The Dogwaffler of the Moment - a
Sporadic Newsletter
Lola!,.. 
oh oh...
oh Lua!
DogLua: Lua scripting comes to Project Dogwaffle.
issue #5 - late August 2005
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/newsletter/5
Here's another sporadic newsletter about visual art for and by artists using Project Dogwaffle and PD Pro Digital Painter, for kids of all ages who love to draw, sketch, animate and paint... but without the fumes, the mess and occasional spills.
removal instructions at the bottom of this page.
Hello again! It's been a hot summer in
Southern California, and the Fall season looks like it's heating up
too... graphically speaking. Here's a list of a few Dogwaffle
highlights from recent weeks.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you want to report Dogwaffle sightings, or be removed from this list. (though we'd miss you)
In this issue:
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you want to report Dogwaffle sightings, or be removed from this list. (though we'd miss you)
In this issue:
- Lua Scripting - project DogLua
- five new plugins - free Doggybag #4
- speed optimizations and MMX support
- new tool to make custom brushes: CopyShape
- new awards from Softpedia and Top-Shareware
- DOTM: Neo_Crisis (Manga) and Humbertico (game dev)
- reseller news and specials
- brush images by Manuel Zander, Trionix
- showcase: Martin Duerr
- happenings, user groups, events, shows
- survey: which Windows is best for waffling?
- famous last words
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There's a new major capability coming to Project Dogwaffle:
scripting with Lua.
DogLua is a scripting interface (plugin) for Lua scripting on Dogwaffle. It is being developed by Marco Pontello of Italy and has already seen the birth of another plugin by Dan Ritchie, the DogLuaBrowser, to simply pick up a lua script from a list and run it on the current buffer's image or the frames of an animation.
Lua scripting will allow developers to make experimental changes to their own algorithms and new plugins or filters. DogLua can be used with the freeware version 1.2 or the commercial versions 2 and PD Pro 3. Many of the scripts found on the GIMP gluas site are now also available under DogLua.
The development of DogLua has also prompted Boris of Artweaver.de to add lua scripting to hios Artweaver project. Sweet! More scripts for artists, more power for creative minds!
DogLua is a scripting interface (plugin) for Lua scripting on Dogwaffle. It is being developed by Marco Pontello of Italy and has already seen the birth of another plugin by Dan Ritchie, the DogLuaBrowser, to simply pick up a lua script from a list and run it on the current buffer's image or the frames of an animation.
Lua scripting will allow developers to make experimental changes to their own algorithms and new plugins or filters. DogLua can be used with the freeware version 1.2 or the commercial versions 2 and PD Pro 3. Many of the scripts found on the GIMP gluas site are now also available under DogLua.
The development of DogLua has also prompted Boris of Artweaver.de to add lua scripting to hios Artweaver project. Sweet! More scripts for artists, more power for creative minds!
A new doggybag is out - 5 brand-new plugins to enrich your Dogwaffle. You can now make your Dogwaffle image into your desktop's wallpaper. You can also isolate and work on just one channel at a time (red, green or blue). There's also a tool to improve compositing of image selections by changing the transitional color so that it will better blend with the next images. A brush related feathering tool was added, and yet another.... Check it out and add it to your plugins collection at http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/whatsnew/doggybag4
the red channel - as seen
through one of the new filters.
We're busy improving the speed of many filters. We're adding MMX support for accelerated graphics. Numerous filters ahve gone 'realtime', which means there's hardly a noticeable lag or delay and you can move the filter's parameter slider and immediately see the resulting effect as you move it. MMX was introduced a number of years ago as a standard multimedia library (MMX - Multi Media eXtension) and instruction set to allow for accelerated 2D graphics amongst others. Procvessors weren't as fast as nowadays, but even so it still helps to use MMX for some 2D graphics operations. Plus, using MMX is great for starving artists on old, slow computers.
The increased performance will initially come with the retail release this Fall, published by Fasttrak Software Publishing in the UK. Gradually, update patches and new releases will also carry these optimizations for download editions.
A new plugin is available from a 3rd party developer, which helps in quickly making geometric shapes controlled by a few parameters. These shapes can then be sent as raster images into the custom brush system, for use in painting.
The demo version is free and can make small brush images, already very useful for starters. If you're seriously interested in making your own brushes, then you should consider purchasing the license for the full version with many more features.
See more about CopyShape in the 3rdpartyplugins section.
Several download sites have taken a close look at our freeware version 1.2 of Project Dogwaffle, and some also looked at the demo version 3.1 of PD Pro. They liked what they saw. And some have told us that they're giving Dogwaffle the thumbs up, with 5-star awards. These include awards from SoftPedia, MaxxDownload and Top-Shareware. You can see more in the freeware section at www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free
6) New Dogwafflers
Christina Brooks, aka Neo_Crisis, is a student in Memphis, Tennessee who likes to draw Anime, Manga and fantasy art.
Burt Abreu, aka Humbertico, lives near Los Angeles and develops content for games, especially foliage based backgrounds, textures and sprites.
What do they have in common?
They both love using the same paint program for their artistic escapades!
See how they're using Project Dogwaffle to draw and paint, create foliage effects, make backgrounds, and more. See the DOTM section
Check our stores at BMT and Regnow for off-site discount specials during DragonCon.
Altech-Ads (Japan) has joined as a reseller through the RegNow.com affiliate system. Konichiwa! We look forward to the masters of Anime and Manga, fantasy and game art concept designers to show us how it's done!
You can find more stores and perhaps a familiar one for your online purchases at our Sales page: thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/sales
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/freebies/brushimages/trionix
9) Showcase: Martin Duerr, Cybersign.de
Here's an artist who's done a lot
of 3D work with Maya and Lightwave. He is also known amongst users of
Vue-d'Esprit, and other 3D tools for fantasy art. But the one thing
that sets him apart is that he's got also an immense appetite and
talent for plain old-school traditional painting... with pencils on
paper.
This is Martin Duerr, from Southern Germany, at www.Cybersign.de. You will find a lot of art about him at the newest issue of the German/US magazine, Art Scene International (www.art-scene-international.com) - and you may recognize him as a Dogwaffler. He's got a lot of his art in the DOTM section too:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/dotm/Cybersign
This is Martin Duerr, from Southern Germany, at www.Cybersign.de. You will find a lot of art about him at the newest issue of the German/US magazine, Art Scene International (www.art-scene-international.com) - and you may recognize him as a Dogwaffler. He's got a lot of his art in the DOTM section too:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/dotm/Cybersign
10) Happening, Events, Shows, User Groups....
We've had a presence at a few user groups and at the Southwest User group conference. You may have seen us at the BOF meeting during Siggraph. Or attended a seminar at Anime Expo in Anaheim. We also met new friends from Phil Yeh's organization, Cartoonists Across America. We're now preparing for DragonCon, which is in Atlanta early September (Labor Day weekend). Here are some upcoming events:
- DragonCon Atlanta
- AVSim San Diego - Flightsim and other games
- Tricity Computer Club Oceanside
- Los Angeles Computer Society
Did you know?
We went to Atlanta for DragonCon
with Olaf from Art-Scene-International!
... and participated in the Iron Artist
competition using mostly
Project Dogwaffle 3.2 (PD Pro) -
and we won!
11)Survey sez.... which Windows? which Dogwaffle?
We're having two surveys on the Dogwaffle forum at Yahoogroups: what version of Windows do you use? and what version of Dogwaffle?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogwaffle/polls
The Polls are still open. Note that these are totally anonymous.
12) Famous Last Words...
We can use all the help we can get to make Project Dogwaffle more powerful, more useful and even more enjoyable for your creative painting and drawing needs. As a very very small organization we don't have much power or many resources to advertise. We can't be in every magazine or on every online zine. We can't, but you can. You can help spread the word. If you visit forums or are a member of a user group, talk about Dogwaffle. If you show your artwork, or have your own website, describe the tools you use and why. Please talk about Dogwaffle, especially if you like it :-)
Every little bit will help and you'll know that you'll help other artists who are looking for an affordable or free creative toolkit. That's why we continue to make new plugins available for both the freeware version and the improved commercial versions.
In a few weeks we should have great new developments. As you may have read, Project Dogwaffle is going to be available in retail stores. We hope to have more news about this and other events in the next newsletter. Until then, have fun scripting with Lua, painting with Dogwaffle, and exploring your inner self, the artist within.
Happy waffling!
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