Iñigo Quilez - fractals, computer graphics, mathematics, demoscene and more. Interesting small programs that generate beautiful images and provide some background and mathematical foundations for some of the algorithms. And also a lot of other interesting graphics stuff. Something to browse through for quiet hours and perhaps some inspiration to program one thing or another (where he provides the basics).
grafik
Is blender really equal to the competition? - good high-level comparison (so nothing for feature counters) based on the author's personal experiences.
Scripting Drawer für Acorn - my favorite image editor is Acorn - because it's so small, fast and sleek. Plus, I can program it in Python. And with this plugin, the windows get a Scripting Drawer à la Nodebox - with which you can then run the Python code directly, without always having to navigate through the filter menu. Nice!
Anonymous(tm) - nice, readable monospace font.
Instant color schemes for your Mac with ColorSchemer Studio OSX - and since I always use the same boring color combinations in SL, something like this might be useful.
Intaglio — Macintosh Drawing & Illustration - looks good, I should check it out. Specifically, the ability to use texts as paths could be interesting for me
VectorDesigner - and another graphics software that I should take a look at. Vector graphics would also solve some of the text problems (for SL I sometimes need text on paths and text as paths, which is rather cumbersome to do with Acorn).
ngPlant - Open Source plant modeling package - this one is for Blender. Looks very nice, but will I be able to get it to fly?
Tree making - with ngplant. Looks very interesting.
Yorik's blender greenhouse - lots of Blender models of plants. Also a good starting point if you need 2D alpha textures (like I do for SL).
Arbaro - tree generation for povray - can also generate .obj files. Could be quite useful for me, because I always need my own plant textures from time to time (and I can have them rendered by povray)
AUST TOMTREE - PovRay Macro Package for Trees (required by Pov-Tree)
POV-Ray: Documentation - together with Arbaro, this gives me really nice trees and bushes!
POV-Tree - another tree generator. Free as in free beer. Also in Java. More focused on pure trees with fixed presets, not as algorithmically oriented as the previous one.
SuperColdMilk - tons of ac3d plugins.
Creating sculpties with Albatross3D - Exporter for Second Life Sculptmaps from Albatross3D.
Albatross3D - 3D modeler for Windows, Linux, and BeOS (no Mac). And free as in free beer. Although I'll probably stick with AC3D on the little Asus.
Allegorithmic | MaPZone - algorithmic texture generation. I should check it out, Texturemaker is nice, but sometimes a bit cumbersome and hard to follow which tools to use.
Dryad - build digital trees based on parameter sets and visually navigate in "forests" of tree alternatives. And it's also available for OS X!
Adobe Photoshop Textures and Patterns Tutorials - tons of tutorials, for example on creating textures.
Pur3d.de | TEXTURES - a lot of textures that can also be tiled.
UVMapper - 2.5D Software
Avimator - Animation software to create animations for Second Life. Should be compatible with Poser format, as they actually use Poser. Maybe interesting for small animation projects also outside Second Life?
GREYCSTORATION - denoising algorithm as an open source CLI tool.
Feed Icons - Help establish the new standard - free icons for feeds as an alternative to the XML icon from Userland. Inspired by the Mozilla feed icons.
Kai's Horror Tools Flashback
Somehow almost like a zombie from the grave: ArtRage is a painting program with what Kai Krause once understood by intuitive interface - so contrary to any form of interface style guides, horribly colorful, squeaky, and somehow like the Teletubbies. Just the Ohhhhhhh sound is missing ...
Hmm. I like the program. Don't ask me why. I just do.
Seashore is an image editor that builds on GIMP things and uses the same format - but for OS X. You should keep an eye on it, could be quite nice for some simple purposes.
Terragen - Landscape Generator
Terragen is a landscape generator for Windows and Mac (Classic and OS X). Very interesting piece with a bunch of parameters that you can adjust. And as it seems quite fast. I have to play with it a bit.
Terragen - Landscape Generator - 1
Yes, it really works very simply. Ok, generating a sample landscape is of course rather randomly controlled - to generate exactly what you have in mind requires much more work. But the whole thing actually gives the impression that you could understand it. The colors come across a bit cool, so I did a slight white balance adjustment towards warmer colors in Photoshop. It also looks a bit harsh and the sharpness between water and land is a bit too blurry for me, but I guess one or the other can certainly still be adjusted with parameters.
Terragen - Landscape Generator - 2
What I noticed with the first experiments: you should stick closely to the physical model. So if the camera position is set to 30 meters above the ground, it also looks that way - you should first think about where the viewer is in your scene. In real situations, you rarely hang 30 meters in the air. You should also play a bit with the 3D preview, as it offers a simple way to optimize the viewing angle.
Unfortunately, there are hardly any plugins for OS X - a plugin that simulates a camera lens both in terms of the angle of view and depth of field would be great. But there is only one for Windows.
What is also not so nice - the vegetation is only simulated by colored spots. Just like snow and sand. Some of the people in the gallery images seem to use their own textures or better presets than those provided. So far I have only used the pre-made surface textures. I need to research further how to get better presets that look more realistic - the ones provided always look a bit thin.
Of course, the presets for extraterrestrial scenes are cool - e.g. the atmosphere presets and the surface textures for Mars. You just have to paint a robot in and you have your own NASA mission.
PNGCRUSH - Kleines Kommandozeilentool zur Optimierung der Grösse von PNGs
Enblend - Bilder miteinander verbinden ohne sichtbare Übergänge - Vorstufe zu Panoramasoftware
Noise Ninja 2.0 Beta - Rauschunterdrückung für Digitale Bilder - jetzt auch für OS X
Xblend - OS X Frontend zu emblend