Addons spree, just like old times

I bought some addons! I used to regularly buy a bunch of shiny Blender addons that either provided assets or tools. I found that too often I was buying something because it looked cool, was quite cheap, but I didn't actually need. So I stopped buying stuff. In fact, I bought two bundles that included lots of tools that I didn't even bother installing. I should go back and take a look at those.

So what did I buy?

Mechify (See it on Superhive)

This geonodes-based tool converts a base mesh into various flavours of mech-styled tech. It's very nice, but a great little tool for breaking objects up into shiny, plate-covered machines.

Astronaut from Hitem3D turned into a weird mech person with one click

There are so many parameters! So many options!

This isn't a tool I'll use often, but it wasn't expensive, and there will be plenty of places where I can turn a simple mesh into something that looks complex and cool.

I might make some notes on all those parameters, just to force me to invest the time to understand what they do.

Sci-Fi Building Generator (See it on Superhive)

This is the same kind of thing as Mechify, only it generates a particular style of science fiction structure.

Again, this is a niche thing, just a bit of fun. I will use it to support my own modelling efforts, not stop me from making my own stuff. It's really gratifying to produce really cool structures with a few seconds of effort. Like with Mechify, the secret is to master the parameters so you can create distinctive assets that don't immediately shout that you just added default-based creation to your scene.

UltraCloud (See on Superhive)

At $15, this was the only addon that wasn't really inexpensive. It's a cloud generator/shader system. It's nice to have a system where you can turn a low-poly base mesh into a highly realistic cloud. I look forward to creating interesting cloudscapes, although this doesn't magically make clouds quick to render, and you'll note in my first test render that I'm getting artefacts in the upper cloud area.

UltraCloud - First example after 30 seconds.