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Free Software and Links

Portable Apps       Video       Audio       Pictures and PDFs    3D and 2D Animation 

Portable Applications

Carry your favorite programs with you from one computer to another... ON YOUR OWN USB JUMP DRIVE OR ON A CD-R and use them on any windows computer.  These apps are 100% FREE, no spyware or adware and no "trial versions".   Try the entire suite or just get the application you need, put it on your USB jump drive and run it anytime you need the application.  A short list of apps available for free download are:

  • Audacity Portable (Great if you're moving around since you'll always have the right "version" of Audacity.  Also see link to other versions under Audio Recording/Editing Software))

  • GIMP Portable (like Photoshop, but free... see more GIMP info and other version downloads under Picture and Graphics Editing tools)

  • Open Office Portable (includes a word processor and other "MS Office-like" tools without the cost)

  • InfraRecorder Portable (for burning CDs/DVDs)

  • Also a variety of "portable" Web Browsers, Music and Video, Office and Utility programs are available

Download all the free Portable Apps from: http://portableapps.com This is a link to another web site

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Video Production and Format Conversion

PhotoStory 3

Create “movies” from still photographs.  Add narration, music and motion effects.  Creates a Windows Media Video.
Download site: Microsoft Download This is a link to another web site

Web Video and Screen Capture

DEBUT: PC Only Screen Capture Software - Captures video and audio from Screen or from YouTube or Google Video
Download from:  http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/ This is a link to another web site

JING: PC or MAC OSX Screen Capture Software - Captures video from Screen and Sound from Microphone
Download from: http://www.jingproject.com/ This is a link to another web site

Web-based YouTube Download and Capture
Go to http://www.mediaconverter.org This is a link to another web site

Note:  This site will download the video and convert it into a variety of different formats.  Note: This is a "web-based" utility so it will only work as long as they maintain this website.

Video Format Conversion

Prism Video Converter
For PC and MAC OSX 10.4 or later
http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/ This is a link to another web site 
Use this converter to convert DVDs, Camcorder HD or Flash Memory stored mpeg or Quicktime .mov formats, etc. to WMV format for use on PC Powerpoint projects.

Note: The "free" trial expires after 30 days but you can open your Control Panel, choose Add/Delete Programs, then choose Prism and "Downgrade to Free Version".

Convert Powerpoint to a Flash Video or Webpage

Use iSpring to Convert a Powerpoint Presentation to a Flash Video or Web Page This is a link to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file This is a link to another web site

Audio Production and Format Conversion

Recording and Editing Audio

Audacity
Multi-Track audio recording, editing and mixing
Record voice, mix with music and sound effects.  Save as a .WAV or .MP3
Also see Portable Audacity above under "Portable Apps"

Download Site:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ This is a link to another web site  

Be sure to download and install the LAME MP3 encoder from this site - Allows Audacity to export to MP3 files.


You can also download an Audacity "Portable Application" that can be run from your USB Jump Drive or burned to and run from a CD-R.  If you use this "portable app" you won't have to worry about running compatible versions since you will be running your own version on whatever computer you're working on.

Download Site for Audacity Portable Apps:  http://portableapps.com/apps This is a link to another web site

Audio Format Conversion

Jodix Audio and Video Converters
WMA to MP3, RM to MP3 Converters
http://www.jodix.com/ This is a link to another web site

SWITCH SOUND FILE CONVERTER
Converts audio from almost any format to almost any other format. 
http://www.nch.com.au/switch/ This is a link to another web site

Note: The "free" trial expires after 30 days but you can open your Control Panel, choose Add/Delete Programs, then choose Switch and "Downgrade to Free Version".

Links to free music and sound effects

NOTE: Only “free” for In-Class Instructional Use – Can not be used for anything posted to the web.  See each site's copyright section for more information concerning usage.

Music (Can only be used "off-line" for in-class presentations)
This site has music organized by CD Volume, Style and “Feel” in 10, 20, 30, 60 second and longer lengths. 

Download Site: http://freeplaymusic.com This is a link to another web site  This music can NOT be used for WEB Presentations but below are sites that provide free music for use on the WEB.

PODCAST / WEB "SAFE" MUSIC
The following links take you to web sources for music you can use on the web or in podcasts.  All you have to do is attribute the work as specified by the author.  Usually a sentence at the end of your podcast or as text on your webpage will be sufficient.

http://www.podsafeaudio.com This is a link to another web site 

http://opsound.com This is a link to another web site

http://ccmixter.org This is a link to another web site 

Sound Effects
The following sites provide links to a wide variety of Sound Effects sites where you can download free sound effects.
http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/free_sound_effects.cfm This is a link to another web site 
http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html This is a link to another web site

Music at the SMS

The SMS has Sonic Fire Pro software that can generate music from our music library to "fit" any type and length presentation. Ask for it when you come to the SMS.

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Free Picture and Graphics Editing Software

Make PDFs without Adobe Acrobat

Free PDF maker - PDFDESK
Create PDFs from Word, Excel, Pictures or any application that allows you to "print" to a PDF file. 
After installing, just choose "File > Print" for any open document or website, then select the PDF "printer" and browse to a location where you want to save your "printed" PDF document.  Easy.
Download Site: http://www.pdfdesk.com/winpdf.html This is a link to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file This is a link to another web site

CUTE PDF WRITER 
CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button!
Download from: http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp This is a link to another web site

Also requires PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript (recommended).
You can get the free GPL Ghostscript 8.15 here: http://www.cutepdf.com/download/converter.exe This is a link to another web site

Photo / Image Editing

GIMP 
A free alternative to Photoshop can be downloaded at: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ This is a link to another web site  You can also find documentation and tutorials on this site.  Looks like it has most, if not all of the features of Photoshop but Photoshop users might find the interface a little hard to use at first ... however, a novice might find it to be just fine since they don't know any better. 

Microsoft Paint
Included in Microsoft's Operating System.  Add text or draw on pictures
From the Windows START button choose: All Programs > Accessories > Paint

Microsoft Office Picture Manager
Included in Microsoft's Operating System.  Basic photo editing including “auto correct”, resize, compress, brightness, contrast, color, crop, rotate and flip, and red eye removal.  Change “format” to BMP, JPG, GIF, PING, TIF.
From the Windows START button choose:  All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Easy Text/Title Graphics for PhotoStory Projects 
You can use Powerpoint to create Title Graphics for use in PhotoStory projects easily by creating a slide with text over a background color or photo, then save the PPT slide as a JPEG image.  After saving the jpeg image, import the image into PhotoStory and place on the PhotoStory timeline.

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Free Animation Software

3D Modeling and Animation

Blender
3D modeling and animation program for MAC and Windows.  There are lots of helpful tutorials and examples on the website.
It can be downloaded from http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ This is a link to another web site

Google SketchUp
Create, modify and share 3D models. Lots of tutorials on the website and YouTube.
download from: http://sketchup.google.com/ This is a link to another web site

2D Animation

Monkey Jam is a digital pencil test program for Windows or on a MAC running Windows in BootCamp.  It is used for creating 2D animations by capturing images form a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames into an animation. You can also import images and sound files already on your computer.  Although it's primary intended use is to capture images to create "cells" for traditional animation, it can also be used to capture 3D objects or cut-out images for stop motion style animation or use "clay-mation" techniques.  The finished animation can then be exported as a video file.
It can be downloaded from: http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam This is a link to another web site/ This is a link to another web site

Pencil is a another Free Open Source 2D animation drawing program for MACs, Windows and Linux.  It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vecotr graphics.
It can be downloaded from: http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/ This is a link to another web site

Frame Thief is another camera capture utility for creating animations from captured paper cells or 3D objects, similar to Monkey Jam, but only runs on MACs.  You can read more about it and download it from:  http://www.framethief.com/index.html This is a link to another web site

 

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