Are you a 2D or 3D digital artist who wants to benefit from a cost effective and fast digital artist toolkit that offers a mass array of tools in digital painting, 3D terrain generation, animation and video editing?
In this course Philip Staiger, the co-creator of PD Howler and Tiffanie Gray are teaching a deep dive course on this extraordinary software.
Howler provides a neat and affordable package with aspects that go above other painting software.
We are going to provide a deep-dive course on PD Howler so that you can…
- Discover a wide spectrum of hidden tools for the 2D and 3D digital artist.
- Learn digital painting and master the entire set of paint tools in Howler.
- Create 3D terrains and learn how to generate fly-through animations.
- Take advantage of all the brush types : Foliage, animation, 3D, video brushes and many more….
- Learn how to use 3D content from other applications, such as from DAZ Studio and Blender.
- Make use of all the video editing tools
This course is for you if…
- You’re looking to thoroughly learn a cost effective painting, 3D and animation all-in-one tool.
- You have PD Howler but have just used a fraction of it’s functions: you want to know more.
- You’re wanting to use a cost effective post-work tool for your 3D renders
- You’re looking for a tool to clean up, edit and animate AI generated art.
New in PD Howler : the OBJ (3D object) loader
We are going to show you how to completely utilise PD Howler …
Even if you:
- Have never used PD Howler before
- Have little experience with animation or video editing
- Are new to digital painting
Who is the course led by?
The course will be taught by Philip Staiger and Tiffanie Gray, two of the most experienced users in the PD Howler community.
When does the course start?
Starting on Saturday April 15th at 19:00 BST (London), it will run for four weeks (or six weeks for VIP members)
What does the course include?
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- Up to six live 1.5+ hour live teaching sessions
- Searchable recordings of the sessions
- A private forum to learn as a group on PD Howler
- 100% discount code for the PD Howler 2023 software
Curriculum
Week 1 : 2D : Foundation and Image/photo editing
(Session led by Tiffanie)
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- – What makes PD Howler stand out from other painting software?
- – The PD Howler UI
- – How to clean up/add items to AI generated images and photos
- – How to use layers in Howler
- – How to add rim-lights, shadows and other effects
- – Converting ABR brushes and use of PNG brushes in Howler
- – Using jpgs or pngs to add texture and special effects (dust/dirt/rain/snow/glowing neon/flames)
Week 2 : 2D : Advanced Painting including animated/dynamic brushes
(Session led by Tiffanie)
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- – In depth study on landscape painting
- – Overview of Brushes and Adjustments
- – Selecting the best brushes for each job
- – Creating the background layer : day/night, seasons, clouds, stars, water
- – Creating the upper horizon layer : mountains, tree-lines, buildings, ruins
- – Mid horizon layer : water reflections, hills, trees
- – Low horizon layer : trees, bushes, hill and focal points
- – Foreground layer : flowers, grasses, rocks and branches
- – Overview of Particles
- – Postwork
Week 3 : 3D
(Session led by Philip)
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- – 3D filters in PD Howler
- – 3D Designer : turning images in 3D landscapes
- – All about Puppyray – Howler’s ray tracing render engine
- – OBJ loader
- – Creating skies in Howler
- – For game development: Fantastic Spritesheets, and where to find them
Week 4 : Animation Masterclass
(Session led by Philip)
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- – Creating animations from scratch
- – Putting it all together with various elements and layers
- – Compositing on greenscreen
- – Motion estimated interpolation
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– Animated brushes and the brush keyframer
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– Stabilizing a short video
Additional VIP Course Member Benefits
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- Two additional 1.5 hour live sessions on advanced techniques for Howler (3D, animation and video editing)
- A searchable large tutorial library on PD Howler : taken from the best video content created by Philip Staiger.
- 3D model content, including a sailing ship from Hannes Wiesendanger
*Week 5 : VIP Session – Advanced import and use of 3D content
(Session led by Philip)
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- – Working with 3D tools such as Blender, Daz studio, Carrara, Hexagon, Leocad, Curvy and many other tools in adding 3D to Howler
- – OBJ conversion and fixing/adjusting before import
- – Advanced creation tips for generating 3D cities and terrains
- – Advanced animation techniques for 3D animation fly-throughs
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– working with animbrushes containing sequences from 3D renders
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– brush keyframer to render out the animbrush
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– motion prediction model and stabilizer
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– rotoscoping (first look – more on day 2)
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– re-creating the selection mask on an animation from the 3D sequence
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– using stored animations for animbrushes and as skies or animated color maps in underwater scenes (simulated caustics)
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– animated elevation maps for pop art with 3D Designer
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– moving sand dunes in Puppyray
*Week 6 : VIP Session – Advanced Animation and Video Editing
(Session led by Philip)
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– A look at all filters in the animated category
- – A look at a plugin called DoggyFX.
- – Using Howler with Carrara/Poser/DAZ Studio
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– A look at all tools in Animation menu, including frame editing to repair flawed video.
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– Painting with video on video
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– animated textures
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– Film making 101: tools you can use in Howler, including Rotoscoping
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*Content subject to some change
About Philip Staiger
Phil has partnered with Dan Ritchie on many aspects of developing, promoting and marketing Project Dogwaffle. He has worked for 35 years in the 3D industry, with graphics hardware (Megatek, Digital), and software (TGS, Eovia) for 3D modeling and animation. Phil also has several years experience in the security software (ESET) and machine translation software industry (SYSTRAN). He holds degree in Electrical Engineering from Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute (EPFL) Switzerland, has programming and scripting experience, is fluent in several languages, but also has an insatiable admiration for the arts and the tools to create and communicate.
About Tiffanie Gray
Tiffanie is known as Dakorillon and Immortal Moments Art to the art world on the web. She has been selling at Renderosity and HiveWire3D since 2016. She has been using PD Howler (known as Project Dogwaffle), since version 1.1a in 2001. She originally started using PD Howler since it’s a natural fit for artists that have a traditional background – and so began learning it with glee! She now uses Howler for nearly everything to do with digital art and content creation. Since 3D artwork is becoming an indispensable tool in her box of tricks, she is happy that Howler still works so well with these new tools.
All of her art experience is self taught, she read books or took small workshops to learn traditional art. Howler, then Daz Studio, Poser, Hexagon and other art programs she has added were by the the same method. She primarily focuses on fantasy and science fiction, but also creates still lifes, landscapes and portraits. She also uses her images in book cover designs and web design.
Tiffanie also is a community champion at the Digital Art Live STUDIO forum and you’ll see her sometimes as a teaching assistant in some of our coaching groups.