Blender 2.71 Released

The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.71.
Much awaited new features for Cycles renderer include deformation motion blur, fire/smoke and volume rendering and a baking API. User interface now allows for draggable popups and resizable preview widgets. Animation has new interpolation types with “easing equations” presets.  Modeling now allows to “split normals” and Sculpting/Painting has new HSL color wheel and constant detail in dyntopo. Game development now allows deactivating logic bricks, multi-threaded animations, cast only materials and  “unlimited” action layers.  Freestyle NPR rendering has a new textured strokes feature, along with line sorting options.

Cycles Render

Deforming meshes, such as animated characters including hair, can now be motion blurred. Initial support for rendering fire and smoke is now available. Baking is now supported for Cycles! Volume Rendering branched path tracing now renders direct lighting for volumes with less noise but longer render time per sample. Overall render time for the same noise level should be reduced in most cases. Several generic and CPU optimizations. The Branched Path integrator now samples all lights for indirect bounces, instead of picking one. Nodes and CUDA improvements.

User interface

New brush previews for the Texture Paint mode. OpenGL Render options moved inside the Info Editor -> Render menu, among the OpenGL Render / Animation operators, consistent for Blender Internal and Cycles. Dragging popups by their title area is now possible. Material, texture, etc. preview widgets are now resizable.

Animation

Added support for a number of new interpolation types, that define a number of “easing equations” which reduce the amount of manual work to achieve certain common effects. F-Curves speedups and fixes, also for Drivers, Armatures, Constraints. Transform constraint modified, so the mapping factors get valid units which, unfortunately, brings compatibility issues with older files. Several fixes and improvements to many animation editors and tools.

Modeling

New “split normals” to draw smooth/sharp edges/faces in the 3DView, and both Cycles and BI renderers, replaces the old AutoSmooth/Angle settings for BI. Set edges smooth/sharp moved in the Shading panel of 3DView tools, new smooth/sharp vertices tools.

Sculpting/Painting

Added support for HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) based color wheel, which allows easy selection of color tints and shades of a certain color and colors have similar intensity on a given lightness. Also, added support in dyntopo sculpting for constant detail, a tool to help maintain the same level of detail across the mesh.

Game Development

New checkbox to deactivate sensors, controllers or actuators is added. It is useful during the game development phase to avoid delete any logic brick if you want to test something new. Skeletal mesh and shape key animations are now multi-threaded. Cast Only material option for shadows is now supported in Game Engine, and now “Unlimited” Action Layers are available.

Freestyle NPR Rendering

Added support for textured strokes,  one of long-awaited missing features: textures applied to Freestyle line behave much like Blender’s classic shading system, for stacking order, coordinate mapping and diffuse/alpha mapping with blending options. Style modules based on the Freestyle Python API can also make use of textures. Line styles now have a set of new options for sorting to rearrange the stacking order of lines.

More Features

New Bevel Factor Mapping allows to control the relation between bevel factors and the rendered start and end point of a beveled spline. Motion Tracking new distortion model “Division Model”  defines high distortion with only 2 parameters, much better for cameras with high distortion, such as GoPro with fisheye lenses. Main change in masking module was support of asymmetric and free handles

Feature Videos

For a visual demonstration of some of the new features in this release, check out the feature videos created during the development of this release.

Download link: http://www.blender.org/download/

Paint.net 4.0

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
 Paint.net 4.0. - final list of changes, features, improvements, and fixes:

• System Requirements
  • Windows 7 SP1 or newer is now required.
  • .NET Framework 4.5 is now required, and will be installed if needed.
  • A dual-core (or more!) processor is highly recommended.
  • Hardware acceleration (GPU) via Direct2D is now supported.
    • Please disable this in the Settings dialog if you experience visual artifacts.

• Performance
  • A brand new, asynchronous, fully multithreaded rendering engine allows performance to scale very well with respect to the number of CPU cores whether you have 2, 4, 6, or even 16 of them.
  • The responsiveness of the user interface has been greatly improved, especially when working with large images.
  • Memory usage is lower.
  • Improved battery life impact due to fixing the way the floating windows manage their transparency.
  • Startup performance when many plugins are installed is improved, thanks to the Multicore JIT feature introduced in .NET 4.5.

• Selections
  • Selections are now antialiased, which greatly improves the quality around the edges of selected content. You can turn this on and off at any time from the toolbar.
  • Everything related to selections now has much higher performance and greatly reduced CPU usage, especially if hardware acceleration (GPU) is enabled.
  • The selection outline is now rendered using the “dancing ants” animation, which greatly improves the contrast between it and the image itself.

• General
  • The functionality previously provided by the Utilities, Window, and Help menus has been simplified, consolidated, and moved to the top-right corner of the main window.
    
  • The image thumbnail list has been moved up 1 row so that it no longer intrudes into the current Tool’s toolbar space. This means it will no longer “jump around” when you switch between tools. This also means that it is aligned to the top of the monitor when the main window is maximized, making it easier to click on images (Fitt’s law).
  • The image thumbnail list can now be reordered with drag-and-drop.
  • A brand new Settings dialog makes it much easier to configure all the tool and toolbar defaults, among other things.
  • The zoom slider and units selector have been moved from the toolbar to the bottom right corner of the window (into the status bar).
  • Each image now shows up as its own taskbar item. This can be disabled in the Settings dialog with “Show image previews in the Windows taskbar.”
  • Layers can now be reordered with drag-and-drop.
  • Ctrl+Click on the Move Layer Up/Down buttons will now move a layer to the top/bottom, respectively.
  • Improved quality of Image->Resize.
  • Edit –> Copy Merged will copy all layers to the clipboard without having to use Image->Flatten first.
  • Copying to the clipboard now includes the “PNG” format, which allows transparency to survive from many popular applications (e.g. Office)
  • You can now use the middle mouse button to scroll/pan the image at any time (same functionality as holding down the spacebar along with clicking and dragging the mouse).
  • Shift+Backspace will now fill the selection with the secondary color (Backspace, the shortcut key for Edit -> Fill Selection, still fills with primary color as usual).
  • paint.net now shows up in Windows’ “Default Programs” control panel so you can configure its file type associations without reinstalling.
  • EXIF rotation metadata is now applied when opening images (e.g. JPG taken with a rotated camera).
  • Eleven (11) new languages, bringing the total to 21: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, and Spanish.
  • Crash logs are now stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\paint.net\CrashLogs (e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\paint.net\CrashLogs) instead of on the desktop.

• Effects
  • New effect: Photo -> Vignette.
  • Improved the quality of the Photo -> Red Eye Removal effect.
  • Improved UI for Layers -> Rotate/Zoom.
  • Effect plugins now show up with a jigsaw puzzle icon next to them in the menus. You can hover over the effect to see information about it, including the author and location of its DLL.
  • Errors while loading effect plugins are now displayed in the Settings dialog.

• Tools
  • Most Tools now support “fine-grained history.” You may adjust the properties of what you’ve drawn (e.g. colors, toolbar settings) before committing to the layer (use the “Finish” button or press Enter), and each change is tracked in the history.
  • Tools may now draw directly with a blending mode, configurable from the toolbar. All of the layer blending modes are supported, as well as “Overwrite.”
    
  • Drawing tools (Pencil, Paintbrush, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Recolor) now have much smoother mouse input handling via GetMouseMovePointsEx.
  • Brush tools (Paintbrush, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Recolor) now have soft brushes support via a “Hardness” setting in the toolbar.
  • The Move tools (Move Selected Pixels, Move Selection) have a much better UI for scaling, moving, and (especially) rotation.
  • The Move tools now support moving the rotation anchor, which changes the center of rotation.
  • The new Shapes tool replaces the Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, and Freeform shape tools. 27 shapes are currently available. You may move, resize, and rotate a shape, as well as reconfigure any other properties from the toolbar (color, outline size, etc.) before committing it to the layer.
  • Color Picker has a configurable sampling radius, and can sample from either the current layer or the whole image.
  • Gradient tool now supports a new Spiral gradient type and allows configuration of the repeat mode (none, repeat, wrapped).
  • Gradient tool has improved rendering quality via dithering and antialiasing. You can control both of these with the standard antialiasing toggle in the toolbar.
  • Magic Wand and Paint Bucket now allow live adjustment of Tolerance and the Origin (click location) after clicking (press Enter to commit/finish).
  • Magic Wand and Paint Bucket can now sample from either the current layer or the whole image.
  • Paint Bucket tool now supports anti-aliasing.
  • Recolor tool can now use the color of the pixel where you click as the color to be replaced. Or, as usual, it can use the secondary color.
  • Text tool now supports multiple rendering modes: Smooth, Sharp (Modern), and Sharp (Classic). These correspond to DirectWrite rendering modes of Outline, ClearType Natural Symmetric, and GDI Classic, respectively.
  • Text tool now supports colored fonts on Windows 8.1.
  
  Donwload link: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html#download
  

Giveaway - MultiView Inpaint 1.2

Every notable landmark seems to have one thing in common: tourists, and lots of them. Removing tourists or any unwanted objects from a photo used to be incredibly slow and tedious work. With Inpaint’s Multi View feature, all you have to do is take several shots of the same scene, assuming that the objects you want to remove are moving.
Once you’ve taken enough pictures so that every piece of the scenery is visible, just sit back and let Inpaint do the work.
No need for tripods or any special tools; and no need to worry about shaking hands when making the photos. Inpaint will take care of this and align your photos perfectly.


Download link available for today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/multiview-inpaint-1-2/

Giveaway - MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition

MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition is a piece of partition management software optimized for business environment with advanced features such as Merge Partition, Convert Dynamic disk to Basic disk and Change cluster size.
Business users and system administrators can use it to Resize Partition, Move Partition, Merge Partition, Extend Partition, Split Partition, Change Cluster Size, Copy Partition, CopyDisk, Create, Delete and Format partitions, Convert and Explore partitions, Hide and Unhide partitions, Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk and much more.
CNET rating: Outstanding


Download link available for today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/partition-wizard-pro-8-1-1/

Free alternatives: MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition

Canon has launched Digital Photo Professional (DPP) version 4.0 - free

Canon has launched Digital Photo Professional (DPP) 4.0, the first sweeping overhaul of Canon’s RAW processing software since its launch. The latest version of DPP has been updated with a raft of key changes to satisfy the most demanding of digital photographers.
Canon software engineers – having the unique advantage of being able to directly harness the power of the Canon sensors, DIGIC processors and lenses – have made the all-new Digital Photo Professional 4.0 a much faster, more dynamic, linear and feature-packed image editing software solution, thanks to the ability to fully utilise 64-bit architecture. The latest version of DPP has been designed and developed from the ground up, tailored to the workflows of professional and high-end amateurs to help them realise the key EOS System concepts of speed, ease of use and high image quality.
New, improved Canon algorithms have been optimised to make the most of the wealth of information delivered by the camera sensors, while productivity has been increased thanks to improved speed of RAW image display and developing that makes real-time image adjustment a reality.

DPP 4.0: ALL-NEW KEY FEATURES

• Faster, real-time adjustments.
• Improved RAW file workflow.
• Better, more approachable user interfaces.
• Compatible with 64-bit native environments.
• Colour adjustments for specific colour gamuts.
• Improved highlight recovery provides expanded tonality.
• Improved shadow recovery function.
• Support for movie playback.
• Auto Lighting Optimizer can be applied to JPEG images.
• Better integration with EOS Utility.

The all-new Digital Photo Professional has been re-engineered to give the most discerning photographers a far more comprehensive set of tools and functionalities to get the most from their images.

NEW COLOUR ADJUSTMENT PALETTE

A new colour adjustment palette allows hue, saturation and luminance adjustment for eight individual colour gamuts, enabling the user to adjust one specific colour in isolation without affecting the image as a whole. This is particularly useful when adjusting background tones in portraits, where there might previously have been a risk of giving a colour cast to skin tones, for example.

The all-new DPP 4.0 features faster real-time processing and offers a secondary image window, which can be used as a magnifier for detailed inspection of chosen areas of an image.

ENHANCED HIGHLIGHT FUNCTION

Canon software developers have re-engineered the processing algorithms to increase the freedom in tonal rendering. By adjusting highlights, it is now possible to reproduce tones such as those in clouds and peoples’ faces that would previously have appeared washed out.

DUAL DISPLAY SUPPORT

For those photographers with dual monitors, DPP 4.0 allows a secondary monitor to be used as the preview window on the primary display. While the main monitor can be used to perform delicate adjustments, a secondary image window for images can be used as a magnifier for closer inspection of part of an image.

BETTER EOS UTILITY INTEGRATION

With the launch of DDP 4.0 comes an updated EOS Utility 3 and the two pieces of software now offer better integration. The introduction of EOS Utility 3 makes it is possible to trigger the camera direct from the DPP tool palette as well as access to all the rest of the EOS Utility remote shooting functions without the need to start a separate application, thus enabling a more streamlined and integrated workflow.

CAMERA COMPATIBILITY AND OS SUPPORT

At launch, DPP 4.0 is compatible with Canon’s current range of full-frame DSLRs, including the EOS-1D X, EOS-1D C, EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 6D. For other models, an update of DPP 3.14 will be released.
Please note: DPP 4.0 will be compatible only with 64-bit OS, such as Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, plus Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.9.

More info - PDF manual: http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300015460/01/dpp-4-0-00-w-im-en.pdf

Download link: http://support-au.canon.com.au/contents/AU/EN/0200372802.html 

Giveaway - WonderFox DVD Video Converter

Want to enjoy a complete movie night with your family instead of waiting long time for conversion? WonderFox DVD Video Converter is the best choice, which provides one-stop total solution to Rip DVDs (Disney, Paramount, Sony Included), Convert videos(any formats), Download online videos, Edit and Play movies/video with excellent performance.

Main features:

• Support all of Encrypted DVDs and 100+ Video Formats;
• Faster Speed with 0-Quality-Loss;
• Online Video Downloader;
• Easily Merge, Clip, Crop Video and Add Special Effects;
• Smart fit video and audio parameter.

Download link available for today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/dvd-video-converter-6-5/

Free alternatives:

• Any-Video-Converter 
• HandBrake

Giveaway - CollageIt Pro

CollageIt Pro is an easy-to-use collage maker, which makes collage automatically. In a matter of seconds, this collage software can turn any ordinary photos into impressive collages. It excels with its ease of use and hugely reduces manual work.

Main features:

• Automatic, Easy to Use and Powerful;
• Various Collage Templates to Choose;
• Customize Photo Collages Freely;
• Share the Collage Anywhere.

Download link available for today:   http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/collageit-pro-1-9-3/

Giveaway - uRex DVD Ripper Platinum and WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe

Giveaway of the Day - uRex DVD Ripper Platinum 7.1

uRex DVD Ripper Platinum is a powerful, fast and stable DVD ripping software tool which works well on Windows. With this ideal DVD converter, you can easily convert protected DVD collections to AVI, WMV, MP4, MOV, M4V, MPG, WebM, etc. Or convert any DVD movies to iPad, iPhone, Samsung, Android, Sony, Nokia, HTC smartphones, tablets, Playback DVD on latest release devices, such as Samsung Galaxy S5, iPhone 5S/5C, HTC One M8 and more.

Download link available for today: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/urex-dvd-ripper-platinum-7-1/

Giveaway of the Day - WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe World Cup Edition

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe is once again free to GOTD users with up-to-date profiles, enhanced performance in YouTube movie/music video downloading and converting, new support for 4K resolution video files and more interface languages, e.g. Japanese, dansk, Deutsch, dspanol, francais, italiano, norsk and Portugues.

Download link available for today:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/winx-hdvideo-converter/

Free alternatives:

• Any-Video-Converter 
• HandBrake