The Comprehensive Film-Maker's List of Goodies
I've decided to make a comprehensive post with anything and everything that might be useful to non-professional film-makers, fan-vidders, or other hobbyists. As soon as I get more links on here, I'll begin to figure out a nicer way to organize them. If there are any links that are broken, missing, or if you think I've forgotten to add something cool, please let me know!
ACID® XPress 5.0
Windows, ???
It's easy to create original music-even if you're new to loop-based music software. Download and install ACID XPress. Then, get loops from the Loops & Samples collection or from ACIDplanet.com to create your own music.
AnalogX Vocal Remover
Windows, ???
Ever had a song you thought would be perfect to put in a video, but the lyrics in the song made it unusable? Well, this program will remove the lyrics from a song. (Karaoke, anyone?)
Anasazi Stop Motion Animator
Windows
Anasazi is cutting edge animation capturing software that saves and plays back your animation on your hard drive. If you already have a digital camera and a computer with a graphics card then you can begin animating your clay creations today.
Atomic Learning's FREE Video StoryBoard Pro
Windows, Mac OS
Designed to give teachers, students, and home movie makers a tool to plan ahead when creating video projects. It features the ability to:
Avid Free DV [I use this and it rocks!]
Windows, Mac OS X
Avid Free DV is feature-streamlined, standalone software which includes basic video and audio editing capabilities, up to two streams of real-time effects and support for both Windows XP and Macintosh OS X platforms.
Avid Free DV Tutorials
Since the program can seem a tad overwelming if you aren't familiar with *good* video editing software, then download these Flash videos and watch them step by step to see just how easy Avid Free DV really is to learn!
Blender
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Irix, Solaris
A freeware 3D animation and modelling suite.
Blender Wars
A tutorial site with tons of resources, models, and plug-ins to help you figure the damned program out!
CamStudio
Windows
This program lets you record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using it's built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)
Celestia
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
A real-time utility that allows you to plunge through the universe at your own pace, revolve in 3D, and, if this wasn't cool enough...you can take screengrabs. Oh, and if it wasn't cool enough...YOU CAN TAKE VIDEO GRABS! A must... this is fun, as well as occasionally useful.
The Celestia Motherlode
The largest collection of Celestia resources on the web. There are hundreds of add-ons, as well as a library of documentation and utilities.
Includes these categories to search through:
Cinelerra
Linux
Cinelerra does primarily 3 main things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It's a seamless integration of audio, video, and still photos rarely experienced on a web server.
Cinergy Script Editor
Windows, (Mac OS coming soon!)
A free script editor, this application looks to be a handy tool for all your writing needs.
FreePlayMusic
Royalty-free music for non-commercial use. A LOT of good stuff on this site, searchable by mood, genre, and instruments.
Geeware Motion Capture
Windows
DGeeMe is a free, video based motion capture and analysis software package that has functions for converting video action into CGI character animation.
Jahshaka
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Irix, (and Solaris soon)
It's a free compositing and editing system, which is in continuous development (and not yet at a point where it would be called finished). But there's a new version available every now and then, and it looks REALLY promising. So if you want to do effects, and can't afford AfterEffects or Combustion, check out Jahshaka.
Kino DV
Linux
Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in RawDV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
MoviePlanner™
Windows, Mac OS using PC emulator software
Helps you co-ordinate all of the things you need in order to complete your film project. In essence it is an easy way to break down your movie into manageable pieces. Excellent resource from Concept Work to Post Production. Keeps it all nice and neat and saves into nice small files ready for distributing. Your whole crew and cast should have this program.
OpenFX
Windows
OpenFX is an Open-Source 3D modeling, animation and rendering suite. A powerful feature-set includes a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API. Plugin capabilities include image post processor effects such as lens flare, fog and depth of field. Animation effects such as explosions, waves and dissolves add enormously to the flexibility of the program. Check out the full list of the various effect types and let your imagination run wild!
Podcast Autocue
Windows
Podcast Autocue instantly lets you create a wordperfect Podcast or Vidcast - you can talk just like you normally do without having to be self-conscious or think about what to say. All you have to do is type your script out in a text editor like Notepad, Metapad, etc. and load it into Podcast Autocue and you're good to go.
RoughDraft 3.0
Windows
A free word processor. Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays.
SketchUp
Windows, (Mac OS coming soon!)
An easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships.
Terragen™
Windows, Mac OS
Short for terrain-generator. Capable of creating photorealistic results for professional landscape visualisation, special effects, art and recreation.
Camera Path Editor
The Camera Path Editor is a near-professional-quality motion data generation tool. CamPath 4+ uses a plugin architecture to provide a much greater degree of flexibility than previous versions. Instead of being restricted to Terragen heightfields, scripts, and a set point interpolation method, it is possible to use DLL-based plugins that increase the number of data types that can be imported and exported and use different point (keyframe) interpolation techniques to change how the camera behaves.
Translation: Make it look like a fly-by shot!!
VideoMach
Windows, Linux(w/ Wine installed)
A powerful audio/video builder and converter. Use it to construct video clips from still images, enhance your recorded material or convert video, audio and image files between popular media formats.
Voodoo Camera Tracker
Windows, Linux
The Voodoo Camera Tracker estimates camera parameters and reconstructs a 3D scene from image sequences. The estimation algorithm offers a full automatic and robust solution to estimate camera parameters for long video sequences. The results are useful for many applications like film production, 3D reconstruction or video coding.
Wax
Windows
Wax is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software. The idea for Wax is to be very general purpose and flexible in video compositing and effects, so that you can compose your dream video sequence with ease everytime. Wax can create 2D & 3D special effects and can work in two modes - as a standalone application which would appeal for home users/beginners, and as a "plug-in" to video editors/NLEs which would be more useful for professional editors. Currently Wax can work as a plug-in with Sony Vegas®, Pure Motion EditStudio, and Adobe Premiere®.
WinMorph
Windows, (soon to Linux)
WinMorph is a high performance morphing and warping software. WinMorph has been used in movies such as Dreamcatcher and real life projects such as roadshows for promoting products. Works as a standalone, and also as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere, Vegas Video, and Wax.
ZS4 Video Editor
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
The new incarnation of Zwei-Stein Video Editor, is advanced video editing and compositing software with over 150 built-in video effects. Tutorials located here.
Updated: Friday, May 12th, 2006, 1:46am
ACID® XPress 5.0
Windows, ???
It's easy to create original music-even if you're new to loop-based music software. Download and install ACID XPress. Then, get loops from the Loops & Samples collection or from ACIDplanet.com to create your own music.
AnalogX Vocal Remover
Windows, ???
Ever had a song you thought would be perfect to put in a video, but the lyrics in the song made it unusable? Well, this program will remove the lyrics from a song. (Karaoke, anyone?)
Anasazi Stop Motion Animator
Windows
Anasazi is cutting edge animation capturing software that saves and plays back your animation on your hard drive. If you already have a digital camera and a computer with a graphics card then you can begin animating your clay creations today.
Atomic Learning's FREE Video StoryBoard Pro
Windows, Mac OS
Designed to give teachers, students, and home movie makers a tool to plan ahead when creating video projects. It features the ability to:
- Enter shot titles and descriptions, complete with planned lengths and edited order.
- Indicate shot types: video, still, audio, music, or titles.
- Enter film tips for your camera person when videotaping the shot and editing tips to be used when editing in iMovie or Final Cut Pro or Premeire, or any other editor of your choice.
- Import existing video clips, still pictures, and sounds to better illustrate each shot.
- Create, save, and import templates for video projects.
- Print copies of your storyboard for use while filming or editing.
- Print blank storyboard worksheets for brainstorming new ideas.
- NEW: Shot tips that link to online Atomic Learning Library sample video clips.
Avid Free DV [I use this and it rocks!]
Windows, Mac OS X
Avid Free DV is feature-streamlined, standalone software which includes basic video and audio editing capabilities, up to two streams of real-time effects and support for both Windows XP and Macintosh OS X platforms.
Avid Free DV Tutorials
Since the program can seem a tad overwelming if you aren't familiar with *good* video editing software, then download these Flash videos and watch them step by step to see just how easy Avid Free DV really is to learn!
Blender
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Irix, Solaris
A freeware 3D animation and modelling suite.
Blender Wars
A tutorial site with tons of resources, models, and plug-ins to help you figure the damned program out!
CamStudio
Windows
This program lets you record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using it's built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)
Celestia
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
A real-time utility that allows you to plunge through the universe at your own pace, revolve in 3D, and, if this wasn't cool enough...you can take screengrabs. Oh, and if it wasn't cool enough...YOU CAN TAKE VIDEO GRABS! A must... this is fun, as well as occasionally useful.
The Celestia Motherlode
The largest collection of Celestia resources on the web. There are hundreds of add-ons, as well as a library of documentation and utilities.
Includes these categories to search through:
- Solar System - Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Kuiper Belt, Asteroids, and Comets
- Space-craft - Earth-orbiting and others
- Extrasolar (Deep Space) Objects - Galaxies, Messier Nebulae (w00t!), Other Nebulae, Data Plots, and Stars
- Fictional - 2001: A Space Odyssey, ArcBuilder Universe, Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Wars, Craft & Stations, and Planets & Systems
- Resources - Documentation, Scripts, Educational, Utilities, and Creator Links
Cinelerra
Linux
Cinelerra does primarily 3 main things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It's a seamless integration of audio, video, and still photos rarely experienced on a web server.
Cinergy Script Editor
Windows, (Mac OS coming soon!)
A free script editor, this application looks to be a handy tool for all your writing needs.
FreePlayMusic
Royalty-free music for non-commercial use. A LOT of good stuff on this site, searchable by mood, genre, and instruments.
Geeware Motion Capture
Windows
DGeeMe is a free, video based motion capture and analysis software package that has functions for converting video action into CGI character animation.
Jahshaka
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Irix, (and Solaris soon)
It's a free compositing and editing system, which is in continuous development (and not yet at a point where it would be called finished). But there's a new version available every now and then, and it looks REALLY promising. So if you want to do effects, and can't afford AfterEffects or Combustion, check out Jahshaka.
Kino DV
Linux
Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in RawDV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
MoviePlanner™
Windows, Mac OS using PC emulator software
Helps you co-ordinate all of the things you need in order to complete your film project. In essence it is an easy way to break down your movie into manageable pieces. Excellent resource from Concept Work to Post Production. Keeps it all nice and neat and saves into nice small files ready for distributing. Your whole crew and cast should have this program.
OpenFX
Windows
OpenFX is an Open-Source 3D modeling, animation and rendering suite. A powerful feature-set includes a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API. Plugin capabilities include image post processor effects such as lens flare, fog and depth of field. Animation effects such as explosions, waves and dissolves add enormously to the flexibility of the program. Check out the full list of the various effect types and let your imagination run wild!
Podcast Autocue
Windows
Podcast Autocue instantly lets you create a wordperfect Podcast or Vidcast - you can talk just like you normally do without having to be self-conscious or think about what to say. All you have to do is type your script out in a text editor like Notepad, Metapad, etc. and load it into Podcast Autocue and you're good to go.
RoughDraft 3.0
Windows
A free word processor. Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays.
SketchUp
Windows, (Mac OS coming soon!)
An easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships.
Terragen™
Windows, Mac OS
Short for terrain-generator. Capable of creating photorealistic results for professional landscape visualisation, special effects, art and recreation.
Camera Path Editor
The Camera Path Editor is a near-professional-quality motion data generation tool. CamPath 4+ uses a plugin architecture to provide a much greater degree of flexibility than previous versions. Instead of being restricted to Terragen heightfields, scripts, and a set point interpolation method, it is possible to use DLL-based plugins that increase the number of data types that can be imported and exported and use different point (keyframe) interpolation techniques to change how the camera behaves.
Translation: Make it look like a fly-by shot!!
VideoMach
Windows, Linux(w/ Wine installed)
A powerful audio/video builder and converter. Use it to construct video clips from still images, enhance your recorded material or convert video, audio and image files between popular media formats.
Voodoo Camera Tracker
Windows, Linux
The Voodoo Camera Tracker estimates camera parameters and reconstructs a 3D scene from image sequences. The estimation algorithm offers a full automatic and robust solution to estimate camera parameters for long video sequences. The results are useful for many applications like film production, 3D reconstruction or video coding.
Wax
Windows
Wax is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software. The idea for Wax is to be very general purpose and flexible in video compositing and effects, so that you can compose your dream video sequence with ease everytime. Wax can create 2D & 3D special effects and can work in two modes - as a standalone application which would appeal for home users/beginners, and as a "plug-in" to video editors/NLEs which would be more useful for professional editors. Currently Wax can work as a plug-in with Sony Vegas®, Pure Motion EditStudio, and Adobe Premiere®.
WinMorph
Windows, (soon to Linux)
WinMorph is a high performance morphing and warping software. WinMorph has been used in movies such as Dreamcatcher and real life projects such as roadshows for promoting products. Works as a standalone, and also as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere, Vegas Video, and Wax.
ZS4 Video Editor
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
The new incarnation of Zwei-Stein Video Editor, is advanced video editing and compositing software with over 150 built-in video effects. Tutorials located here.
Updated: Friday, May 12th, 2006, 1:46am