I have just spent a few days playing with a new painting program. The program is called ArtRage, and version 1 has been around for quite a while and was free. Version 2 is the latest incarnation and there is still a free version, but now there is a version with more features that costs only US$20, I think that it worked out to about twenty six dollars Australian.

Anyway, the way that the paint works is excellent and it is very close to working with oil paint. I have just added a new image to the miscellaneous gallery that was done in ArtRage

I really recommend that you check out this program, download the free version and give it a try. It really is fun.

Xara have just announced the latest version of their vector based drawing software - Xara Xtreme Pro.

It has some great new features aimed at the professional user, check it out and download a demo by clicking on the image at the right.

If you are looking for a real bargain on 3D software then don't miss out on this, Bryce 6 for just US$6.00 (that is six dollars) OK so you need to be a DAZ platinum club member, but that will only cost you US$29.95, so you can pick up the very latest version of Bryce for a total of US$35.95

The normal price is US$99.95, so it is a really great offer. Click the picture below to find out more, this offer closes on November 20, 2006.

Junk e-mail is not from me
Unfortunately a lot of people are receiving junk e-mails which are using my domain name as part of the e-mail address. Do not open any of these e-mails as they are not from me. Just delete them

I do not send e-mails to anybody from my web site. I reply to genuine queries and that is all. From what I have been reading on the internet it is apparently very easy for people to do this sort of thing, have a look here for an explanation, it would also appear that it is virtually impossible to stop this from happening. It is also a problem for me as I have to deal with all of the ones that get bounced back as junk mail.

So all that I can do is offer this explanation about what is happening and hope that fate eventually deals with all of those people that misuse the Internet for their own illegal and/or immoral purposes.

Koolmoves 5 released. I have been using this program for some time now, and it is a very capable alternative to Macromedia Flash, at a much lower price.

You can read more about it, see some great examples, and download a free demo from the Koolmoves web site

Toon Boom Animation announced today the release of Toon Boom Studio V3. This release includes a number of new features and improvements to help you animate better!

Visit the Toon Boom website for more details and pricing

Well an update at last! but worth the wait. I have just added three new images to the Expression Gallery. And a new image to the Cinema 4D Gallery

I am also in the process of adding some more books to the booklist

Well I have just installed a new larger hard drive, and decided that it would be a good time to re-install the OS and software, and generally have a good clean out.

So I am slowly getting back to a state where I can start working again. I am still playing around with cartooning and animation stuff at the moment, but I do feel the 3D modelling urge starting to bite.

Anyway, before I forget, I have recently downloaded a new Flash creation tool called KoolMoves, it is very reasonably priced and initial experiments are looking good, I will tell you more as I get a handle on it. If you like you can download a trial version which actually will let you create Shockwave files, you just can't save your source files. You can find it at KoolMoves.Com

I have also installed a new guest book. This one is hosted on my site, the old one was pumping more and more random ads at visitors and only displaying signings for the last ten days, so if you haven't signed my guest book, or it's been a while since you did, you can sign it here, if you like.

Whoops, I've been busy working on the site but I've forgotten to update this page.

Anyway, I have added a new section The booklist where I have stared to write a brief description on some of the books that I find useful. So far There is a page for cartooning books and a page for books on animation. I will add more books as I get the time. I have also provided links to Amazon for each of the books, so you can go and check out what other people think of these books.

I have also added a new section on cartooning (as opposed to animation). This area is for stuff such as strip cartoons, single panel cartoons and comic books. There isn't too much in the cartooning section at the moment, but I have put a mini tutorial on drawing with Flash, this will be a series, and I will add more tutorials as they are created.

It is quite remarkable what can be achieved with Flash, from what appears to be a very limited set of tools, but they are very versatile, and the biggest advantage as far as I can see is that once you learn how to use the few tools available, you can just concentrate on the process of creation. I find I often get side tracked when using some of the major graphics programs, playing around with all of the extra tools and special effects.

Actually I have now gone back to Flash 3, for cartooning purposes. It has a very simple layout, it loads in about 1 second and really has all that you need for drawing cartoons. Even this cartoon drawing tutorial was created with Flash 3.

Well that's enough for now, back to the (Flash 3) drawing board.