Camstudio – Video Tutorials

Camstudio is a free program that is very useful for making your own video tutorials. I use it for an assignment in my Instructional Design class. This makes a great assignment for students in a computer lab. The website says CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). Its absolutely great. Check out Camstudio for yourself.

Blender- Open Source 3D Animation Studio

One of the best open source programs that I have found is Blender. It is a 3D Modeling and Animation Studio comparable to Maya and 3DS Max. These programs cost thousands of dollars, but Blender can be used for free. Some of its features include modeling, rigging, animating, UV textures, lighting, particle system, game engine, hair and cloth systems, composting and many others. It is by far the most advanced open source software I have seen so far. I teach 3D modeling and animation in school and this program has all the features I need. This is a complex program so it will take a while to master so do not be intimidated by the interface. There is an excellent website for learning the software. These quality video tutorials are extremely helpful.  Another great video tutorial website for Blender is the blender underground.  There is a blender art magazine website here.  Also, don’t forget to check the new blender cookie site. Check it out.

Open Source Vector Graphics – Inkscape

There are two main types of computer graphics in use today.  They are vector and raster graphics.  The difference is the way the graphics are made by the computer.  Vector graphics are generated by the computer using mathematical equations.  This allows vector graphics to be sharp at any resolution.  Raster graphics are made by using little dots called pixels to make up the graphic.  These are not sharp when blown up to a larger size.

Photoshop is probably the best known raster graphic editor.  Illustrator is probably the best known vector graphics editor on the market.  However, there is a program that is open-source called Inkscape.  Inkscape is a vector graphics editor comparable to Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.  It has many features like layers, drop-shadows, blur, masks, and many others.  Check it out and tell me what you think.

Free Photoshop Alternative

Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most popular image editing software in the world.  It is a very mature and complete product.  However, the down-side to the software is its price tag of around $500.  This is out of the reach of most schools.  I use an alternative in my computer lab called GNU Image Manipulation Program or “GIMP” for short.  It has most of the features of Photoshop and it’s free for anyone to use.  You can download it at www.gimp.org.  It runs on many platforms, so download the version for your particular operating system.  GIMP runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.  I teach a Photoshop class and one of my students used GIMP to do all the assignments because they wanted to work at home.  The results and concepts were the same.  Take some digital photos and give GIMP a try.  There are some video tutorials on www.designyourownweb.com and Amazon sells book about the program.  Let me know what you think.

An Alternative Office Suite

Sun Microsystems has a wonderful open-source office suite of programs that anyone can use for free.  It is called OpenOffice.  It is release under the GPL license and it is available for download at www.openoffice.org.  This package includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, drawing program and database.  It can also read and write Microsoft Office files.  Every student can now have a professional grade office suite for free.  This is definitely worth checking out.