Thursday, April 30, 2009

SDS Anniversary Special and Tutorial Contest!

I can't believe it's been a year since I released Subdivide and Smooth. To celebrate the anniversary of the plugin, I am dropping the price by 50%! for the month of May. That's only 11 bucks! Where do you get it? Right Here!

That's only half of the news! I am also announcing a tutorial contest! Submit a Subdivide and Smooth tutorial and you could win:

First Prize: $500!!! (US)
Second Prize: $100 (US)

Each honorable mention (maximum 3) will receive a free license to Profile Builder! I'm greatly looking forward to seeing the submissions. Thankyou so much for all the support over the past year!

Contest Rules

  1. Tutorial must take between 5 and 15 minutes for a typical user to complete.
  2. Tutorials for all skill levels will be accepted.
  3. Tutorials must be in a commonly used file format (eg. AVI, SKP, PDF)
  4. Contest Entrants give permission for redistributing (eg. uploading to Youtube) and modification to the tutorial and to use it for marketing purposes.
  5. Judges decision is final and not negotiable.
  6. Prize money will be transferred via Paypal only.
  7. Tutorials must be presented in English.
  8. Entries are limited to three per email address.
  9. Tutorials will be judged on the basis of usefullness, presentation, and clarity.
  10. No copyright or commercial material may be used.
  11. All entries must be received by 12:00am June 1, 2009 to be eligible.
  12. Results of the contest will be posted on the blog before June 15, 2009
  13. Prizes will be awarded before June 15, 2009. Winners must have a valid Paypal account.
  14. Contest entries and questions are to be submitted to subd@shaw.ca


Tuesday, April 28, 2009

SDS News Coming...

Watch this blog for some exciting Subdivide and Smooth news coming very soon.... :)

Indigo Going Commercial

So...the word is out. Indigo is transitioning into commercial software but will maintain a free version with some limitations (resolution, watermark). There have been mixed reactions to the move, but it seems that most users understand and accept the fact that Indigo probably could not stay free forever. I myself was a bit surprised at the move, not that I didn't think it would ever happen, but I didn't think it would happen now. No real advance notice was given to anyone except the beta testers who found out only a few days before the public announcement.

What does this mean for SkIndigo? Well, the other exporter writers and myself are currently negotiating a deal with Glare Technologies to make sure our efforts are properly compensated. I think we all want to be on this team. It is exciting to think of where we can take Indigo once we have some more committed resources. The high priorities will be better documentation and tutorials. I have a feeling that there is lots of good stuff coming down the road from the Indigo Team. Stay tuned...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Bought a Mac!

That's right, I am now the proud owner of a new iMac! This obviously means better support for Mac users now that I can finally test everything myself. It should also mean less time beta testing new plugins since the majority of beta testing time is usually spent bug-fixing the Mac versions (very difficult when you don't have a Mac...) Thanks to all for supporting my plugins this far, without which, this would probably never have happened. My wife thanks you too! Now, we don't have to fight over the laptop anymore!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Subdivide and Smooth 2.0 in Development

SDS 2.0 is in early development and I was hoping to get some feedback on what features you would like to see in the next version. I have some really exciting features planned already (that I can't talk about yet...) but I am sure there are lots more ideas out there, espcially from those who have used the plugin extensively. I have opened a discussion thread in the SCF forums if you would like to share your thoughts. Or, just post a comment on the blog!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Not enough time in the day

It's been tough to get any work done on my plugins. Things have felt more busy lately but it might just be my imagination. I finally finished SkIndigo 1.1 Official (not yet released) awhile ago so I've been experimenting with some new script ideas. These experiments may end up as new features in Subdivide and Smooth 2 or possibly a new separate plugin.
Meanwhile there has been a flurry of activity in the SketchUcation Ruby Forum. Many cool plugins have been released lately led by the jaw-dropping update to FreeScale by Fredo6. Then, there's Chris Fullmer who is releasing a new cool plugin almost every week! It's become almost plugin-on-demand over at the forums!