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Giveaway of the day — Particle 9
Particle 9 was available as a giveaway on April 1, 2016!
Particle 9 is an art program with unique foliage painting tools, along with more traditional natural media. It is a small and light app, and a feature-rich desktop program. It features drawing with art tools like airbrush, bristle brushes, and watercolor, particle based foliage and natural phenomenon, and creation of shapes like curves, boxes and ellipses, that can be filled in a variety of ways. The interface is simple and easy to learn, and all the features are easy to access.
Particle 9 is based on Howler, a media suite all-in-one paint program, with many additional features, such as painting on animations with other animations, creating and animating 3D landscapes, working with visual effects, and much more.
Get any software from Project Dogwaffle with 40% discount! The sale expires on Sunday April 17, 2016.
System Requirements:
Windows XP (may work)/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 10 (x64 is recommended); Processor: SSE2 extensions; HDD: 4GB; Microsoft .NET ('dot-net') Framework 4
Publisher:
Project DogwaffleHomepage:
http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/index9.htmlFile Size:
46.7 MB
Price:
$7.99
Featured titles by Project Dogwaffle
PD Howler 10 is a media suite in one program, with natural media painting, video, animation, 3D and visual effects. It has a “burn and go” workflow that gets pixels onscreen fast, for bold, expressive styles. Create cinematic visual FX in a familiar painting environment with greenscreen - rotoscoping - timeline - 3D, match moving, motion estimated retiming and dropped frame repair.
PD Artist is based on Howler 10, but doesn't include the animation features, for those who do not need them. It's a fast, low cost but incredibly powerful painting tool for everyone.
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Comments on Particle 9
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Installed easily, and I believe it also registered, although I see neither my name nor GOTD listed...hmmm. But I like program a lot. Thanks very much. GOTD and Dogwaffle!
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I see the GOTD installer working, got the webpage saying it is activated...nothing new on my WIN 7 PC
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I have an older Vista system, and for this system the program didnt perform well at all. Firstly, I tried to open the foliage and cloud brushes. I was told that the program didn't recognise the brush extensions, but asked if I wanted to load anyway. I clicked yes. Then the program tried to convert the brush extensions, but failed saying the process had timed out. I tried to close the program from a small window and a popup asked me to confirm. When I clicked on 'ok' nothing happened. The same when I clicked on the other option 'cancel'. I had to close the prgram from the task manager. I rebooted the PC and tried again but with the same results.
Does the developer have any idea of a solution to these problems?
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wendy, Open, on the file menu, is primarily for opening image files. Foliage and other presets are not images and should be opened through the media browser.
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Dan Ritchie, Thanks for rely. But I didn't select 'Open' from file menu. It was under the brushes menu and then under the brush operations submenu. The popup description did say that this was for opening image files to make into a brush, I noticed today .. If this popup showed before, I didn't notice it. However, when I clicked on 'open' (under the brush menu), the list of brushes automatically opened which made it seem as if this was the way to open the brushes.
By 'media browser' are you referring to the images of different sorts of brushes at the bottom of the screen? I clicked on these and they correctly loaded all sorts of different brushes. So was pleased with that.
Now, however, am having trouble getting the special effects option - the square icon in the lhs tool bar - to work. I've selected the lens flare options - which look gorgeous. I'm getting a preview window of what it will look like, but when I run the mouse in a straight line, nothing shows up.
Any ideas? Great to see that the program comes with a layers option. It looks to have quite a few good resources and applications. I'm interested to try it further. Thanks, Dan.
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wendy, Lens flares are additive by nature, so be sure you're using them on a dark background.
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Hi Dan, does Particle/Artist/Howler support Wacom tablet input? And does that support include pen angle and/or pressure? Thanks!
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Anthrolume, Yes the program supports wacom pressure. Bristle brushes in the program support angle and tilt as well.
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Very nice giveaway today. I have had my eye on Howler 10 and will take advantage of the discount offered.
Thanks to GAOTD and Project Dogwaffle.
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To clarify - this app is part of Howler? Or which is the application that has all the functionality? Reason I ask, is that this app is neat, but if it is part of a complete/better collection of software, I would rather buy that. And Howler has great functionality!
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Kyle, Howler 10 is our top level program. It has all the features including animation and terrain rendering. Artist 10 is very similar, but lacks the animation. Particle 9 is based on a subset of Artist, but with a simpler interface that is designed for tablets and desktop alike, whereas Howler and Artist are more desktop like.
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Dan Ritchie, Thanks....I have Howler so I guess I don't need this app - thanks for gr8 software!
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FWIW, & completely just my own opinion & all that, think Particle 9 might benefit from the new Microsoft tool [bridge], converting it into a universal app to be featured in their store. The regular version could continue as-is I'd imagine, for all those not using 10. While there might or might not be marketing advantages to be had for Particle 9 as a UWP [Universal Windows Platform] app, I'd expect it would remove the limitations of using VB5 [Visual Basic 5]. The app itself is interesting & capable enough that I could live with the added 5.8k registry entries, but I've still got some [almost as ancient] VB6 stuff I need to run, & compatibility issues have meant running Dogwaffle apps in a VM rather than my regular Windows installs. [If you have stuff that uses VB6, note that installation will change defaults from VB6 to VB5 files, though reinstalling VB6 might get everything working.]
Particle 9 itself is quite responsive -- more so than many apps with somewhat similar painting features -- & I'd expect it would work well on many less powerful systems or devices. That said, the many features & options mean a more complicated GUI, which while it's well designed, I feel would just be too much on a smaller tablet. It would IMHO likely be ideal on a larger tablet with a touchpad or mouse for the menus, & a higher quality touchscreen for painting &/or drawing [you won't get great results, likely can't even draw a smooth line regardless the app, using the touch screens on most economical tablets].
On a desktop or laptop PC, while you can certainly paint with a mouse, you'll get so much more out of software like this using a drawing tablet -- I've seen tablets large enough for this sort of thing start in the $30 range on sale.
As far as alternative software goes, many image editing apps also include painting features, Corel's Painter is likely the 800 lb gorilla in the room [VERY rarely on sale as low as $99], there's TwistedBrush, & Autodesk has Sketchbook etc. IMHO what makes Dogwaffle software stand out is its particle effects... a great many things in the real world appear random, whether you're talking about blades of grass or leaves, or things like clouds & smoke, & particle effects let you create that sort of thing.
If it wasn't for the VB5 issues I'd buy Particle 9 in a heartbeat -- at $8 it's a steal -- & that's with already owning Painter 2016, Sketchbook etc.
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mike, Hi Mike. We use a combination of VC++ 2010 - 2013 and C++ AMP, inline assembler where SSE2 is concerned, and VB5 as our interface glue. That just goes to show how long we've been on the market with Project Dogwaffle. I haven't had any known overlap between VB5 and VB6 files. I use both VB5 and VB6 regularly as well as newer versions of visual studio all on the same machines with no problems. We do occasionally see antivirus programs that block installation of important files however.
You are correct that Particle is well suited for larger tablets. I use it on a 10 inch tablet with 2 gigs of memory, and an 8 inch tablet with 1 gig of memory.
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Dan Ritchie, We chose VB5 because VB6 does not support modern multithreading where it is possible in VB5.
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These features are included in PD Artist and in PD Howler. I have PD Artist 9.6, and can say it is a great art application! Even the older versions are great, and you can still get them! A few years ago I used an older version to repair photos that had been water damaged, and when they were done and printed, you could not see the repair work! I recommend buying any of the pay versions for your enjoyment, and especially the latest!
Take it from me, if you wish to give it a try to see some of the great features of the more robust versions, get this while you can and give it a whirl!
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Installs ok on 32-bit Vista SP2 patched with 8G RAM the blurb on their site does imply that there are some additional features that Howler 8.2 may lack but there are features that Particle 9 does lack like the use of layers, the don't exist in Particle but do in Howler 8.2
IF you missed the Howler 8.2 SE giveaway a few years back you can get it again under a renamed scheme at
http://www.thebest3d.com/howler/download/home-edition/index.html
It apears to be the same product as we had here before with a slightly modified text in the initial popup that removes the reference to giveaway of the day.
I just noticed something worrying, my Howler 8.2 SE instalation has started throwing up an error since installing Particle 9 The specific Error text I get is "Unexpected Error quiting" in an Error alert box dismissed with an OK button and it fails to launch, IF there is a choice between Howler 8.2 SE and particle 9, I'll be choosing Howler 8.2 SE as it has more normal graphics manipulation features I'm likely to need and if I have to I'll remove both and install the home/learning howler 8.2 SE from the above link to get back what this giveaway seems to have destroyed!
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TK, follow up to the original Howler 8.2 SE error after installing and runing Particle 9, if I run Howler 8.2 SE dogwaffle.exe as an administrator it comes back to life, I suspect it's some registration conflict with the visual basic OCX extensions registered versions not being compatible between the two products. BICBW
After running howler as admin then particle threw the error on startup, workaround for the design bug is to set both programs compatability settings to Run As Adiministrator so they can directly address the correct ActiveX extensions for their builds.
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TK, Hi TK. If you want to run multiple versions of our products, you will have to run them as administrator. This can be set in the programs properties. Right click on the programs icon, and select "properties" and go to the "Compatibility" tab and select "Run this program as administrator"
This is because the programs share the same Active X port, and need to self register.
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If you take advantage of the link given par TK to get a free Howler 8.2, or if you already have it, you can enrich it here:
http://thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/freebies/
(I don't think they would work in Particle)
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Dan Ritchie, I think I already figured that out and posted it 7 hours ago!
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ouialaraison, Some of the Zipped freebies are password protected and you get the passwords delivered in the email order receipt after you buy howler 9 or better.
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TK, Again, I am lucky! I just installed the spooky clock on my Howler 8.2...
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If you still have the more comprehensive Project Dogwaffle Howler 8.2 special edition offered here in june 2013, this one is redundant. Otherwise, have a try, if only for fun!
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Good to see this here as my previous copy vanished during a re-installation of Windows 7.
Downloaded, activated and opened perfectly.
I use Project Dogwaffle Artist too, great programs all!
Thanks for the giveaway. :)
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No problems getting it up and running in XP looking forward to trying it in Windows 7 as the functions maybe behave differently.
Quite exceptional and fascinating products for the price from this company and I think it would be great fun to try on a Windows 10 tablet, wish they made it for Android.
Previously Howler was given away by them on this site and this is a cutdown version of that program.
A unique take on graphics/painting programs with functions very difficult to find elsewhere, if you're an artist you've got to give it a go.
Howler is a superb piece of programming in so many ways and today's download will give you an inkling of its functions.
Love this company's work.
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Salvia,
"I think it would be great fun to try on a Windows 10 tablet, wish they made it for Android."
Don't buy a cheap tablet just for painting though... The problem with less expensive tablets & touch screen laptops is that the touch sensing isn't good enough, so when you try to draw [or paint] a smooth line, using your finger or a stylus, it can look almost like a spiky graph.
RE: Android... If Particle 9 [& or other Dogwaffle apps] were converted or packaged to UWP there's a chance, though how big of a chance I've no idea. Allegedly Microsoft is looking at all sorts of ways to get software from their store running everywhere [including Android], not just in Windows.
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