According to one Harrisonburg, Virginia school teacher, school districts can save thousands upon thousands of dollars on various software by using open source applications. Rob Lineweaver has summarized how much it would cost to set up an entire district’s school system on open source software verses conventional packages: http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~rlineweaver/. Estimates on this site show that using open source can save school districts an extra $27,000 per year in software licensing costs. He even states: “This makes it apparent that not all of the benefit of open source software deployment in is the form of cost savings; much of the benefit is in terms of capabilities gained. In other words, through the use of free software, I am able to do more within my budget than I could if I only had commercial solutions available.”
While this site only describes the software necessary to set up the infrastructure of a school district, others describe specific applications an teacher would find useful in the classroom. The Society of Digital Artists has put together a comparison of 3D modeling tools: http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/Comparison_of_3d_tools. On this page is listed the pro’s and con’s of various packages, some freeware and others commercial. Of the list, three freeware packages are cited: Art of Illusion, Blender, and Wings3D. According to this list, using a freeware package for 3D modeling can save you anywhere from 300 to 6,000 dollars. I noticed from the CGSociety’s software comparison web page that the Art of Illusion contains the most limitations as far as texturing, painting, animation and simulation. While Art of Illusion can render objects quite well, Wings3D seems to be the most comprehensive program to use. The main drawback to using Wings3D is that it tends to crash on Macs. Based on the reviews of Chris Dudar on http://www.atpm.com/13.04/wings3d.shtml, Blender is a good competitor of Wings3D because it has more to offer in its menus, but it can be difficult to learn and is reminiscent of ugly that ugly Windows CAD program you had to use in high school (you will also need a 3-button mouse to use it well).
GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is considered very user-friendly by the average non-techy’s standards. According to Dr. Benny’s blog: http://doctorbenny.blogspot.com/2008/09/open-source-software-review-gimp.html, you can manipulate multiple layers, without paying over 700 dollars for PhotoShop:
Dr. Benny using GIMP
You can customize how it uses your system’s resources (good if you are using a raggedy old PC), but unfortunately, its installation files can be hard to find (I had trouble finding them myself) and installation on a PC is cumbersome.
CamStudio is something I am very excited about, because my recent 30 day trial of Camtasia has expired and I need something ASAP for work! The expert editors at www.download.com give it 3 out of 5 stars. They say that there is “no zoom feature, a variety of compressors or file types, or a video editor in the free CamStudio 2.5 (beta).” You also cannot trim video. You can however record everything that takes place on your screen into an AVI or Flash format. According to www.download.com, it is easy to use, easy to “pan” and record with sound. You can also attach various videos together with comments, a timestamp and watermark. This is probably all a teacher needs to create a demo video for students. Compare it to Camtasia and save between 200 to 300 dollars, but…CamStudio is only available for PC!! Whaaah!
Inkscape is a great replacement for vector graphics editors like Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Mahesh Bhat recommends the use of Inkscape based on good usability, compatibility, and price on his blog http://kalaalog.com/2007/04/15/inkscape/. In fact all of the graphics on his blog are created using Inkscape. He claims that the learning curve is not steep. If you are not a full-time artist or a graphic designer, Inkscape has great capabilities. Check out the blog banner he made using Inkscape:
Mahesh's blog banner, made using Inkscape
The interface of Inkscape is similar to that of GIMP, simple to use with a variety of tools. It uses a file type called SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics. Many programs use EPS as a filetype, and Inkscape unfortunately does not import EPS files well, but may in the near future (according to their website). You can download a copy from the Inkscape site: http://inkscape.org/download/. Right now you can download version 0.46 in Windows or Mac, and the older 0.45 version for Linux (not that any of us use that). The Inkscape site labels version 0.46 as stable, and I suppose that means that most bugs have been worked out. Using Inkscape can save a teacher anywhere from 320 to 500 dollars on other types of commercial vector graphics editors like Adobe Illustrator CS3.
Now we come to video editors. Of course there’s always iMovie (which comes installed on your Mac) and Movie Maker (installed on your boring PC), but there are a ton of other free video editing software packages out there. Here’s a non-comprehensive list: Avid Free DV, Jump Cut, Virtual Dub, Wax, Zwei-Stein, Jahshaka, and HyperEngine-AV. About.com rated Avid Free DV their number one free video editor, but unfortunately when I Googled it, I found that it was no longer available. After looking through this long list of free editors, I have come to the conclusion that I like Jahshaka best.
Jahshaka is available for PCs, Macs, and Linux too. Jason Walsh, of UK’s site www.MacUser.co.uk, claims that Jahshaka will one day be an excellent open source application and a good substitute for commercial application such as Final Cut Pro HD, but right now, “it’s just not there yet.” It is called a ‘compositing’ and animation software. I think compositing means that you can arrange, trim, and append video clips. According to Walsh, Jahshaka has a steep learning curve. The user needs to import clips and store them as assets in the applications ‘libraries’ that are then edited using the compositing and animation tools. This application reminds me of GarageBand in the way it looks, with a single window. Walsh has written that while Jahshaka was designed for multi-platform use, it works best with Power Mac G5s using the Nvidia graphics chip. This sounds like an obscure conclusion, right? Walsh writes this because Jahshaka’s performance depends a lot on your graphics chip, so those users with Intel graphics won’t fair as well. Luckily I am a Mac user so I won’t have to worry about this.
You can import animation files and then treat them as layers, with the ability to adjust each layer. You can make adjustments to layers such as embossing and other 3D filters. You can also add additional text and ‘painted’ graphics.
This application was easy for me to get started with because it works in clips, like GarageBand, but I had some trouble with the spinning beach ball of death. This application can work with DV, AVI, and QuickTime, Mpeg, MP3, MP2, and WAV files. You can save your project so that it plays as a DivX video. Considering that Final Cut Pro comes in the Final Cut Studio package, which goes for 1,299 dollars, I am perfectly okay with my non-mature Jahshaka. Check out their site to download your own copy and see what can be made using this application: www.jahshaka.org, or take a look a this clip from their site (made entirely from Jahshaka):
Now we come to video editors. Of course there’s always iMovie (which comes installed on your Mac) and Movie Maker (installed on your boring PC), but there are a ton of other free video editing software packages out there. Here’s a non-comprehensive list: Avid Free DV, Jump Cut, Virtual Dub, Wax, Zwei-Stein, Jahshaka, and HyperEngine-AV. About.com rated Avid Free DV their number one free video editor, but unfortunately when I Googled it, I found that it was no longer available. After looking through this long list of free editors, I have come to the conclusion that I like Jahshaka best.
Jahshaka is available for PCs, Macs, and Linux too. Jason Walsh, of UK’s site www.MacUser.co.uk, claims that Jahshaka will one day be an excellent open source application and a good substitute for commercial application ssuch as Final Cut Pro HD, but right now, “it’s just not there yet.” It is called a ‘compositing’ and animation software. I think compositing means that you can arrange, trim, and append video clips. According to Walsh, Jahshaka has a steep learning curve. The user needs to import clips and store them as assets in the applications ‘libraries’ that are then edited using the compositing and animation tools. This application reminds me of GarageBand in the way it looks, with a single window. Walsh has written that while Jahshaka was designed for multi-platform use, it works best with Power Mac G5s using the Nvidia graphics chip. This sounds like an obscure conclusion, right? Walsh writes this because Jahshaka’s performance depends a lot on your graphics chip, so those users with Intel graphics won’t fair as well. Luckily I am a Mac user so I won’t have to worry about this.
You can import animation files and then treat them as layers, with the ability to adjust each layer. You can make adjustments to layers such as embossing and other 3D filters. You can also add additional text and ‘painted’ graphics.
This application was easy for me to get started with because it works in clips, like GarageBand, but I had some trouble with the spinning beach ball of death. This application can work with DV, AVI, and QuickTime, Mpeg, MP3, MP2, and WAV files. You can save your project so that it plays as a DivX video. Considering that Final Cut Pro comes in the Final Cut Studio package, which goes for 1,299 dollars, I am perfectly okay with my non-mature Jahshaka. Check out their site to download your own copy and see what can be made using this application: www.jahshaka.org, or take a look a this clip from their site (made entirely from Jahshaka):
And now we come to video editors. Of course there’s always iMovie (which comes installed on your Mac) and Movie Maker (installed on your boring PC), but there are a ton of other free video editing software packages out there. Here’s a non-comprehensive list: Avid Free DV, Jump Cut, Virtual Dub, Wax, Zwei-Stein, Jahshaka, and HyperEngine-AV. About.com rated Avid Free DV their number one free video editor, but unfortunately when I Googled it, I found that it was no longer available. After looking through this long list of free editors, I have come to the conclusion that I like Jahshaka best.
Jahshaka is available for PCs, Macs, and Linux too. Jason Walsh, of UK’s site www.MacUser.co.uk, claims that Jahshaka will one day be an excellent open source application and a good substitute for commercial application ssuch as Final Cut Pro HD, but right now, “it’s just not there yet.” It is called a ‘compositing’ and animation software. I think compositing means that you can arrange, trim, and append video clips. According to Walsh, Jahshaka has a steep learning curve. The user needs to import clips and store them as assets in the applications ‘libraries’ that are then edited using the compositing and animation tools. This application reminds me of GarageBand in the way it looks, with a single window. Walsh has written that while Jahshaka was designed for multi-platform use, it works best with Power Mac G5s using the Nvidia graphics chip. This sounds like an obscure conclusion, right? Walsh writes that this because Jahshaka’s performance depends a lot on your graphics chip, so those users with Intel graphics won’t fair as well. Luckily I am a Mac user so I won’t have to worry about this.
You can import animation files and then treat them as layers, with the ability to adjust each layer. You can make adjustments to layers such as embossing and other 3D filters. You can also add additional text and ‘painted’ graphics.
This application was easy for me to get started with because it works in clips, like GarageBand, but I had some trouble with the spinning beach ball of death. This application can work with DV, AVI, and QuickTime, Mpeg, MP3, MP2, and WAV files. You can save your project so that it plays as a DivX video. Considering that Final Cut Pro comes in the Final Cut Studio package, which goes for 1,299 dollars, I am perfectly okay with my non-mature Jahshaka. Check out their site to download your own copy and see what can be made using this application, www.jahshaka.org:
Jahshaka's Clip-Style Editing Window
