the Dogwaffler of the moment, a sporadic newsletter for and about art with PD Howler, PD Artist and PD Particles

Hello again,

here is another update from the "Dogwaffler of the Moment", our sporadic newsletter about digital painting and animation as well as visual effects and exploring 3D creativity with Project Dogwaffle: PD Howler, PD Artist and PD Particles. You can see and learn more about the newsletter in prior, recent online editions, with added images and links to related videos, tutorials, free content and ideas, tips and tricks, and lots more. Start reading here to see all past newsletters:

Here's a brief summary of what's in it so far:

Automatic brush sizing while painting, based on Swap image
A new option under 'Grid setting' (where you also fine artist guides) which is called 'Z Scale Guide' allows the scale of a brush to be affected by the value seen in the Swap image underneath, while painting. This can be used in many clever ways to make the brush get smaller or larger automagically, based on where you paint. For example, a greyscale gradient that goes white to black from bottom to top will make grass brushes appear to get smaller further up, in the distance.

In the example shown here:

Left side: no change in the Swap image, so the brush sows at whatever size it currently has. (which of course can also be subject to tablet pressure and/or random size and speed-controlled size changes).
Middle segment: The gradient in the Swap image goes from white at bottom to black at top. The scaling by Swap (aka Z-scale) is making the brush image change size automagically. The darker the pixels in the Swap image, the smaller the brush size. This can be an efficient way to convey perspective size based on 'distance' for example for painting over a landscape photo or a 3D rendering.
Right segment: Here we have hidden the swap image from view. The net result is that you only see the brush strokes you made, and the size was automagically adjusted based on the hidden Swap image.

click image to enlarge

The Brush size can be enveloped.
There's a post effect for the brush stroke that resizes the brush along the path, with a graph editor to set the progression. Look for it in the View menu. More on this to come soon.

The symmetry tool now has a interactive center handle.
This allows you to see where the symmetry line is, and to grab and move it. Very intuitive.

The palette mixer now uses bristle brushes instead of the former mixing brush.
Fixed a bug where colors weren't picked on mouse down: The mouse had to move to pick a color.

Editing pigment based themes on the color picker now has the option to pick an RGB color in addition to preset pigments.

A much requested feature: Optipustic particles can now be scaled.
This makes it very easy to change their size so you can quickly change from drawing, for example, tufts of grass appearing small in a distance, and big nearby. Furthermore, that also allows it to scale like other brushes based on the brightness of the pixels in the Swap image, mentioned earlier.

Fixed a bug on the “Open a new palette mixer” feature where the Use Brush/Open/Save buttons were hidden.

New feature in Bristle brushes: Salt and Pepper
With this extra control, you can adjust the level of embossing to give the bristles a deeper cut into the paint.

click image to enlarge

Howler 10, Update 1 - RC26

Howler 10, Update 1: RC26

Leap Year Celebration

What's New in Howler 10 RC26?

New Tutorials / Videos

How to Unsubscribe - but that's so sad....!