Creating a free FOSS home studio

[ARichards]

Hello everyone, Allen from B-Independent.com here. I hope no one minds if a newbie to these forums, like myself, posts a link to my site, but I’m curious to hear what many of you have to say on this topic since a number of you appear to be tech-oriented.

A little over a month ago, I posted the first 2 parts of a planned 4-part series of articles to my website regarding the creation of a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) home studio. The first piece is a brief overview and the second is more product specific.

http://www.b-independent.com/production/foss1.htm
http://www.b-independent.com/production/foss2.htm

I’ve noticed that the vast majority of these forums are specificly geared towards established commercial products. Has anyone here used FOSS? What’s your experience been?

Take care,

Allen

[ralck]

Looks pretty good so far. I love open-source and freeware stuff (being a college student, isn’t that mandatory 😀 ).

One more thing you might want to look into and add is Virtual Dub Mod. It’s free and (I think) cross platform. It’s a really simple editor, but could be used to cut video together.

[ARichards]

I received a message from someone the other day regarding teh inclusion of Virtual Dub. I passed it along to Rob Robinson of Stunt Kitty Films, the author of those pieces, and he told me that he left VD out because it was Mac only. I’ll have to double check to be sure.

Thanks for the feedback,

Allen

ps – I know what you mean. The only thing I got out of 6 years of filmschool is that you never pass up free anything…

[ralck]

Is Virtual Dub Mod the same as Virtual Dub? I know for a fact I have used it on a PC.

[ARichards]

probably not, but let me get back to you….

[Anonymous]

It is interesting because I use both Microsoft Office and Open Office so I have some faith in open source apps and I know what good ones can do.
I did not realize that there were open source [maybe I should say "feature rich" quality open source] NLE’s out there.

I like Adobe because I know how to use it and it does everything that I need it to do.
If I can find an open source application that can bridge other open source products that I would need [image and graphic programs] in the process of producing a short clip, I’m all for it.

Because I work from 3 different computers, a good open source would be far more practical than 3 costly licenses.

The bottom line is the finale product.
If I use Adobe, Sony or a good open source app, no one will care also long as the images are there.
Good images!

Thanks for the link.

[RobRobinson]

VIRTUALDUB and its offshoot VIRTUALDUBMOD look like relatively popular applications for capture and processing with some editing capabilities, but strictly for use in a Windows environment.

Most of the software I covered in the articles is cross-platform. (I thought this was the most reasonable way to go for an introductory article as I didn’t have a real good idea of who was using what platform and cross-platform implies an extra degree of acceptability and ease of use.)

The thing about FOSS is there is so much out there and more is appearing everyday it’s hard to keep up unless everyone shares their favorite applications and new discoveries so it’s great to have the input.

Anybody got a favorite FOSS app they’re using in their projects?

[Endeavor]

Great article! I submitted it to digg. This is just the thing diggers like!
Digg it here:
http://digg.com/software/Create_a_FOSS_Free_and_Open_Source_Film_Production_Studio

[ralck]

Virtual Dub Mod does supply the source code. Is there some library they are using that is keeping it on Windows only?

[Endeavor]

When’s part 3 gonna be ready??? 😀

[ARichards]

Thanks for showing up Rob. As you can see, I was wrong as usual….Windows not Mac….*slaps forehead*

Endeavor, thanks for the great plug on your site. I’m really trying to push Rob’s articles as much as I can.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has actually researched this out before Rob. To be honest, as Rob will attest from conversations on myown messageboards, I was completely unfamiliar with FOSS as a whole when I happened to stumble across CELTIX. I think the premise of doing an entire feature using FOSS software is an exciting one, especially with the costs of commercial applications being as high as they are. As Rob mentions in the article, it really does help level the playing field.

Take care,

Allen
B-Independent.com

[ARichards]

Endeavor Wrote:

When’s part 3 gonna be ready??? 😀

Rob put a TON of work in to the first articles, probably more then he originally intended. He mentioned taking a break to write his new screenplay. I’ll definitely keep everyone posted when it pops up.

[RobRobinson]

ralck Wrote:

Virtual Dub Mod does supply the source code. Is there some library they are using that is keeping it on Windows only?

Good question and I’m not sure of the answer. There’s no mention of a port to Mac on the Virtual Dub homepage, but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t had luck compiling and running it on a Mac, perhaps with the help of a Windows emulator. Anyone know more.

Allen’s correct in saying I’m taking a break between articles to write a screenplay for our next no-budget production. I will tell you the next article will be a more in depth piece regarding what I believe is the swiss army knife of FOSS film making apps, BLENDER 3D, which has previously gotten a bad rap for an "awkward" interface and "steep learning curve".

[Arjun_M]

I too would like to use open source software for editing and compositing. Through Wikipedia, I heard of Jahshaka, so I downloaded Jahshaka v2.0, and it’s very hard to use. Now I find that it’s outdated, and there will be a v3.0 soon.

Then I read a little more about Blender, the 3-D modelling platform, and I find that it also has a compositing module inside it, though node-based, and I’m not too well-versed with that technique. I’m still looking for open-source options I can use to make music videos, which use some basic compositing. I’m not too keen on getting a real green curtain in a shoot, as that may be too expensive, for an experimental project.

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