MyPaint, the open source 2d graphics program for digital painters, is looking for ideas and input for a new interface. If you ever got frustrated with UI elements of your favorite software, or wished things look this way or that way, now is your chance to post your ideas. The communities behind open source software will allow your voice to be heard low and clear.
Development
River Valley TV has posted speaker videos for the 2009 Libre Graphics Meeting held in Montreal last month. We blogged about the conference here. Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is an annual event where developers and users of open source art software gather to discuss the future of free graphics. The main projects are Scribus, Blender 3D, Krita, Inkscape, and The Gimp, but a number of representatives of other graphics software attend and speak.
Here is an incomplete list of videos to give you an idea of what was presented:
BlenderArt Magazine – Issue #20 just published. And check out the new website.
Inkscape News – Linux Fund has partnered with Inkscape developer Milosz Derezynski to improve the text tool by boosting rendering in font selector, providing numeric control over kerning and fixing several outstanding bugs. Milosz is already working actively on the project.
Blender 2.5 Animation Test – From Michael Fox, AKA Blenderlabrat.
SVGSlice – An Inkscape add-on that cuts and saves a portion of your Inkscape art. Very usefull for web design.
Posted by Chris
on February 27, 2009
3D, Blender, Development, Gimp, Inkscape, Meet Ups / Comments Off
3D, Blender, Development, Gimp, Inkscape, Meet Ups / Comments Off
Libre Graphics Meeting 2009 will be held from May 6-9 in Montreal, Canada. From the website:
“LGM 2009 is the fourth annual worldwide meeting of teams developing open source graphics applications. Designers, graphic artists and anyone involved in print production and/or web development are cordially invited to attend and meet the developers one to one.
LGM is all about participation. Artists and developers, feel free to bring your laptops and show us what you can (and can’t yet) do. Organise a BOF about your favourite project or feature. We’re aiming for a bazaar.”
As always, LGM is free and open to the public. Registrations begin on March 2nd.
The main projects at LGM are:
- Scribus – The page layout program.
- Blender – 3D modeling and animation.
- Inkscape – Vector Drawing.
- The Gimp – Photo manipulation and raster graphics.
- Krita – painting and drawing program.
But LGM will also be an environment dedicated to dozens of other free graphics programs. You can find more information at the website.
Blender.org has a road map for the hotly aniticipated 2.5 release. It looks like we can expect a release in probably August, maybe July at the earliest. They also have a summary of some highlights that will be in the release, including the much talked about UI design. If you can’t wait until the official release, you can download a development build from Graphicall.org. (Just be aware that these builds should be used for testing purposes only.)
Also, Michael Fox, has been posting some really good videos explaining some of the new features in 2.5. We blogged about them here and here.
The next release of Inkscape will be amazing. It’s been nearly a year since the last release. Usually when a program hasn’t been updated in that amount of time, it gets many wondering whether development has slowed or even halted. However, this is not the case with Inkscape. The developers have been working extremely hard since then and an impressive number of improvements and new features have been added. I won’t list all the changes here, but you can go to the Release Notes to find a complete list with details.
Read on to find out more of the ones that I’m excited about.
Ardour, a digital audio workstation for linux and mac osx, is no longer being sponsored financially by SAE. Paul Davis, Ardour’s lead developer, is now in a position of being paid solely by the donations and subscriptions made by the Ardour community. Since the normal amount of donations and subscriptions would be insufficient for Paul to support himself and his family, he is reaching out to the community for help. His goal is to raise $4,500 or $54,000 for the year.
Ardour is an important project in the Open Souce community. Please continue to support Ardour by donating what you can to this project. Every bit counts.
Michael Fox has posted another great and informative video preview of what’s new in the upcoming Blender 2.5 release. In this tour, he covers keying sets, threaded renderer, 4-way-split, operators and repeat last action, and menus.
We previously covered Micheal’s efforts here under January’s QuickHits.
Also, there is a lengthly forum topic over at BlenderArtists.org providing daily updates of what’s been added to the upcoming release.
And if you can’t wait for the official release, whose date is TBD, you can download nightly builds over at GraphicAll.org. Just be forewarned that these builds should be used for testing purposes only, and are not production ready. New features are incomplete and some old features may be broken.
In his blog, Fading Memories, Krita developer Boudewijn Rempt looks at the new features that will be in Krita 2.0. The next release, scheduled for early 2009, has been in development for nearly three years.
In case you don’t know, Krita is a paint and image manipulation program that likens itself more towards Corel Painter than Photoshop or The Gimp. Although not as full featured as Painter, Krita does offer some features not present in any other programs.
There are a plethora of new and exciting stuff added to 2.0, including:
- More brush engines
- New mixer canvas like in Painter
- Action recording
- Vector layers
Go on over Boudewijn’s site for all the details and explanations.
Bits of Blender #35-37 – After a long absence these short vidcasts are back with three new episodes. Bits of Blender are video tutorials of some basic Blender functions.
Openfootage.net – A great website offering free high resolution video and textures. The downloads are under a Creative Commons license that allows you to use for commercial and non-commercial uses.
Blender for Dummies – The book is now in stock at the Blender E-Shop.
Blender 2.5 Development Tour v.3 – Blender Labrat has posted the third video tour of what’s new in the historic Blender 2.5.
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