marți, 23 decembrie 2014

Natron 1.0.0 stable released - free open source compositing software

Natron open source compositor
The open source (node-based) compositor Natron has just seen it's official 1.0.0 stable release, and it contains a long list of improvements.
OpenFX-focused processing in a 32bit float linear color pipeline, OpenColorIO-based color management, OpenImageIO-based support for DPX, EXR, TIFF, PNG etc.
Natron has received many improvements since the last published release candidate. You can see the change-log right here or in the About window within Natron.
This is the first stable release planned to be maintained.
The quick list of new features is:
  • much lower RAM footprint thanks to improved caching strategy;
  • new HSVTool node for color grading in HSV or color replacement, new HSVToRGB and RGBToHSV nodes;
  • new Saturation node to adjust just the color saturation;
  • new DiskCache node for caching a branch of a compositing tree to disk;
  • tracking is threaded now to deliver better performance.

Natron open source compositor
The following features are included in the plans for Natron v1.1 and already almost implemented:
  • Python 3 scripting: parameter expressions, user parameters, callbacks, groups, custom graphical user interface thanks to Pyside and overall control over the application.
  • Optical flow: This will be integrated with a set of different plug-ins handling motion vectors. The motion vectors will be generated with a VectorGenerator node and used within several effects such as Motion blur or Retiming.
  • ’G’mic integration: G’mic is a full featured image processing framework containing literally hundreds of effects. It will be proposed as a separate OpenFX plug-in not distributed with Natron due to license issues.
In the meantime, you can get more informations about the project and Natron more specifically in FAQ section.

Finally some videos:
Natron nodal compositing software on Ubuntu 15.04 linux


Space Moba making with Blender and Natron


Natron - Point Tracker Node

luni, 22 decembrie 2014

Giveaway - Ashampoo Office 2010 with portable version

Ashampoo Office 2010
Ashampoo Office 2010 is a powerful, efficient, yet easy to handle office software that serves the needs of both private users and companies. Create extensive documents fast and with total ease, streamline and enhance your spreadsheets with meaningful charts, and grab your audience’s attention with multimedia-based presentations.
With the word processor Ashampoo TextMaker, the spreadsheet Ashampoo PlanMaker, and the presentation graphics program Ashampoo Presentations, Ashampoo Office 2010 provides you with the most important applications for home and office use alike.
And best of all: you can simply install Ashampoo Office 2010 on a USB stick – and never leave your home without your office suite ever again
For portable version run: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Office 2010\usbstick.exe or %ProgramFiles%\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Office 2010\usbstick.exe

Ashampoo Office 2010 Ashampoo Office 2010

Download link available today:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ashampoo-office-2010/


More details: Ashampoo-Office-2010  


Download.com review - version 2012:
http://download.cnet.com/Ashampoo-Office-2012/3000-18483_4-10328479.html


Free alternatives:  

miercuri, 17 decembrie 2014

Giveaway - My Music Collection

My Music Collection
My Music Collection provides you with an innovative way to organize and manage your CDs, vinyl records and other media. This music collection software is designed to meet the needs any kind of collectors – from home users with large collections to professional DJs.
This music collection software provides options for adding either CDs or vinyl records. Simply insert a CD and My Music Software will automatically pull all information from several online databases. The program also does an excellent job in searching through, filtering and managing your music collection. You can create as many user-defined tracking categories as you want, and attach as many of these as you want to any CD, record or track.

Download link available today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/my-music-collection-1-0-2-34/

Free alternatives: 

marți, 16 decembrie 2014

Krita stable beta 2.9 - digital painting

Krita
Krita version 2.9, currently in public beta, brings a long list of improvements to the paint package’s UI and overall workflow, along with a revamped transform tool and a new colour selector.
The Krita team has released the first public beta of Krita 2.9, the latest release of the open-source paint package, adding a new Liquify tool, a new colour selector, and a lot of workflow improvements.
Krita has been steadily adapting itself to a professional user base in recent releases, adding support for OpenColorIO and the option to export layered PSD files in version 2.6, and full Windows support in version 2.8.

New Transform tool, better brush tools, better colour handling
The most significant single feature is probably the revamped Transform tool, which now supports Perspective, Cage and Liquify transformations. There is also a new non-destructive transformation mask type.
Changes to the brush tools include better anti-aliasing and the long-awaited separation of Flow and Opacity. Colour handling has also been overhauled, with a new colour selector with sliders for every colour model.
UI improvements and file format support
There are also a lot of changes affecting overall workflow: the option to open more than one image in a window, or the same image in multiple windows, is one that many artists will find important.
The release also improves support for RAW and PSD files, with all but four PSD blending modes supported.
Photoshop layer styles and layer masks – a target of Krita’s successful recent Kickstarter campaign – are not suppported in version 2.9, but should follow by the end of January.
Availability
Krita 2.9 Beta 1 is available now. Stable builds are available for Linux and Windows; Mac OS X users get an unofficial build missing some features, particularly in the brush engine.
Krita Sketch and Krita Gemini, which provide touch support on suitable devices, have been disabled in the beta version, but should be restated in the final release, which is due in January.

More details: https://krita.org/item/krita-2-9-first-beta-released/

Giveaway - AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro

AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro
AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro is a complete, simple, and reliable partition software and disk manager for Windows PCs and laptops. It brings a set of powerful tools to maximize disk space use and improve overall performance of your computer.

Key features:

  • Change Partition Size: extend, shrink, merge, split partitions, and allocate free space from one partition to another
  • Easy Wizards: Extend Partition Wizard, Partition Copy Wizard, Disk Copy Wizard, and Partition Recovery Wizard
  • System Migration: migrate your OS from an old HDD to a new SSD or HDD, supporting MBR and GPT disks
  • Safe Converters: convert MBR to GPT disk, convert dynamic disk to basic, convert NTFS to FAT32, and convert primary to logical partition
  • Windows To Go Creator: build a portable and fully functional Windows 8 system on a USB flash drive
  • Make Bootable Disc: create a Windows PE bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive without installing Windows AIK
AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro - resize partition
Download link available today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/aomei-partition-assistant-pro-edition-5-5/

Standard edition review on Download.com: http://download.cnet.com/AOMEI-Partition-Assistant-Standard-Edition/3000-18512_4-75118871.html

Free alternatives:

joi, 11 decembrie 2014

Free Audio and Video converter

FreeMake Audio Converter

Audio Converter to MP3, M4A, WMA, WAV, AAC

Convert audio free between formats. Over 40 audio formats supported! Convert WMA to MP3, MP3 to M4A, WAV to MP3, MP3 to WMA, FLAC to MP3, AAC to MP3, M4A to MP3, OGG to MP3, APE to MP3.

Join Audio Files

Convert multiple audio files at once or merge several tracks into one for an endless playing. Make a medley free and easily with our music converter. Merge two MP3 files, combine several WMA audio tracks, join any OGG or FLAC files, etc.

Extract Audio from Video Files

Save soundtracks or convert music videos. DVD, H.264, AVI, MPEG, MP4, MKV, DIVX, MOV, WMV, VOB, 3GP, RM, QT, FLV, and 200+ video formats supported.

Download link (Audio Converter, Video Converter, Youtube Downloader, Youtube to MP3):
http://www.freemake.com/downloads/
 
The software is Adware (Freemium).
My advice: choose custom install and deselect the bundled software like various toolbars in the package.

Free Video Converter

FreeMake Video converter
Convert any video files: AVI, MP4, MKV, WMV, MPG, 3GP, 3G2, SWF, FLV, TOD, AVCHD, MOV, DV, RM, QT, TS, MTS, etc. Convert Fraps videos. Import music (MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV), and photos (JPG, BMP, PNG,GIF) to turn them into video free and easily!
CNET review rating - very good: http://download.cnet.com/Freemake-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-75218346.html

Convert Online Videos to MP3

Freemake video converter can rip online videos via URL copypaste from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and 50+ sites. Download YouTube to iTunes. Convert online FLV to MP3 or any format.

miercuri, 10 decembrie 2014

Darktable 1.6 - photo editor and manager


Darktable 1.6 photo editor and manager

Darktable is a free and open-source photography workflow application and raw developer similar to Adobe Lightroom. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
The new version 1.6 comes with a new Slideshow mode and some other interesting changes:
  • support for HiDPI/Retina display, plus there's an OSX build again;
  • support for arbitrarily sized images, 26770x13385 large TIFFs successfully tested;
  • TIFF support completely rewritten, reads and writes 32bit float files now;
  • JPEG files are exported with user-defined PPI value now (defaults to 300);
  • color space conversions got faster thank to using OpenMP via LittleCMS;
  • new defringe image processing filter added;
  • the levels and lens correct plugins got an auto mode;
  • linear Rec2020 is now available as a built-in profile.

Download link (MacOs, Linux): http://www.darktable.org/install/

Other free alternatives (Windows, MacOs, Linux):

luni, 8 decembrie 2014

Giveaway - Tipard DVD to MP4 Converter

Tipard DVD to MP4 Converter
Tipard DVD to MP4 Converter works great in converting any DVD into MP4, AVI, MOV and other popular digital video formats. After converting DVD with this converter, you can enjoy your DVD movies on your computer with video player. By selecting different profiles, you can even enjoy the DVD movies on your mobile devices. It supports most popular media player devices, including iPhone (iPhone 6/6 Plus/5/5s/4/4S/3GS), iPad (iPad Air/Air 2/mini/mini 2/mini 3, etc.), LG phone, HTC phone, Samsung phone (Galaxy series and Note series included), Sony Walkman, PSP, Creative Zen, Zune, Xbox, etc. It is able to convert DVD to MP4, AVI, M4V, MOV, WMV, FLV, 3GP, etc. and HD video formats including HD H.264, HD AVI, HD MPEG 4, HD MOV, etc. This DVD to MP4 Converter provides you various settings options which allow you to control the video quality you get after converting.
If you want to enjoy the music in DVD disc on your music player, you can also use this converter to convert the DVD to MP3, FLAC, AAC, AIFF, WMA and other popular audio formats. After converting, you can enjoy the DVD music on your music players. Also the settings allow you to define the acoustic quality of the output audio file.
Besides the basic converting function, Tipard DVD to MP4 Converter is an useful video editor which allows you to trim the DVD movie into clips, merge several chapters into one, adjust the video brightness, saturations, contrast, hue and add your own watermarks.

Download link available today: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/tipard-dvd-to-mp4-converter/

Free alternatives:

joi, 4 decembrie 2014

Giveaway - Sketch Drawer 2.0

Sketch Drawer 2.0
Sketch Drawer is a kind of photo editing software tool intended for converting photographs to pencil sketches. This program enables users to make usual photographs into exquisite pencil-drawn pictures, both black-and-white and colored. While creating a pencil sketch, you can choose your most preferred settings and options.
There are two ways you can edit photographs with SoftOrbits: manually and by aid of ready-made presets. These presets can be used as guides by beginners

Download link available today: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/sketchdrawer/

FotoSketcher
Free Alternative:
http://open-source-spot.blogspot.ro/2014/02/fotosketcher-275.html
- new version - FotoSketcher 2.99

miercuri, 3 decembrie 2014

GiveAway - Batch Inpaint

Batch Inpaint
Batch Inpaint is a batch version of Inpaint – photo processing and retouching tool. While removing an unwanted object from a photo with Inpaint is easy, it may still consume a lot of time if you have a whole bunch of pictures to process. Batch removal of typical objects from images is what Batch Inpaint is designed for.
Watermarks, time stamps, glitches, scratches, facial wrinkles, power lines, persons accidentally caught by the camera in the very moment of a shot and other things can be effortlessly erased from photos in automatic mode.

Download link available today: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/batchinpaint-2-2/

Free Alternatives:

 

marți, 2 decembrie 2014

Giveaway - Ashampoo Snap 7

Giveaway - Ashampoo Snap 7
Ashampoo Snap 7 is the smartest way to capture screenshots (images and video), add notes and annotations and share them.

Ashampoo Snap 7

capture images and videos right from your screen in seconds
  • Capture rectangular regions
  • Use free form capture for maximum flexibility
  • Use timers for interval capturing
Giveaway - Ashampoo Snap 7tools to express yourself visually
  • Get your message across with texts, hints and notes
  • Command attention with arrows, shapes and stamps
  • Use the pencil tool to draw freely
sharing becomes a breeze
  • Save your screenshots to common image formats
  • Create PDFs without extra tools
  • Upload to Facebook, Twitter and Ashampoo Webspace with ease
Ashampoo Snap 7 is ideal for beginners and professionals alike.
  • Experience visually intuitive controls
  • Enjoy smooth 1-click operations
  • Quickly access tools through the capture bar

Download link available today: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ashampoo-snap-7/