Filed under: Audio, Design, Fun, Photo, Text, Utilities, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, Productivity, Apple, OpenOffice.org, Freeware, Open Source
How To: Create your own ILM for (almost) nothing
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Aug 16th 2005
In a former life I was a filmmaker. It just so happened I was still a technology geek, so the best part of the film, for me, were the effects (and the story, natch). Up until a few years ago it would cost you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to do things that today might cost a few hundred bucks. Gotta love Moore's Law. What I want to show you is a bunch of free (or cheap) software that will give you many of the tools used by special effects houses. As usual, you will have to know how to use these tools— no griping about interfaces or workflow. Remember what Yoda said, "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."
And one caveat: I'm not talking hardware. Apps like Cinelerra will run on puny systems (like 1 Ghz P4's), but your mileage will vary. So be forewarned: this ain't Engadget or hack-a-day, so nevermind the bollocks, here come the apps you'll need. Go build the biggest, baddest box you can find to make your Lucas dreams come true.
Actually, if you can swing it, you might want to consider getting a few machines, so you can use the right tool for the job:
- One dual-AMD hopped-up Linux box running Cinelerra. Add a RAID 5 array for a video editing system, and CMS, and 3d
- One high-end Wintel box for audio, editing text, browsing (research), image editing, accounting, and 3d work
- One Mac mini for quickie video editing (iMovie), music production (GarageBand), CMS, 3d, DVD burning (iLife comes with the Mac, remember?)
Also, it's nice to have graphics tablets, DV cameras, some homebuilt film gear.
Enough about hardware, here's the software to get you going...
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
