So, my “friend” recommended some software to me. RizomUV for mapping, Substance Painter for well, painting and Substance Designer for funky shaders both from Allegorithmic. In addition to this there are the bridges to take things between these and my modelling app. Fine, okay so far. Then there’s Connector, which allows me to browse and manage the models I have collected and the ones I’m making (bloody useful app actually.) For terrains, she sent me over to another site where I found something quite stunning, Gaea by Quadspinner, I’m still getting to grips with this one, but the algorithms driving the processes are fast and stunning, very fast. Of course, there’s also Marvelous Designer but…. sheesh. When does it stop?
Okay. This is good. Lots of powerful and relatively friendly software that has some serious thought and design in their construction. Of course, learning these things is challenging enough, learning them all together so they can be brought to play on models I intend distributing. Oh my. I used to curse the learning curve years ago, but now it’s a heck of a lot steeper. It is perhaps made easier that the software nowadays seems to be designed for the end user rather than some esoteric and eclectic arty plan of a lone developer high on something expensive. Makes learning much easier. But getting deeper into the programs to make them tick rather than just clicking things for amusement. That’s a tad harder.
I confess and admit that I have been having a lot of fun messing around with all these new toys – even if my bank account is screaming at me to STFN! Not to mention the growly noises my wife is making, especially when I mention that I need to update my modeller. Household budget? Who needs one of those?
In among the fun, there has also been some screaming. Amusingly not frustration at the software, most of which works precisely as expected and is surprisingly stable. I say surprisingly as I’m rather used to having to use software that is somewhat unstable and full of irritating bugs. No, the screaming is in frustration at my aged brain not being able to pick things up quickly enough.
So, my dear friend very kindly made me a cheat sheet for keyboard shortcuts for Rizom. BIG thanks for that. I then went on a google hunt to see if I could find similar things for other software. It’s actually very surprising how many very helpful people out there have constructed lists or graphics of keyboard shortcuts. It’s also surprising how MANY some software have. One useful site I stumbled on is Shortcut World. So, I’m going to link to it in this post because I suspect other people might find something useful there the same as I did. They have shortcuts for Windows, Mac and Linux software.
So, what exactly have I done? Bugger all. I’ve been poking around in software, importing, exporting, clicking on buttons to see what happens, and sometimes screaming because I can feel neurons committing suicide while they rush around trying to store so much new information that I’m becoming convinced my mind is running out of storage space.
Playing around in software is sometimes fun, and sometimes it’s like listening to CL4P-TP speaking.
