Homebrew CGI

Software

An project that may be worth keeping an eye on is the Free Film Project <http://www.gnu.org/software/ffp/ffp.html>, which aims to provide CGI utilities (as well as sound, music, script-writing).

2D packages

• The Gimp
• <http://www.gimp.org> Free Software, intended to be a photoshop killer.
• CinePaint
• <http://cinepaint.sourceforge.net/> Free Software - a fork of The Gimp, intended for professional studios because it can handle much higher bit depths. Has been used in the production of Scooby Doo? and Harry Potter.
• Adobe Photoshop
• <http://www.adobe.com/photoshop>
• Paintshop Pro
• <http://www.jasc.com>
• Corel Painter
• <http://www.corel.com/painter>
• Flash
• <http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/> Costs money, but can be downloaded for a 30 day trial period. Flash is used primarily for multimedia web content. Usually, it's just an unnecessary pain in the arse, unless it's very, very funny.
• Director
• <http://www.macromedia.com/director> Pricey. Predates the web, so it wasn't really intended for use in web content. However, it can handle the jobs that Flash can't.
• Adobe Premiere
• <http://www.adobe.com/premiere> Used for video editing.
• Pinnacle Commotion
• <http://www.pinnaclesys.com/commotion> Video editing software.
• Inferno
• <http://www.discreet.com/products/inferno/> Visual effects compositing.

3D packages

• Blender
• <http://www.blender3d.org> Free Software, used to be closed-source, but the sources were GPL'd after frenetic fund raising.
• Lightwave 3D
• <http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave>
• 3D Studio Max
• <http://www.3dmax.com> Very expensive, cracked versions available.
• Maya
• <http://www.aliaswavefront.com/> This was used for the CGI in Spider Man?, Ice Age, Hollow Man, Attack Of The Clones and, most impressively, Gollum in LOTR. Free version "Personal learning edition" available for personal use, but only if you have Windows 2000/XP? Professional or Mac OS? X. Stupid ME?... sob... -- LD
• Cinema 4D
• <http://www.maxoncomputer.com/> Quite easy to use, cool pulg-ins like the Dynamics set that allows you to simulate real-world dynamic forces including friction, gravity, collisions, springs, wind and more.
• Amapi 3D
• <http://www.eovia.com/amapi/product_intro_am.jsp> I've only used version 4.15 because it was free on a PC Format disk, but looks like version 6 is out now. The version I used kept me amused (it's a bit buggy, and the renderer isn't great) until I discovered Cinema 4D. --LD
• Project Messiah
• <http://www.projectmessiah.com/>
• Adobe After Effects
• <http://www.adobe.com/aftereffects>
• Real Flow
• <http://www.fx-graphics.com/nextlimit_realflow.html> Used for modelling particle systems (ie liquid).
• Inferno

Terrain Generation

• Terragen
• <http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/> Free (as in no cost) software for rendering photorealistic scenery, incredibly easy to produce stunning looking results.
• MojoWorld <http://www.pandromeda.com>
• MojoWorld generates an entire planet on the fly using fractals. The user can walk around this planet in real-time before rendering a particular scene (using Transporter, which can be freely downloaded). Through using Generator (the bit that costs money), users can dictate how all planet modelling functions interact with each other to create far more organic, alien landscapes than the traditional Earth-like ones. Also, 3D objects (eg. buildings) can be imported. Available for >=Win98, >=Mac OS? 9. Used to be a Linux version available; now missing, sadly.

Other (possibly) useful information:

Games artists : <http://www.ideasfactory.com/new_media/features/newm_feature_14.htm>

Mesh : a joint project between Channel Four and Blackwatch Productions, intended to nurture talent in the field of CGI (specifically animation) with an emphasis on story-telling skills.

• <http://www.ideasfactory.com/new_media/features/newm_feature_13.htm>
• <http://www.blackwatchtv.com/>