved and more powerful mirroring support
• UI improvements including:
• Outliner selection improvements, easy to select, multiselect and deselect objects
• Modern file browser that opens in a floating dialog window
• Powerful regex powered rename feature (F2 key)
• Grease pencil improvements including several new brushes
• Denoising improvements
• NVIDIA RTX support for realtime raytracing in Cycles
• and much, much more.

You can learn more about the release in the Blender 2.81 release notes available here.  Additionally CGCookie have put together a nice introduction to new features in this article.  Blender 2.81 is available for download here.

If you want to see Blender 2.81 in action, including the new Poly Build, sculpting tools, file dialog, outliner and more be sure to check out the video[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twWUdjdm-a8&w=853&h=480] below.

Art GameDev News Blender

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Today Epic Games have announced the acquisition of Quixel, the maker of the massive MegaScans PBR texturing library as well as texture creation and management tools Quixel Bridge and Mixer.  The acquisition is a gigantic boon for Unreal Engine developers, as they will get access to the massive texture libraries for free!  Additionally, even non-UE4 users benefit from this deal, as Megascans subscriptions are being improved and Mixer and Bridge 2020 are both being released for free!

Details from the Unreal Engine blog:

Today we are thrilled to announce that Quixel, creator of the world’s largest photogrammetry asset library and bundled toolset, has joined the Epic Games family!
Founded in 2011, Quixel is based in Sweden, and over 100 employees across six countries worldwide are joining the Epic Games team. Quixel’s products include Megascans, an extensive library of 2D and 3D photogrammetry assets, supported by companion applications Bridge and Mixer.

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As part of making the Quixel Megascans library of more than 10,000 assets free for all use with Unreal Engine, ten high-resolution packs have been shared today for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, as well as assets from the popular Iceland collection used in the “Rebirth” cinematic short. Additional asset packs will be made available for free on the Marketplace at a future date within the Unreal Engine 4.24 release timeframe.

And more details from the Quixel blog:

Megascans becomes free for use with Unreal Engine

The Megascans library is now completely free for use with Unreal Engine.

That means that if you are using Megascans with UE4, you get free, unlimited, and instant access to all of Megascans through Bridge and Mixer, and a wealth of Megascans packs on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Ten high-resolution packs have been shared today for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, with additional asset packs being made available for free on the Marketplace at a future date within the Unreal Engine 4.24 release timeframe. This way, you can access the content in whatever way you prefer.

If you’re using Megascans only with UE4, we’ll refund all of your subscriptions for 2019. If you have an active subscription, log in to find out how to obtain a refund. If you have made Megascans purchases in 2019, but do not have an active subscription, we’ll reach out to you regarding refunds.

Megascans subscription prices lowered for everyone

Furthermore, with the generous backing of Epic, we’re immediately slashing the pricing of Megascans, giving you nearly twice as much content to download, and removing the resolution cap—for everyone, regardless of what engine, DCC or renderer you love and rely on. We’re also giving you a refund for the remaining duration of your subscription period to allow you to hop onto one of our new plans. If you have an active subscription, log in to find out how to obtain a refund.

Bridge and Mixer 2020 will be 100% free for everyone

But that’s not all. Epic is helping us make the upcoming 2020 versions of Bridge and Mixer 100% free for everyone, with no subscription required and both fully featured. We are releasing these new free versions within a few weeks from now and I’m thrilled to finally be able to share with you the upcoming updates.

Excellent news all around!  If you want to learn more, be sure to check out our video below.  If you want to see Quixel in action, be sure to check out our earlier hands-on video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUxHzXFYAOs&w=853&h=480]

Art GameDev News Unreal Applications Tools 3D

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Two great pieces of news for Unreal Engine developers today.  First off, Epic Games have announced they are continuing the monthly Unreal Engine asset giveaway that they have been running for the previous year.   This means on the first Tuesday of each month, you have the opportunity to “buy” 5+ assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace for free.  Once “purchased” they are yours to keep forever.

The second news is that Unreal Engine are giving away $4 Million worth of assets from the game series Infinity Blade.  Details from the Unreal Engine blog:

In addition to renewing the program for another year, we’re celebrating this milestone with the release of five new asset packs from the award-winning Infinity Blade franchise, valued at $4 million in development investment. Along with seven previously released Infinity Blade packs, these free Infinity Blade assets are now available for use in Unreal Engine projects, for free, permanently.

Going forward, new featured free Marketplace content will be released on the first Tuesday of every month, and the catalog of permanently free assets will also continue to grow.

Lastly, mark your calendars for the Creator Appreciation Event, a special sale launching on Tuesday, November 5 in recognition of alumni who have contributed to the free content program in its first year.

It is not entirely clear if there will be free content on November the 5th, or if the Infinity Blade content is considered this months entry.  Regardless, stay tuned to GameFromScratch for ongoing coverage of Unreal Engine marketplace giveaways!  To learn more and see the new assets, check out the video below.

EDIT: In the official media release, it was clarified that there will in fact be a release on November 5th!

Epic Games today announced a year-long extension of featured free content via the Unreal Engine Marketplace, providing assets, tools, and plugins to accelerate the production of high-quality 3D games and experiences, at no cost to creators. New featured content will be released on the first Tuesday of every month beginning on November 5.

Stay tuned for ongoing coverage of the next year of UE4 content!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJzY_F-4SrM&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Art Unreal

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Talos is an open source Java based particle system creation tool powered by the LibGDX graphics framework.  The source code is available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 open source license, while the executable is available here in JAR format.  Currently there is a LibGDX runtime with hopefully more game engines to follow in the future.

Version 1.05 was just released with the following features:

• legacy libgdx particle file importer full functionality
• Modules can now be renamed with double click on the title
• Full Copy/Paste functionality for modules from emitter to the emitter. Works between different talos windows.
• Additive blend mode support in renderer and config properties for emitter
• Global dynamic user set vars (global scope input)
• Dynamic Drag point support for visualizing vector2 values in the preview window
• Filtered search drop-down for module creation
• Dropping curve in empty location auto-open’s module popup.
• Preview supports background and foreground images.
• Viewport width can be changed with exact numbers in input box instead of just scroll for zoom
• Particle in the preview window can be moved with right-click
• Module multi-select with rectangle hit, with SHIFT, and with Ctrl+A
• Categorized module list
• Some modules now have their default values exposed as input fields
• Performance numbers such as triangles, particle count, render times and more shown in preview
• Runtime: attached mode
• Runtime: loopable effects and support for API methods such as pause/start/stop allow completion
• Batch legacy import functionality
• Export for runtime format
• Settings dialog for default asset location
• Module Grouping with Ctrl+G, color and custom text for module groups
• Up & Down positioning for emitters.
• Fixed samples list to work, now you can see 3 example .tls in File->Samples menu
• Offset dynamic shape module
• Module to script in java code and manipulate inputs/outputs
• Beam Renderer module
• Random Input slot module
• Perlin Noise module
• From To to Position/Size/Rotation converter module

Given the new ability to import existing LibGDX particle effects, you can download plenty of examples to play around with in this project.  If you are interested in learning LibGDX be sure to check out our complete tutorial series available here.  To learn more about Talos and see it in action, check out the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXse8XQ1IQQ&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Art LibGDX Tools 2D

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