The Gimp - Free Your Images

One of the main aspects of my work is to create titles and manipulate graphics for video. Of course I could spend the money on Photoshop but I am cheap and as well it doesn't run in Linux. Thats why I use The Gimp, an open-source, free image manipulation program. The Gimp of course stands for Gnu Image Manipulation Program.

When you start up the gimp you are greeted with three windows usually. These are the main Tool bar and Tool property window. As well you will see a Layers window and a Channels window. An image of the main Tool bar window is below.

To create a new document you would select the File menu and choose New. You will then be greeted with the following. Choose the size and resolution you want and proceed.

You will now have a nice new canvas to work with. As well you could obviously open a pre-existing image to manipulate. As with the proprietary counterpart there are the usual options for selecting filters and scripts.

As a quicker way to select a filter, you can also right-click anywhere on the image and select any options from the pop-up menu.

With a little practice you can basically do anything that you can do in Photoshop or any other image manipulation program. It takes some exploring to figure out where everything is that you expect to be there and I have yet to notice anything that isn't.

So for something that is free. There is so much that can be done. Why fork out the cash or worry about copyright issues. Use The Gimp and don't worry. Oh and before I forget. There is also a windows port for those who haven't yet switched.

Cinelerra -Open Source Video Editing

One of the best way's to keep costs down is to not for out the big bucks for a video editing program. Most high end programs cost $1000 and up and thats a little steep at the moment. Specially when there are alternatives, free alternatives.

Behold the world of Cinelerra from the people at Heroine Virtual Ltd. This is a completely free full fledged editing solution for the Linux operating system. It has comparable features to most high end high priced products. This includes full HD support (depending on hardware of course), and the ability to render in Quicktime H.264 and other Mpeg-4 formats.

Lets start by taking a look around.

This is the main interface. (I have two monitors to facilitate the work flow a lot more easily)

As you can see there is a lot to be done here. But first we start with loading in some digitized footage in raw dv format. I make sure to select the create new resource only option in the drop down menu. I will add them to the timeline later.

They will now appear in the media folder and a double click will load them up into the viewer.

At this point we can select some in points and out points and then insert or overwrite them to the timeline. You can also drag and drop these media files onto the timeline.

We can now cut and edit our media and apply effects. There is a wide selection of video and audio effects, as well as some transitions. I added a rotate effect since we shot this through a 35mm adapter which causes our image to be inverted. Right-clicking on the effect and selcting show will give you a option window for that effect.

When you are done your edit, you can then render it out to a file or bring it back into the program for future manipulation.

I wont go though all the details of this program as this in not really meant to be a tutorial but more of a review of what this software is capable of.

It however isn't perfect and can cause some headaches. It does crash every once and awhile. I can't get the record functions to work, as well I can't get it to output to my camera either. This means I have to capture using another program which is a little inconvenient and slows down my work flow.

Overall it is a capable program and for the price you can't go wrong. I don't know id the problems are with my particular hardware setup or if it has to do with a bug in the program. I am always tweaking and eventually I will figure out some of the problems I am having.

So give it a whirl, if not just to play with.

Hello and Welcome

I run my own small production company in Burnaby, BC (the link is on the sidebar). As well I write another blog reviewing the food I eat and the drinks I drink (again on the sidebar).

This blog is about my experiences using Linux at my workplace. I am small and software is very pricey in the video production world. Why spend even the hundreds for an OS when Linux is here for the using.

So sit back and enjoy my joys and sometimes not so joys trying to run my business using Linux.