Some music editing software I’m looking into.

Programs for audio production:
I’ve recently started listening to a genius Leo Moracchioli as he makes his metal version of cover songs, Which are awesome and he is pretty forthcoming about what software he uses which is good for me as I always like to get my hands on cool software and see what frankensteinish monstrosity I can come up with.
Just for fun…

It’s alive…. it’s aliiiiveeee!!!!!!

Ahem….
Here’s some of the mentioned software he uses.

Kemper Amps

Reaper

Toontrack

EZmix –
Try them out and let me know what you can come up with. I’m going to have to try them out soon and make some projects of myown.

Some html5 tools to sidestep Flash

For more time than I should remember there has been Flash, Flash ads and animations. Now days as web browsing moves to mobile technologies there has been a tendency to side step flash and shove it away.
Enter html5 and all its graces. Thanks to html 5 and many applications able to generate it now days we are able to convert flash animation along with some of its interactivity into html5 files that will work on any device.

Some tools to help other designers in the process are:

• Swiffy – A simple Flash to HTML5 converter that helps make SWF files available to a larger audience. You can simply upload your published swf and it makes a nifty html file with all you need. Just pop it into a div or iframe and you’re good to go.
• Google Web Designer  – This is an aplication that lets you author html 5 products like you would do in flash. It’s pretty simple to use.

I for one have tried and tested both options and they work great for my needs. I’m certain that there’s a ton more available.

Remember there’s also Game authoring tools that you can use to make games and apps that publish in html5.

• I’ve used Construct 2 from Scirra for a long time(3+years) and although it’s not for everyone It certainly works for me and a very active and friendly community of developers too.

I hope this helps someone out there as it certainly helped me solve some work issues since our friend Google started adding “play” buttons to ads thus ruining the click experience for users.

 

Useful Programs Bank

This is one basic list of some useful programs I’ve found over the years and incorporated into my workflow in many cases the programs are free I’m certain that the non/free programs may also have a trial version or someone somewhere made a similar free program. I shall try to keep this post updated from time to time.

Web design programs or services:

Since html5 has taken over the internet I’ve decided to edit this article and update it with some useful tools I’ve found on the interwebs.

Turn.js: Flipping book creator javascript which lets you make your own flipping book by adding some simple code which you can obviously complicate quite a  bit if you want.

Google web Designer: I’ve already mentioned this one in one of my articles.  Let’s just say its a great tool to side step flash.

 

Illustrative Arts Programs:

Paint – This is included with your Windows operating system. We allowed some minor fixes to some images and allows us to save in various formats (BMP , JPG … )

 

The GIMP, is an open- code that has many capabilities similar to photoshop. The same is a bit tedious for many people to install but once installed it proves to be one of the most powerful free image management I’ve found the web programs.

 

Paint.Net is a FREE editing program that has graphics similar functionality to Photoshop though a little easier .

 

Inkscape – a program for vector like Adobe Illustrator. This is open source .

 

Another program that I have is one of my favorites is ARTRAGE ( has cost but worth it ) This is a paint program with excellent working tools which give the artist the ” feeling” working with traditional materials and the end result has IMHO the quality and purity necessary to be considered as being an original artwork regardless of it being digital medium.

 

Mypaint – like program but art artrage free and very useful if you have some artist.

 

Do not forget the office programs that are available such as:

 

Online Html editor quite useful

Free-playMusic -Get free music to play in presentations, animations and others.

Open Office – A suite of office programs free and open source similar and consistent with those of microsoft (Word / PowerPoint / Excel … etc)

A good useful program called Articulate Presenter includes two more programs ( Engage and Quizmaker ) . This program allows us to make a presentation and convert it into Flash format. Besides we convert flash adds a navigation bar, allows us to record narration and allows us to easily integrate the elements of the 3 programs in one presentation with all the bells and whistles. It has some additional features but those are the ones we are currently using. There are other programs on the Net that do something similar, but we use this is up to the full hour.

There are several programs that are similar to Articulate (and a whole lot more affordable).

http://www.ispringsolutions.com

http://www.sameshow.com/index.html

Remember that Google has its free app today and also have a “market” included in your Chrome browser which can download and install applications directly in the browser. In addition to your google account (like an e- mail to gmail ) have free access to these and other tools ( Google Docs, Blogger, Reader, News, Videos , Maps, Draw … etc … )

 

There is an Internet address that I find invaluable when looking for a LEGAL programagratis it , it is http://www.freedownloadscenter.com hope you do find as useful as I do.

 

Picasa – This is included among the many programs that Google is offering in their ” secret place ” is an area that not all Google users know it exists. This area has a lot of utilities and programs free of charge to the community of Google and the online community that you know where to look .

 

3d programs:

 

Blender – Free program modeling , 3D animation and video game contains an engine to analyze and test your models in a gaming environment . Additional program has very good simulators liquid , smoke, fire , dust , hair and others. The community that supports it is very active .

 

Sculptris – from the makers of Zbrush engine is similar to the modeling of the program and allows you to ‘ paint ‘ their models creating various textures . It also allows import and export in obj format is one of the most common 3D interchange formats between programs.

 

MeshLab – This program allows you to manipulate 3d models reduce polygons, adjusting and making some corrections or effects. The site is frankly rubbish and the program has a somewhat rustic look but is an excellent program and its free.

more later on…

Old testament and new Technology

As a fun project for my old testament class oral report I decided to do something none of the students in the class had ever seen. So I mixed up the old and the new with the help of Metaio a little wikipedia information, some Blender and the help of my cellphone and a piece of paper. I took the opportunity to show some of my fellow students the potential of Augmented Reality while giving a report on the Desert Tabernacle of Moses.

Here’s some sample screen captures taken from my phone so you can get how it looks live.

Sample viewed before scanning the qr code

Sample layout taken from wikipedia article. I added the junaio qr code to it.

Sample viewed trough the Junaio app

This is how it looks trough the app.

The model is a low poly, and textured version based on a printable concept. It is not 100% accurate or complete by my standards but it was a nice test.
It’s not about showing off more than the fact that I like to give back to the community what little extra information I find that may be useful to know about. Who knows?… maybe they’ll find it so interesting that they can do something with it in the future.

I’m not sure how long it will be fully functional and the model is set to be “fast detection/ low precision” which means it will be easy to detect but may jump a little if not angled right.

I’ll post my target image with the qr code so you can try it out. Remember it only works if you download the junaio app from your mobile’s app store (it is free). Have fun and I hope this article is a bit informative if not inspiring I’m certain some of you can do something cool with this.

enjoy this is an example of my little project I hope you like it.

If you find interest in the desert tabernacle you can find tons of information google-ing it but this site has some very nice information too :
http://thedeserttabernacle.blogspot.com/

CSS generator (Box, Text, Gradiant) Shadows and more

Made using Shape Generator

As a designer sometimes you have to go and venture the depths of the internet in search for tools that will help you accomplish quick and easy repetitive tasks. Sometimes you have to make a box shadow or a box button or some gradient or some text shadow to make your designs pop. This is where hard working people that make the “generators” get their glory. This is an example of one such Generator sites. There’s sites for generating css triangles and shapes too among other tutorials and sites like this one that gather them in “best 20” style which is awesome for us to go fetch.

There’s an old saying. If the wheel is already invented why make it again. As designers we can re-design and re-shape it but re-making it is a waste of time and effort for production based designers like myself. I give the thanks to those who make the code and scripts needed those who fiddle and prod at the code to make it react with new found life and vibrance so that others can make use of it and say hey… that dude did an awesome job thanks to your code and hopefully one day we can share the results of the combined effort and one day maybe even give something back to the developing community in hopes of a better designed and better scripted internet.

Those are my two cents inspired by the many coders, scripters and and developpers out there. I thank you all.