Dwarfed Films NEW ESSENTIAL FREE SOFTWARE LIST

A few years ago I compiled what I believe were the best free software tools for movie-making in list formate (DWARFED FILMS ESSENTIAL FREEWARE 2007).

Well I think it's about time I updated the list for 2011, taking into account any newer programs that have popped up during this time and removing programs taht are obsolete or which I personally are old hat.

So here goes:

DWARFED FILMS NEW ESSENTIAL FREEWARE LIST 2011

Essential Freeware or Open Source Software:
Note: items frequently used by Dwarfed Films.

Animation/Modelling Tools

(Alternatives to Maya/XSI/Lightwave 3D/Cinema 4D/3DS Max/Poser)

Blender 3D: Open source (freeware) 3D modelling, animation, sequencer for windows/mac/linux/etc
Still, in my humble opinion, one of the best graphical software programs out there. There has been a massive redesign of the user interface with versions 2.5+.

The only issue I have with the new versions is the problems it has displaying images in the sequencer; to make your images display in the display window while editing you need to set the output formate to 512X512 pixels (also works 1024X1024, etc). Maybe this has been corrected in the updates but I haven't checked.
Anyway, you can always use an earlier version (Blender 2.49 for instance) for sequence editing.
Visit www.BLENDER.org to download Blender (you can visit the archives and get earlier versions also)

Makehuman: Open source software for creation of hyper-realistic human characters with no need for any modelling experience - just toggle some parameters and you can tweak every anatomical part of the base character to create any male/female character of your choice. Exports to OBJ format.
www.makehuman.org/

Image Editor Tools
(Alternative's to Photoshop/Painter/MS Paint)

The Gimp: Open Source image editor that is just like photoshop www.gimp.org.
I've used The Gimp for years and prefer it to Photoshop and Painter. Some people find it fiddly, but I love it and think it is reliable and allows me to do whatever I need to get done.
The very best graphical software program - and its free.

Irfan View: Freeware image viewer supporting practically every format from .png to .mov.
Mainly use it for converting images to different formates and viewing stuff. Fast, reliable.
Find it at www.irfanview.com/

Paint.Net: Similar to The Gimp but easier interface and it also loads much quicker. Supports layers and a whole range of effects.
Haven't used in a long time, but if you like nice interfaces and want something like Painter - but Free! -then this is for you.
www.getpaint.net/index2.html

Visual FX Tools
(Alternative's to Adobe After Effects/Nuke/Mocha)

Terregen: Freeware landscape creator for making stunningly realistic landscapes.
Haven;t used in a while but this program can really give you options if you really need a cool helicopter-flying-over-mountains type sequence.
Terragen 2 was released which offers import of 3D objects and creation of fully 3-dimensional worlds.
www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

Terranim: Freeware plugin for terregen that makes animations of created landscapes.
Without this you only get static images from Terragen. With it you get unlimited camera moves and image morphing (to simulate a flat plan 'growing' into a mountain, for example).
Do a Google search to find "Terranim plugin for Terragen".

Landformer: Freeware landscape map generator for use in Terregen.
Do a Google search for "Landformer for Terragen".

Voodoo Camera Tracker: Freeware camera tracking software.
Raely use as I have After Effects and don't really ever need 3D motion tracking, but this could od the trick for you. And its free. Downsides are the import formates accepted: TGA.
www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/download.html

Apophysis: Fractal-based image creation. This can produce incredible imagery (see our short film "BIRTH" for Apophysis designed animation).
Not sure if the basic download package includes an animation output, so do a search for "apophysis animation plug-in" on Google if it doesn't.
www.apophysis.org

Video Editors
(Alternative's to Sony Vegas Pro/Adobe Premiere Pro/Avid/Final Cut Pro)

Lightworks Beta: the legendary Lightworks video editor is now available for free!
Enjoy the weird editing process and famous Shark delete button in the safety of your own home!
I remember learning to edit using this thing when I was in college. It was very intuitive once you got the hang of it (is that an oxymoron?). It has auto save...which is handy becasue the program has an annoying habit of randomly crashing. I find it a bit finicky nowadays when compared to other video editors such as Sony Vegas and others. But it's a small download (approx 40MB) and it can't hurt to try it.
http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Blender: Didn't I already mention this? Who cares! Not only is it a great animation/modelling program, but the Blender sequencer is one of the best video editing applications you will find: fast and free.
www.blender.org

Image Players/Editors
(Alternative's to Windows Media Player)

Handbrake: Open Source media converter. Highly regarded.
http://handbrake.fr/

Super: Freeware video converter for conversion to avi/mpeg/wav/mp3/swf/ogg/mobile phone/etc and vice versa.
www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

VLC Media Player: Multi formate media player.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

MPEG Steamclip: Plays and converts multiple file formats.
http://www.squared5.com/

VirtuaDub: Still good after all these years. Great for quickly converting video footage to image sequences (although I personally use Blnder to do this as I find it faster). http://www.virtualdub.org/

Audio Editor/Sequencer Tools
(Alternative's to Pro Tools/Adobe Audition/Sound Forge)

Audacity: Open Source audio editor and recording audacity.sourceforge.net/

Reaper: The best audio composer/editor. It's not free technically, but you can download it and use the full version indefinitely if you don't use it for 'commercial purposes'.
Excellent program.
www.reaper.fm/

Acid Xpress: It's free and it's Sony. Sony make good products generally, so put two and two together and see what you come up with.
www.acidplanet.com/downloads/

Shittalker: Basic text to speech program. Not sure how much use you would get out of this but it will make you laugh, and that's gotta be a good thing. www.unaesthetic.net

DVD Tools

EXPRESS BURN: Excellent, Freeware DVD/CD/BlueRay/HD DVD burn sotware that is 100% compatible with Windows Vista. Nice clean design and the best DVD burning program we've yet seen. Choose this instead of Final Burner! Download it here http://www.nch.com.au/burn

DVD Shrink:Excellent and versatile Freeware tool for copying DVD's and compressing them so that they can fit on a standard DVD-/+ disc. (NOTE: Copying a commercial copyright-protected DVD may be done for personal use only). www.dvdshrink.org/

Final Burner: A great Freeware CD/DVD burning program like Nero (the program - not the Roman emperor). Small download size (about 2mb) and with a user friendly interface. Recommended (Note for personal use only). http://www.protectedsoft.com/

Presentation Tools
(Alternative's to Microsoft Word/Excel)

*Open Office: Open Source equivalent to MS Office, but far superior. Can write direct to .pdf format. www.openoffice.org

*Wink: Freeware tool to create presentations in .swf (shockwave flash) or .exe (executable file) format. Records mouse movements and allows you to edit this into a tutorial demo. www.debugmode.com/wink/

*Cam Studio: Open Source screen-grab utility that records video/audio to .avi or.swf format. Pretty much similar to Wink except for the .avi capabilities. Very useful.
www.camstudio.org/

*Foxit PDF Reader: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Better that Adobe Reader. www.foxitsoftware.com

*PDF Xchange Viewer: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Again better than Adobe Reader. www.docu-track.com

Compression Tools
(Alternative's to WinZip/WinRar)

*7Zip: Open source compression software. Much better compression than winzip/win rar etc. Supports all compression formats. www.7-zip.org/

Web Browser Tools
(Alternative's to Internet Explorer)

*Mozilla Firefox: Open Source web browser. Far more secure and user friendly than Internet Explorer. www.mozilla.com/

Operating Systems
(Alternative's to Windows/Mac)

Linux Ubuntu: Open Source (ie: FREE) operating system that is updated every 6 months. Has received a lot of very good feedback and reviews and is considered to be more secure that Windows. Comes with software such as Open Office, etc. Can be downloaded from the site or you can apply to receive a copy by post for free! www.ubuntu.com/

Freeware Websites

Major Geeks: Safe and secure freeware software arranged into various categories. Click here to visit site

Sourceforge: Directory of open Source projects with downloads. Not the best laid out site in the world but you can find programs of all types for all formats. Click here to visit the site

VST4FREE: Site offering free VST plugins for creating and editing music. Use the plugins alongside other free audio creation software such as Psycle or Reaper. Click here to visit the site

PC-Utilities: Website of the PC-Utilities magazine. You can directly download software in various categories. Click here to visit the site

Wikipedia: The Wiki list of Free/Open Source software. Click here to vist the site

FSF/UNESCO Free List: A list of freeware compiled by the UN. Click here to visit the site

Light Links: This is a bit strange but it's religious site offering freeware! You can ignore the christian preachy stuff and check out the free software links on the left hand side of the main page. Click here to visit the site



As always you can contact us here
Or you can leave a comment or any other links to free software that you think others might find useful.

To Shoot A Rurf at Animation Bloc Party New York 2008

I've already mentioned this before in one of the other posts I'm sure but I'll give it a proper posting here now.

Our 3D Animated dark, psychological short To Shoot A Rurf is showing at Animation Bloc Party in September.

If you've been following this blog (or it's main blog over at www.toshootarurf.blogspot.com) you'll be aware that the film was produced using Blender 3D and other Open Source software in a period of 6 months.
The film has screened at a host of festivals and events worldwide, and was given detailed features in both Animation World Network and Directors Notes.


If you're in the area you should go and check it out!

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately:
*************************************************************
It's the start of the year, and what better way to begin 2008 than with a round-up of the best Freeware out there waiting to be downloaded. The 15 programs below are all fully functioning versions of Free software with no expiry time-limits or annoying pop-up ads. They have proven to be reliable and secure - in many cases such as Blender, Firefox and IrfanView they have shown themselves to be outstandingly dependable.
***************************************

1: Blender 3D: A Free Open Source 3D modelling and animation software. Import/Export to 3DS, OBJ, LWO, DXF, VRML, Collada and others. Files can be saved in native .blend format which saves all data including animation IPO's, models, armatures, materials, etc.
Softbody and hardbody Physics integration. Blender also includes Game Creation ability and creation of .exe format games.
Inbuilt renderer is very fast and good but Blender also supports other external renders such as Yafray. Very good UV unwrapping abilities. Includes a very competent video/audio sequencer editor that supports FFMPEG and export to many formats. Think MAYA/3DS MAX but with some more extras and zero pricetag! http://www.blender.org

2: The Gimp: Free Open Source image manipulation/editor. Basically a free version of Photoshop! Supports unlimited layers, alpha channels, multiple export formats. http://www.thegimp.org

3: Audacity: Free Open Source audio editor/recorder. Export to Wave, Ogg, MP3 formats. Multiple effects and filters. Rip audio CD's. http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net

4: Psycle: Audio creation tracker. Uses VST plugins. Exports to WAV format. http://psycle.pastnotecut.org/


5: IrfanView: Free Image viewer/editor. Supports multiple formats such as the usual Targa, PNG, JPEG, BMP formats as well as video files such as MPEG, Quicktime .MOV, WMV, etc. Supports creation of .Exe slidshows and presentations. Image editing not nearly as extensive as The Gimp but you quickly crop, resize images with ease. http://www.irfanview.net/


6:Super: Free Video converter. Convert and play many video file formats and convert files to multiple formats such as DVD, MPEG, Quicktime .MOV, AVI, DivX, PSP, iPod, etc. http://www.eRightSoft.com

7: PDF Xchange Viewer: Free PDF viewer/editor. Read, edit and create PDF files the easy way! Faster than Adobe Acrobat. http://www.docu-track.com/

8: Deep Burner: Free DVD burner software. Simple interface but fully featured. Create Data, Audio or ISO DVD's.Create and Print disc labels, booklets or DVD case inserts using a number of presets. More reliable than NERO. http://www.deepburner.com

9: Terregen: free (for personal use only) terrain generator. Creates photo-realistic landscapes and worlds. You can animate the sky, water and camera movements through created worlds and export to .BMP format. These .BMP's can be converted to image sequences using Blender or VirtualDub.Terregen 2 supports import of 3D models in Wavefront OBJ format. http://www.planetside.co.uk

10: Open Office: Free Open Source word processor, PDF creation, etc. More advanced than Microsoft Word/Works/Excel. http://www.openoffice.org

11: PDF Creator: Free PDF creation - as simple as that. Convert any file to PDF format. http://www.pdfcreator.de.vu/

12: 7Zip: Free file compression software. Open .Zip, .Rar , etc formats. Save to .7zip format whcih has advanced compression capabilities.
http://www.7zip.org


13: Voodoo Camera Tracker: Free (for non-commercial use) software for match-moving filmed footage. In human language this means that you can film something using a handheld camera, import the sequence into Voodooo (first you must convert your raw footage into Targa .TGA format stills using the Free VirtualDub program) and then the program will match the camera movements and form a cloud of vertex dots simulating the 3D re-constructed world scene. This data can be imported into Blender from which you can combine your real world footage with artificial 3D objects. You could pay $1000's for a similar commercial program - but why bother when Voodoo does a wonderful job for nothing!
http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de

14: Firefox: Free Open Source Web Browser. Better and safer than Internet Explorer - so much so that the latest version of IE copied Firefox's tabbed browsing. Less likely to catch a nasty virus using Firefox than it's commercial rivals. http://www.mozilla.com

15: Make Human: Free Open Source 3D human model creator. Similar to commercial program “Poser”. Essential for those who are no good at modelling! You can create a realistic human figure by simply moving sliders and pose it. Export the 3D model to Blender in Wavefront .OBJ or Collada format. Previous versions, I found, used a too complex mesh which wasn't particularily suitable for animation (too many vertices). But this latest build uses a lower density mesh while retaining accurately posable edge loops. http://www.daedalo3D.org

************************************
Didn't quite make it....
There are many other great Free programs availbale for download jsut waiting to be discovered. I could not possibly list them all but here is just a sample of some:

Paint.Net: Free image editor/creator. Similar to The Gimp but more simplified and faster. www.getpaint.net/redirect/wp/index.html

Wax: free audio/Video editor/Compositor. Originally a plug-in for Sony Vegas but now can be used as a standalone editor. Lots of different filters and effects. I've found it to be a bit troublesome at times - especially at rendering. Try it and see what you think. The guy who designs it, Satish Kumar, has also created a number of other great free programs such as "Wink" and "WinMorph" featured below).
Go to http://www.debugmode.com and check out this program and more.

Wink: A Free presentation program that records screen capture and exports in Shockwave flash (SWF) and avi format files. http://www.debugmode.com

WinMorph: Free image morphing software. From the maker of Wax and Wink. http://www.debugmode.com

WinDV: Free video recording software for importing DV footage to computer. Fast and reliable. http://windv.mourek.cz/

VirtualDub: Free Video/Audio sequencer editor. Combine your audio and video and exprt to AVi format. Many filters and effects.Very Fast. Main use is for converting recorded to footage to .TGA format sequence for import to Voodoo Camera tracker. http://www.virtualdub.org

**********************************
Not Free but Great!

Getright: file download manager. Fully functioning Trial available (which does not expire). http://www.getright.com/

Deep Exploration: 3D Model convertor/viewer. Convert to/from multiple formats with many settings. View and Convert image/video/html/txt files too. Trial available at http://www.righthemisphere.com/dexp.htm. After 14 days the trial version disables save feature but still allows you to open and view all files.

************************************
Free - but be very wary....

Jahshaka: Video/Audio editor and compositor. Free with a well designed interface but very buggy. Crashes an awful lot. Do not depend on this program to get the job done! http://jahshaka.org/

*******************************************
And Finally for those in need of a complete Operating System to use instead of Windows...

Don't forget Ubuntu - the Open Source operating system! Go to the site and fill in the simple form and you will be posted a CD containing the operating system which you can install on your computer. And it's completely Free (don't even have to pay for psot and packing) ! www.ubuntu.com/

*******************************************
Think of any software you think is worthy of appearing on the Dwarefd Films Essential list?
Leave a comment on the site

Work in Progress: "O.S.C.a.R" - Open Source Character and Rig

Since it's Christmas time, I've decided to give away a 'present' of a free fully rigged character.
He's called O.S.C.a.R - it stands for Open Source CharacterAnd Rig. Cheesy, eh?
He's a big, blue cartoony creature thingy!
I modelled the character a few nights ago and at the moment I'm rigging him. He should be ready very soon.

The model and rig will be Open Source: this means that you can use the character and rig freely. The only stipulation is that you cannot sell the character mesh or include it in any collection of mesh's for sale. the .blend file will contain all relevant information.
I've designed the character mainly for training purposes for Blender 3D users, so that you can practice animation or whatever!

Well, as soon as Oscar is ready I'll make him available for download.

Shane
Dwarfed Films