Sale Almost Over, Last Chance to Save

Our sale price for the current version of Aladdin 4D will be ending in less than 24 hours. If your interested in using this unique 3D animation package please act now. Please note, there will be an upgrade price for current owners depending when they bought the package. Prices on Aladdin 4D will be going up not down in the future to help R & D. Waiting to buy will cost customers more not less.

Aladdin 4D Sale Over In 48 Hours, Now Open to more Customers

Customers complained to us that the special price on Aladdin 4D this month was only available to Amiga Video Toaster customers. We have listened to your feedback and are now offering it for all current owners of Amiga OS 4.0, 4.1, Sam440, EFIKA, MorphOS & Amiga Forever 2008. Customers that have purchased these software/hardware products are active and stimulating the market. Windows Vista customers need not apply and don't qualify for this special offer. Normally A4D sells for $99.95 plus shipping, for the next 48 hours this product will only be $69.95 and will included free worldwide shipping.

Aladdin 4D works great on classic Amiga's, Amiga OS 4.1, MorphOS, AROS with E-UAE, Amiga Video Toaster based systems and especially virtual Amiga environments like Amiga Forever 2008 from Cloanto running AmiKit. In fact reviews state that rendering times for Aladdin 4D are almost instant in Amiga virtual machines like Amiga Forever.

Aladdin 4D is the last commercial Amiga 3D animation program available that is in active development for Amiga OS 4.1, MorphOS, AROS, and Amiga virtual machines. This does not have to be the case though, we welcome competition and a vibrant active 3rd party community on Amiga and Amiga like systems. An active, creative and competitive 3rd party development community is what is needed to make the Four Headsmen of Amiga (Amiga OS 4.1, MorphOS 2.2, AROS, Amiga Forever 2008) a success. Your support of Aladdin 4D insures faster development of this unique program created by Greg Gorby. A4D is a great introduction to the 3D animation software industry. Anyone that purchases Aladdin 4D that buys LightWave 3D within six months gets a $50 credit towards LW3D from us. Aladdin 4D can be purchased from the link below. Rub the Lamp, Render the Magic. The smoke stops coming out of the lamp on February 1st, 2009 and this sale ends then.

Mass Exodus

There's an old saying that goes "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". Microsoft has been fooling customers for many many years with Windows. The Windows Vista disaster turned even more customers off to the Windows brand. Mass Exodus of customers happen when people tire of an old, dated, undependable brand. We predict in the future Windows will be something that customers might keep around for the one or two applications they need to run that require it. Just as IBM lost the PC clone wars (most machines customers bought were IBM compatible but not from IBM), Windows will also be marginalized. You will keep a virtual machine around to run it but it won't be your main interest or concern. This is the reason we don't focus on the Windows version of Aladdin 4D. We will do it, but development will be dead last and ONLY to support customers.

Amiga OS 4.1 SDK Now Available

Congratulations to Hyperion Entertainment, on Jan 26th, 2009 they released the SDK for Amiga OS 4.1. Their hard work is appreciated and helps 3rd party developers including Aladdin 4D. Link to the news below.












Amiga OS 4.1 SDK Link

The Minds Eye

This classic video from the early 1990's is no longer on sale. It showcased what high end computers were able to do with very expensive 3D rendering programs of that time period. It was one of the things that got our founder interested in 3D animation software.

Microsoft Sharpens the Axe, Layoff Announcements Expected Next Week!

Hey what do you know releasing substandard products that lose money year after year is not good for any company especially in the current bad economic climate. Looks like it has finally taken it's toll on M$. Layoff announcements are expected next week and could be between 6-16% per reliable sources like the Wall Street Journal and others. We expect many that were part of the original Windows Vista team will be feeling the axe. Not a good time to work in Redmond, at least for the slackers and lazy ones that have been suckling at the Windows tit for far too long.

This is long overdue and could help the company eject some losers. Being an illegal monopoly can have it's disadvantages sometimes.

M$ Layoffs Expected

WSJ Direct Link

Autodesk Hammered by the Stock Market!

Looks like buying up SoftImage & Alias has done little to help Autodesk's sagging stock price. It has lost 64% in the last year alone. Sure the whole stock market has been down but they don't own any toxic mortgages so something else is going wrong at the company. Their plan of trying to Microsoft the 3D animation software industry is not working out. It's funny that their latest purchase is SoftImage, something Microsoft bought in the 90's then later sold at a huge loss. They have also had to laid off 10% of their staff. Further information is provided via the link below.




Autodesk

Trouble in Truespace

Looks like things are not going well and the user community is very troubled over the way Microsoft is handling the Caligari corporation merger. We reported a few months back that they bought Truespace and are giving the Windows version away for free. Hey just like us! Except they are doing it to prop up the aging old Windows empire. More information to this drama is provided via the link below.

Life or Death for Truespace

Aladdin 4D for the Demo Scene

We have always loved the demo scene that grew up around the C64 and the Amiga. It is alive and well on PC & Mac now, even a few new amazing demos come out for Amiga once and a while. We want feedback from the scene so we can optimize Aladdin 4D for you and add features in the future that would help you with your scene productions.

ScaryDesk

Autodesk completed their acquisition of SoftImage from AVID. This is kind of scary for the 3D animation software industry because now one company controls many of the major packages. Autodesk owns Maya, 3D Studio Max & SoftImage. Why one company would aquire diverse 3D animation packages with development teams in different parts of the world is a mystery. Will one or more of the programs be consolidated or discontinued in favor of one of the others? Stay tuned to see.

Fountain Scene

Here is another example scene that's included with Aladdin 5.0. We have rendered it for you and placed it on YouTube. We will be adding some audio at a later date.

Aladdin 4D 5.0 vs 5.1 Alpha 6

Aladdin 4D 5.0 also includes a experimental version 5.1 Alpha 6. While it is nice to play with the newer version don't trust it to do long complex render projects. It is available simply to play with. Production work should still be done with version 5.0.

Aladdin 4D Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are the Aladdin keyboard shortcuts, this should help you speed up your creativity.






EDITOR VIEW:

amiga-n new
amiga-o open
amiga-s save
amiga-a save as a4d
amiga-q quit
amiga-c clone
amiga-e extrude
amiga-r rotate
amiga-l scale
amiga-b bevel

f1 snap point
f2 snap poly
f3 join polys
f4 run arexx
f5 load
shf-f5 append
shf-f6 save
f7 toggle isometric
f8 background
ctl-f8 foreground
shf-f8 overlay
f9 preview
shf-f9 render
f10 manual entry

k refresh
a attributes
t texture
s shading
p point mode
help help

*note: this group will also work in preview screen
spacebar flat view
q quickmove
arrow up small zoom out
arrow down small zoom in
arrow left increase perspective
arrow right decrease perspective
shifted arrows move view
keypad 8 big zoom in
keypad 2 big zoom out
keypad 1,3,4,6,7,9 rotate view

ctl-t track ATP

facing:
ctl-f begin
f add
alt-f end
shf-f clear

path:
shf-p make path
alt-p edit path
alt-o show assig. polys
ctl-o show assig. paths
ctl-p assign path

deform:
shf-k begin level
ctl-k end level
alt-k edit level

alt-t define letter
shf-t write
shf-l new light
alt-l edit light
shf-g new gas
alt-g edit gas
shf-w new wave
alt-w edit wave
shf-x new flare
alt-x edit flare
shf-y new fountain
alt-y edit fountain
shf-e new extern
ctl-e edit extern


RENDER SCREEN:

e go to editor
p palette
f2 screen to back
f9 re-render

Aladdin 4D on YouTube

We have setup a YouTube account for Aladdin 4D and started putting A4D created animations on it, please enjoy. The Shuttle animation is one of the included example scenes that come with Aladdin 4D.

History in the Making

Starting this week we will start posting all of the Aladdin's Lamp newsletters on this Blog in a web friendly format. Aladdin's Lamp is a great historical resource for training, exploring and learning Aladdin 4D and is valuable for our customers. It will take a few weeks to get them all online but you can read along and enjoy as we do it. PDF versions will also be made available. If your interested in submitting articles or tutorials for Aladdin's Lamp please let us know. Greg Gorby had a great idea with the newsletters and we want to bring it into the 21st century.

Aladdin 4D Special for Amiga Video Toaster Owners

Own an Amiga Video Toaster any version? Now get a special discount on the current version of Aladdin 4D until January 31st, 2009 because of your Amiga Video Toaster loyalty. When ordering please be ready to provide proof of ownership to qualify for this discount pricing. Normal price is $99.95, special price is $69.95 until the end of the month. Aladdin 4D fully supports the Amiga Video Toaster Flyer. You can render to Framestores and save Flyer clips of your A4D animations. If you have UAE or Amiga Forever linked to your Amiga system it also renders blazing fast in that environment.

Many of you have asked what the current release schedule is for Aladdin 4D upgrades and new versions in 2009. Based on customer demand here is the current plans for all the different versions.

Amiga OS 4.1 - First version out the door
Mac OS X - 2nd
MorphOS - 3rd
AROS - 4th
Linux - 5th
Windows - 6th

If you have questions about a version for your operating system please let us know via the Aladdin 4D forums.

A4D Forums

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year 2009 Aladdin 4D Customers!

To celebrate we just ordered our Amiga OS 4.1 update from AmigaKit. Here's hoping everyone has a great year, best to leave the troubled times of 2008 behind. 2009 should bring some very positive news on the Aladdin 4D front and finally some releases.



Stay tuned.