Jonas Dichelle and Luca Rood are a delight. They’re such fun to talk to… especially when it comes to a cool event that they organize, Nodevember. It’s an annual event (in its second year) where artists celebrate the awesomeness of nodes throughout the month of November. Think of like Inktober—or maybe bettter, NaNoWriMo—but for art generated with nodes. Of course, to be a part of Nodevember, it’s probably a good idea to understand what nodes actually are. A lot of digital are familiar with a layer-based approach to work, as you may find in GIMP, Krita, Photoshop, or sheets of acetate. Layers are great and over the years, they’ve gained more and more functionality in digital applications. However, they’re still limited by they’re stacked-style organization. A layer at the top of the stack necessarily affects all of the layers beneath it. Nodes work differently. Instead of having a block of data that automatically affects blocks below it (like layers), nodes systems can have multiple inputs and each of those inputs can run through a series of logical operations en route to one or more outputs. And the really cool thing is that this way of working is entirely non-destructive and procedural. Not only does it mean you can easily change how your art looks without irreversibly changing your input material. It also means you can more easily change and animate. Nodes can be used in all manner of artistic applications, from 3D and VFX to audio and game design. To get an idea of what can be done, just have a look at the #nodevember hash tag on Twitter or Instagram. It’s really incredible stuff. Of course, Nodevember isn’t the only thing we talk about. After all, the whole event was born at the 2019 Blender Conference. Both Jonas and Luca are active Blender users, so we also took some time to talk about Blender, open source development, and how so many developers of creative open source applications started as artists who needed a feature. I had a lot of fun talking with these two, and I’m excited to where they go with their event in the future. In the meantime, were still in the month of November as I write this, so head on over to Nodevember.io and see if there’s a prompt that you find interesting!

Jonas Dichelle and Luca Rood are a delight. They’re such fun to talk to… especially when it comes to a cool event that they organize, Nodevember. It’s an annual event (in its second year) where artists celebrate the awesomeness of nodes throughout the month of November. Think of like Inktober—or maybe bettter, NaNoWriMo—but for art generated with nodes. Of course, to be a part of Nodevember, it’s probably a good idea to understand what nodes actually are. A lot of digital are familiar with a layer-based approach to work, as you may find in GIMP, Krita, Photoshop, or sheets of acetate. Layers are great and over the years, they’ve gained more and more functionality in digital applications. However, they’re still limited by they’re stacked-style organization. A layer at the top of the stack necessarily affects all of the layers beneath it. Nodes work differently. Instead of having a block of data that automatically affects blocks below it (like layers), nodes systems can have multiple inputs and each of those inputs can run through a series of logical operations en route to one or more outputs. And the really cool thing is that this way of working is entirely non-destructive and procedural. Not only does it mean you can easily change how your art looks without irreversibly changing your input material. It also means you can more easily change and animate. Nodes can be used in all manner of artistic applications, from 3D and VFX to audio and game design. To get an idea of what can be done, just have a look at the #nodevember hash tag on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nodevember" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/nodevember/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. It’s really incredible stuff. Of course, Nodevember isn’t the only thing we talk about. After all, the whole event was born at the 2019 Blender Conference. Both Jonas and Luca are active <a href="https://blender.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blender</a> users, so we also took some time to talk about Blender, open source development, and how so many developers of creative open source applications started as artists who needed a feature. I had a lot of fun talking with these two, and I’m excited to where they go with their event in the future. In the meantime, were still in the month of November as I write this, so head on over to <a href="https://nodevember.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nodevember.io</a> and see if there’s a prompt that you find interesting!

Nodevember With Jonas Dichelle and Luca Rood

It’s been too long since the last episode. However, we’re definitely not done. This time around, I got to talk with Greg Zaal about all things HDRI. In case you weren’t aware, an HDRI is a “high dynamic range image”. And in the context of what Greg does, we’re specifically talking about full 360° panoramic images with high dynamic range. In Greg’s words, it’s a means of “copy/pasting” the lighting from a given environment so you can use it in your 3D scenes for realistic lighting. It’s a fantasticly informative talk and his workflow for capturing and processing HDRIs is worth taking notes on. In show-related news, commenting on the site has returned! I finally got everything up and running with Isso. I also managed to migrate all of the old Disqus comments over as well. So hooray for that! Also, in this rather largish break between episodes, I managed to be a guest on two other podcasts that are much bigger than mine, The Survival Podcast and FLOSS Weekly. So if you’re coming here from either one of those shows, welcome! I hope you enjoy yourself here. And now… back to the show.

It’s been too long since the last episode. However, we’re definitely not done. This time around, I got to talk with Greg Zaal about all things HDRI. In case you weren’t aware, an HDRI is a “high dynamic range image”. And in the context of what Greg does, we’re specifically talking about full 360° panoramic images with high dynamic range. In Greg’s words, it’s a means of “copy/pasting” the lighting from a given environment so you can use it in your 3D scenes for realistic lighting. It’s a fantasticly informative talk and his workflow for capturing and processing HDRIs is worth taking notes on. In show-related news, commenting on the site has returned! I finally got everything up and running with <a href="https://posativ.org/isso/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Isso</a>. I also managed to migrate all of the old Disqus comments over as well. So hooray for that! Also, in this rather largish break between episodes, I managed to be a guest on two other podcasts that are much bigger than mine, <a href="https://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/open-sourced-software-tools" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Survival Podcast</a> and <a href="https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/601" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FLOSS Weekly</a>. So if you’re coming here from either one of those shows, welcome! I hope you enjoy yourself here. And now… back to the show.

HDRI Haven (And Friends) With Greg Zaal

Máirín Duffy

Mo is a delight to speak with and her example is one of the best rebuttals to any notion that a person can’t work professionally using open source tools. Because that’s what she does, and has been doing for 15 years at Red Hat. In this episode we go over what’s involved with her work, and how she gets it done with tools like Inkscape, GIMP, and a host of other applications. Of particular note, I really appreciate her “actually interact with people” approach to interaction design. It really struck a chord with me because I think it really applies anywhere we discuss design… or even art, for that matter. Regardless of the medium, we produce creative work for an audience. Why wouldn’t we take the time to find out more about that audience? I’m definitely going to look for ways to incorporate that mindset and approach into my own work. There’s a bit of background noise and rumble in the audio that I couldn’t easily reduce, but even with that, the show’s a great one for your brain bits.

Mo is a delight to speak with and her example is one of the best rebuttals to any notion that a person can’t work professionally using open source tools. Because that’s what she does, and has been doing for 15 years at <a href="https://redhat.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Red Hat</a>. In this episode we go over what’s involved with her work, and how she gets it done with tools like <a href="https://inkscape.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Inkscape</a>, <a href="https://gimp.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GIMP</a>, and a host of other applications. Of particular note, I really appreciate her “actually interact with people” approach to interaction design. It really struck a chord with me because I think it really applies anywhere we discuss design… or even art, for that matter. Regardless of the medium, we produce creative work for an audience. Why wouldn’t we take the time to find out more about that audience? I’m definitely going to look for ways to incorporate that mindset and approach into my own work. There’s a bit of background noise and rumble in the audio that I couldn’t easily reduce, but even with that, the show’s a great one for your brain bits.

Design and User Experience With Máirín Duffy

Pat David joins us this episode to have a wide-ranging discussion about making creative work using open source software. And he’s a great one to talk about it since he’s been kicking around the community for a good long while now. His interest in photography (and doing it with Free and open source tools) has gotten him involved with all kinds of open source image editing applications. Most notably among them is GIMP. Although not a developer on the project, he’s an integral part of the very small development team that manages that enormous project. Another big topic we cover is that of communities. Pat launched (and still works on) PIXLS.US, a community website and forum with a focus on photography with Free Software tools. It’s a great resource for anyone interested in photography and image editing in general, serving as both a support channel and a showcase for the great work that can be created with the tools we know and love. And that community continues to expand. They’ve even added sections for compositing with Natron and astronomical image processing with Siril. On of the highlights of our discussion was Pat going through his workflow when shooting and editing photographs. There’s definitely some fantastic take-aways from that and I’m certainly going to be thinking of this interview the next time I point a camera at anything. It really is a wide-ranging conversation that’s a lot like sitting down over a cup of coffee and having a great talk with very few filters. Of course, speaking of filters, I have to apologize if you watch the video of this. I’ve recently set myself up with some new gear and I’m still tweaking the best way to set it up. In particular, I’ve migrated from my ancient Logitech C270 webcam to using my phone with DroidCam. The DroidCam mobile application isn’t open source, but the client for connecting to it is and it works really well. The only catch is that I turned off the auto exposure and auto white balance on my phone… and then the sun went behind some clouds while the show was being recorded. So there are some moments where my video looks really dark. I also got a new audio interface (a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2) and a mic arm. Both work great, but the original mic I’d ordered was back-ordered, so in the meantime, I’m using a very old Audio-Technica stick mic. The sound quality should be acceptable, but it took a bit of post processing to get it to that point. In any case, I hope you enjoy the show.

Pat David joins us this episode to have a wide-ranging discussion about making creative work using open source software. And he’s a great one to talk about it since he’s been kicking around the community for a good long while now. His interest in photography (and doing it with Free and open source tools) has gotten him involved with all kinds of open source image editing applications. Most notably among them is <a href="https://gimp.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GIMP</a>. Although not a developer on the project, he’s an integral part of the very small development team that manages that enormous project. Another big topic we cover is that of communities. Pat launched (and still works on) <a href="https://pixls.us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PIXLS.US</a>, a community website and forum with a focus on photography with Free Software tools. It’s a great resource for anyone interested in photography and image editing in general, serving as both a support channel and a showcase for the great work that can be created with the tools we know and love. And that community continues to expand. They’ve even added sections for compositing with <a href="https://natrongithub.github.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Natron</a> and astronomical image processing with <a href="https://www.siril.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Siril</a>. On of the highlights of our discussion was Pat going through his workflow when shooting and editing photographs. There’s definitely some fantastic take-aways from that and I’m certainly going to be thinking of this interview the next time I point a camera at anything. It really is a wide-ranging conversation that’s a lot like sitting down over a cup of coffee and having a great talk with very few filters. Of course, speaking of filters, I have to apologize if you watch the video of this. I’ve recently set myself up with some new gear and I’m still tweaking the best way to set it up. In particular, I’ve migrated from my ancient Logitech C270 webcam to using my phone with <a href="https://www.dev47apps.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DroidCam</a>. The DroidCam mobile application isn’t open source, but the client for connecting to it is and it works really well. The only catch is that I turned off the auto exposure and auto white balance on my phone… and then the sun went behind some clouds while the show was being recorded. So there are some moments where my video looks really dark. I also got a new audio interface (a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2) and a mic arm. Both work great, but the original mic I’d ordered was back-ordered, so in the meantime, I’m using a very old Audio-Technica stick mic. The sound quality should be acceptable, but it took a bit of post processing to get it to that point. In any case, I hope you enjoy the show.

Community and Photography With Pat David

Marcin Jakubowski

Marcin guests this episode and talks about Open Source Ecology and their “Blueprints for Civilization”, which is a list of 50 different machines that they’ve determined are essential for a self-sustaining, distributed society. Really interesting stuff. The machines themselves are pretty cool and they’ve got prototypes of a lot of them already. Of course, I’m just kind of drooling over the cool stuff that could be made with these tools. Build my own furnace for melting steel? Yes please! And you can help contribute to finalizing and improving these designs because they’re all released under a Creative Commons license and the designs are produced in FreeCAD. We also get into licensing and the value of trying to accomplish “big things” in a very short amount of time, like developer sprints, game jams, the 48 Hour Film Project, and the Extreme Enterprise event that they’re planning on doing next summer (2021). Other notes/links:  Visit FOSSdome. She’s doing some really interesting things for planetarium work with open source creative tools. Definitely worth a look. I was a guest on another podcast! If you’re interested in people talking about fun Linux-related things, give a listen to mintCast. This show is now available in more places: Good ol' RSS gpodder.net Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify YouTube   Have a look at my books and merch if you’re interested in supporting the show.  And that should do it! Talk to you next week!

Marcin guests this episode and talks about Open Source Ecology and their <a href="https://www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“Blueprints for Civilization”</a>, which is a list of 50 different machines that they’ve determined are essential for a self-sustaining, distributed society. Really interesting stuff. The machines themselves are pretty cool and they’ve got prototypes of a lot of them already. Of course, I’m just kind of drooling over the cool stuff that could be made with these tools. Build my own furnace for melting steel? Yes please! And you can help contribute to finalizing and improving these designs because they’re all released under a Creative Commons license and the designs are produced in <a href="https://freecadweb.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FreeCAD</a>. We also get into licensing and the value of trying to accomplish “big things” in a very short amount of time, like developer sprints, game jams, the <a href="https://48hourfilm.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">48 Hour Film Project</a>, and the Extreme Enterprise event that they’re planning on doing next summer (2021). Other notes/links: <ul> <li>Visit <a href="https://fossdome.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FOSSdome</a>. She’s doing some really interesting things for planetarium work with open source creative tools. Definitely worth a look.</li> <li>I was a guest on another podcast! If you’re interested in people talking about fun Linux-related things, give a listen to <a href="https://mintcast.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mintCast</a>.</li> <li>This show is now available in more places: <ul> <li><a href="http://localhost:1313/episode/index.xml" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Good ol' RSS</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.gpodder.net/podcast/open-source-creative" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gpodder.net</a></li> <li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/open-source-creative-podcast/id914605363" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a></li> <li><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub3BlbnNvdXJjZWNyZWF0aXZlLm9yZy9lcGlzb2RlL2luZGV4LnhtbA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a></li> <li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3qBGq8GDwuqODKwd2T39UY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpeyMrXe_oJjVtkHcS4sWg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li> </ul> </li> <li>Have a look at my <a href="/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">books</a> and <a href="/merchandise" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">merch</a> if you’re interested in supporting the show.</li> </ul> And that should do it! Talk to you next week!

Open Source Ecology With Marcin Jakubowski

This week’s episode is born from some listern feedback from Romain Marteau. He suggested that I spend an episode talking about the rotating mount I designed to help me carve my bent wood rings. Because of that, this show is a bit more visual than any of the ones I’ve done in the past. I show the actual mount as well as walk through the .blend file a bit and show a bit of the print prep in Cura (the website doesn’t mention it, but it is open source, as evidenced by their GitHub page). I try my best to describe things for those of you who are audio only, but this one is really best for watching. And, as promised at the end of the episode, I’ve published the .blend file and exported STLs for printing under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license over on Thingiverse for you to print and modify yourself. If you do build it yourself, you will need to get a couple additional parts (affliate links):  Square 3" Lazy Suzan Bearing 20-pack of 608-2RS Ball Bearings (you only need two, but there are all kinds of interesting things you can make with ball bearings. At the currently listed price, it doesn’t hurt to have a few extras lying about)  So… what do you think about these show-and-tell shows? More importantly, what kind of projects are you doing with open source tools to help you make things? Flag me down and let me know!

This week’s episode is born from some listern feedback from Romain Marteau. He suggested that I spend an episode talking about the rotating mount I designed to help me carve my <a href="https://bentwoodforge.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bent wood rings</a>. Because of that, this show is a bit more visual than any of the ones I’ve done in the past. I show the actual mount as well as walk through the <code>.blend</code> file a bit and show a bit of the print prep in <a href="https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cura</a> (the website doesn’t mention it, but it is open source, as evidenced by their <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GitHub page</a>). I try my best to describe things for those of you who are audio only, but this one is really best for watching. And, as promised at the end of the episode, I’ve published the <code>.blend</code> file and exported STLs for printing under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license over on <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4550096" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Thingiverse</a> for you to print and modify yourself. If you do build it yourself, you will need to get a couple additional parts (affliate links): <ul> <li><a href="https://amzn.to/33bxIei" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Square 3" Lazy Suzan Bearing</a></li> <li><a href="https://amzn.to/3hRdTNs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">20-pack of 608-2RS Ball Bearings</a> (you only need two, but there are all kinds of interesting things you can make with ball bearings. At the currently listed price, it doesn’t hurt to have a few extras lying about)</li> </ul> So… what do you think about these show-and-tell shows? More importantly, what kind of projects are you doing with open source tools to help you make things? Flag me down and let me know!

Making Things to Make Things

In this episode we get a bit more clarity on not just the BlenderNPR community and the BEER Development Campaign, but the talk goes really in depth on the BEER renderer itself. Bong and Miguel give a lot of detail on how it works and the vision for how it’s planned to integrate with the rest of Blender. The show does get to be a bit technical in parts, but that’s OK. An artist really ought to have an understanding of how your tools work. That’s how we get under the hood and get to make really interesting and novel work. They also give a lot of really cool examples of NPR work in various media. I wasn’t able to get them linked here in the show notes, so you’ll just have to listen to hear them. What’s your favorite example of NPR art? EDIT: Bong was courteous enough to compile a list of links to the various works he referenced in the show. Here we go… 3 NPR elements:  Freestyle Level Up Abnormal Vertex Normal editor Soul Stirring Digital Color Mastery  NPR IPs:  Fez GNOG Hob Inside Slime Rancher Tetris Effects Civilization VI A Short Hike Untitled Goose Game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Fortnite Borderland Spider man: Into the Spiderverse  Other BlenderNPR and BEER links:  BNPR Show #17 Outline node BEER repository BEER project hub

In this episode we get a bit more clarity on not just the <a href="https://blendernpr.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlenderNPR</a> community and the BEER Development Campaign, but the talk goes really in depth on the BEER renderer itself. Bong and Miguel give a lot of detail on how it works and the vision for how it’s planned to integrate with the rest of Blender. The show does get to be a bit technical in parts, but that’s OK. An artist really ought to have an understanding of how your tools work. That’s how we get under the hood and get to make really interesting and novel work. They also give a lot of really cool examples of NPR work in various media. I wasn’t able to get them linked here in the show notes, so you’ll just have to listen to hear them. What’s your favorite example of NPR art? EDIT: Bong was courteous enough to compile a list of links to the various works he referenced in the show. Here we go… 3 NPR elements: <ul> <li><a href="https://gum.co/pMwxA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freestyle Level Up</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/BlenderNPR/Abnormal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Abnormal Vertex Normal editor</a></li> <li><a href="https://gum.co/yRSOo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Soul Stirring Digital Color Mastery</a></li> </ul> NPR IPs: <ul> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez_%28video_game%29" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fez</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.gnoggame.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GNOG</a></li> <li><a href="http://runicgames.com/hob/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hob</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_%28video_game%29" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Inside</a></li> <li><a href="http://slimerancher.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Slime Rancher</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tetris Effects</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_VI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Civilization VI</a></li> <li><a href="http://ashorthike.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A Short Hike</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_Goose_Game" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Untitled Goose Game</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fortnite</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_(series)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Borderland</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Into_the_Spider-Verse" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spider man: Into the Spiderverse</a></li> </ul> Other BlenderNPR and BEER links: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR-grJN18Qw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BNPR Show #17</a></li> <li><a href="https://developer.blender.org/D7270" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Outline node</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/BlenderNPR/BEER" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BEER repository</a></li> <li><a href="https://blendernpr.org/beer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BEER project hub</a></li></ul>

BlenderNPR Follow-Up With Bong Wee Kwong and Miguel Pozo

So we have an episode of firsts here. Not only is it the show’s first interview with a guest, but it’s also the first episode that’s been recorded with video! In this episode, I talk with Lee Posey all about the BlenderNPR community, as well as non-photorealistic rendering in general. Blender is actually quite adept at helping artists create non-photoreal artwork, but some of the tools and workflows could be better refined to support NPR artists. And this is why they’ve started development of the BEER rendering engine and have launched the BEER Development Campaign to raise money for its development. They’re actually already almost halfway there. Other highlights of the show include:  We share our enjoyment of the art produced by POKEDSTUDIO. I totally blanked out on the name of LuxCoreRender. Oops. Lee shared Pixelorama, an open source tool for creating pixel art (and it has tools for animation, too!). From what I can tell, it’s built on top of the Godot game engine. We nerded off a bit about open source business tools like OpenProject and Invoice Ninja. The whole interview was recorded using Jitsi.  Of course, there were a few questions in the interview that we didn’t have the answers to. Next episode, the brains of the BlenderNPR project will fill in some of those gaps and clarify points we may have glanced over. In the meantime, you should definitely head over to the BlenderNPR website to see some excellent NPR artwork and back the BEER Development Campaign. Also, what do you think of having videos and interviews of the show? As ever, email and social media are the best ways to get in touch with me. I’m definitely interested in hearing your opinions. So share ‘em, if you don’t mind. Until next time!

So we have an episode of firsts here. Not only is it the show’s first interview with a guest, but it’s also the first episode that’s been recorded with video! In this episode, I talk with Lee Posey all about the <a href="https://blendernpr.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlenderNPR</a> community, as well as non-photorealistic rendering in general. Blender is actually quite adept at helping artists create non-photoreal artwork, but some of the tools and workflows could be better refined to support NPR artists. And this is why they’ve started development of the BEER rendering engine and have launched the <a href="https://blendernpr.org/beer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BEER Development Campaign</a> to raise money for its development. They’re actually already almost halfway there. Other highlights of the show include: <ul> <li>We share our enjoyment of the art produced by <a href="http://pokedstudio.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">POKEDSTUDIO</a>.</li> <li>I totally blanked out on the name of <a href="https://luxcorerender.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LuxCoreRender</a>. Oops.</li> <li>Lee shared <a href="https://www.orama-interactive.com/pixelorama" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pixelorama</a>, an open source tool for creating pixel art (and it has tools for animation, too!). From what I can tell, it’s built on top of the <a href="https://godotengine.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Godot</a> game engine.</li> <li>We nerded off a bit about open source business tools like <a href="https://www.openproject.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenProject</a> and <a href="https://www.invoiceninja.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Invoice Ninja</a>.</li> <li>The whole interview was recorded using <a href="https://jitsi.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jitsi</a>.</li> </ul> Of course, there were a few questions in the interview that we didn’t have the answers to. Next episode, the brains of the BlenderNPR project will fill in some of those gaps and clarify points we may have glanced over. In the meantime, you should definitely head over to the <a href="https://blendernpr.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlenderNPR</a> website to see some excellent NPR artwork and back the BEER Development Campaign. Also, what do you think of having videos and interviews of the show? As ever, email and social media are the best ways to get in touch with me. I’m definitely interested in hearing your opinions. So share ‘em, if you don’t mind. Until next time!

All About BlenderNPR With Lee Posey

Here’s the deal. With the various things like Epic’s megagrants and some of the accelerated development action happening around projects like Blender and Krita, some creatives who haven’t been exposed to how the rest of the world does open source might mistakenly convince themselves that something has shifted fundamentally with how open source developers are handling things. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that successful open source development models rely heavily on an actively participating userbase. And when I say “participating” I don’t mean just using the software or mouthing off on a forum or social media. It’s about becoming a material part of the development process, typically with either developer time, or money to fund developer time. Also, when I say “userbase”, I also include commercial companies. See, in the rest of the world where open source is used, companies join in with the development process. Like individual developers, they “scratch their own itch”, but they do it by hiring programmers on their team to extend and maintain open source code for their needs (and, like good citizens, push general code back upstream to the main project). The world has operated like this for years (I daresay decades), but it seems like only within the last couple of years has the various entertainment industries that use creative software gotten themselves clued in to how this works. Unfortunately, even if the companies are starting to get it, some of our creative colleagues maintain an inaccurate understanding of the changes that have been happening. With any luck, this episode (rambling as it may be) can help straighten them out. That’s the idea anyway. Share it around. And certainly give me a shout directly to let me know what you think about this. I’d love to share some listener feedback.

Here’s the deal. With the various things like <a href="https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Epic’s megagrants</a> and some of the accelerated development action happening around projects like Blender and Krita, some creatives who haven’t been exposed to how the rest of the world does open source might mistakenly convince themselves that something has shifted fundamentally with how open source developers are handling things. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that successful open source development models rely heavily on an actively participating userbase. And when I say “participating” I don’t mean just using the software or mouthing off on a forum or social media. It’s about becoming a material part of the development process, typically with either developer time, or money to fund developer time. Also, when I say “userbase”, I also include commercial companies. See, in the rest of the world where open source is used, companies join in with the development process. Like individual developers, they “scratch their own itch”, but they do it by hiring programmers on their team to extend and maintain open source code for their needs (and, like good citizens, push general code back upstream to the main project). The world has operated like this for years (I daresay decades), but it seems like only within the last couple of years has the various entertainment industries that use creative software gotten themselves clued in to how this works. Unfortunately, even if the companies are starting to get it, some of our creative colleagues maintain an inaccurate understanding of the changes that have been happening. With any luck, this episode (rambling as it may be) can help straighten them out. That’s the idea anyway. Share it around. And certainly give me a shout directly to let me know what you think about this. I’d love to share some listener feedback.

Learning How Open Source Works

Three years is a long time to wait between episodes. For anyone still subscribed to this show through your podcatcher (that’s still a thing, right?), thanks for sticking with me and not dropping me from your list. For those of you just now discovering this show on its relaunch, welcome to the party. You’ve got a strange, awkward host, but he talks about some pretty cool things. Stick around. This is going to be fun. This episode is a catch-up episode. I get a bit rambly, but here’s a quick rundown of what I talk about in this show:  Blender 2.8 was developed, released, and now the 2.83 release is imminent. With furthering usage of Blender in larger studios, they’re piloting a long-term support version of Blender. I released the 4th edition of Blender For Dummies, chock full of updates on the new 2.8 series. Microsoft Loves Open Source (also, they bought GitHub) Epic has been issuing megagrants to help the development of quite a few open source creative tools. I started making wooden rings. I’ve been de-Googling my various websites, so I’ve started using a self-hosted install of GoatCounter to capture some basic site analytics. I’ve migrated mailing list stuff to phpList. You can sign up for the list for this show on the contact page. And I made a funny t-shirt and mug.  Also, I talked a little bit about the future of the show and what we can do with it. I’m not recording it while driving any longer. That means there are now things I can do that were either impossible or generally unsafe before. Things like live recording, video, and interviews (I’m definitely doing those). But, to do any of that, I kind of need to know your thoughts on the matter. What would you like to see on the show? Who should I interview? Are there shows were I should be a guest? Give me a shout and let me know your thoughts on the matter. Also, should I bother with fixing the comments on this site? Anyhow… the show’s back and I’m having fun. I’m looking forward to talking with you more.

Three years is a long time to wait between episodes. For anyone still subscribed to this show through your podcatcher (that’s still a thing, right?), thanks for sticking with me and not dropping me from your list. For those of you just now discovering this show on its relaunch, welcome to the party. You’ve got a strange, awkward host, but he talks about some pretty cool things. Stick around. This is going to be fun. This episode is a catch-up episode. I get a bit rambly, but here’s a quick rundown of what I talk about in this show: <ul> <li><a href="https://blender.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blender</a> 2.8 was developed, released, and now the 2.83 release is imminent.</li> <li>With furthering usage of Blender in larger studios, they’re piloting a <a href="https://code.blender.org/2020/05/long-term-support-pilot/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">long-term support version of Blender</a>.</li> <li>I released the <a href="https://blenderbasics.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">4th edition of Blender For Dummies</a>, chock full of updates on the new 2.8 series.</li> <li>Microsoft Loves Open Source (also, they bought GitHub)</li> <li>Epic has been issuing <a href="https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megagrants</a> to help the development of quite a few open source creative tools.</li> <li>I started <a href="https://bentwoodforge.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">making wooden rings</a>.</li> <li>I’ve been de-Googling my various websites, so I’ve started using a self-hosted install of <a href="https://www.goatcounter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GoatCounter</a> to capture some basic site analytics.</li> <li>I’ve migrated mailing list stuff to <a href="https://phplist.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">phpList</a>. You can sign up for the list for this show on <a href="/contact" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the contact page</a>.</li> <li>And I made <a href="/merchandise" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a funny t-shirt and mug</a>.</li> </ul> Also, I talked a little bit about the future of the show and what we can do with it. I’m not recording it while driving any longer. That means there are now things I can do that were either impossible or generally unsafe before. Things like live recording, video, and interviews (I’m definitely doing those). But, to do any of that, I kind of need to know your thoughts on the matter. What would you like to see on the show? Who should I interview? Are there shows were I should be a guest? Give me a <a href="/contact" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">shout</a> and let me know your thoughts on the matter. Also, should I bother with fixing the comments on this site? Anyhow… the show’s back and I’m having fun. I’m looking forward to talking with you more.

Catching Up

Episodes of the Open Source Creative Podcast, a weekly podcast where I ramble about creativity, process, and open source software. The show features in-depth discussions about the nature of open source software and how it relates to doing creative work. And interviews! There are interviews now. Also, fair warning, I tend to use profanity. So if you’re sensitive to that, listen with the volume turned lower. Intro and outro music was shamelessly pilfered from the very talented Sam Brubaker.

Hey folks! This is just a quick episode to help shake the rust off this old beast of podcast and get it rolling again. Expect a new full episode to be posted soon! I’ve got all kinds of fun things to talk about with respect to open source and creativity. Stay tuned! Side note: Something has gone sideways with my site theme so the Disqus commenting that I used to have isn’t quite working at the moment. If you want to send me a note, I’d suggest using the information on the Contact page. See you around. This is going to be fun!

Hey folks! This is just a quick episode to help shake the rust off this old beast of podcast and get it rolling again. Expect a new full episode to be posted soon! I’ve got all kinds of fun things to talk about with respect to open source and creativity. Stay tuned! Side note: Something has gone sideways with my site theme so the Disqus commenting that I used to have isn’t quite working at the moment. If you want to send me a note, I’d suggest using the information on the <a href="/contact" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Contact page</a>. See you around. This is going to be fun!

The Podcast Is Coming Back!

We start with some sad[-ish] news… well sad for me. I haven’t been able to attend any conferences or shows so far this year and, with the possible exception of All Things Open in October, it’s not likely that I’m going to be able to attend any others later in the year. But my disappointment is a treat for you, dear listener! For now I get to extol the virtues of attending conferences and dig in to a few that I really like to attend. In fact, here’s a quick list (roughly in the order I mention them in the show… also, I’ve put a star next to my favorites):  Blender Conference★ Libre Graphics Meeting NAB Show Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) SIGGRAPH★ All Things Open★ CTN animation eXpo South by Southwest (SXSW) SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) LinuxFest Northwest Ohio LinuxFest (OLF) Penguicon  Also… I didn’t mention it in the show, but I actually really enjoy giving talks and workshops at conferences. In fact, if you’re reading this and you happen to be involved with organizing a conference, please give me a shout. I’d love to attend and speak at it. But what about you? What events do you like to attend? Why do you attend them? What do you do when you’re there? Let me know in the comments section. I definitely want to know.

We start with some sad[-ish] news… well sad for me. I haven’t been able to attend any conferences or shows so far this year and, with the possible exception of <a href="https://allthingsopen.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">All Things Open</a> in October, it’s not likely that I’m going to be able to attend any others later in the year. But my disappointment is a treat for you, dear listener! For now I get to extol the virtues of attending conferences and dig in to a few that I really like to attend. In fact, here’s a quick list (roughly in the order I mention them in the show… also, I’ve put a star next to my favorites): <ul> <li><a href="https://www.blender.org/conference" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blender Conference</a>★</li> <li><a href="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Libre Graphics Meeting</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.nabshow.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NAB Show</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.gdconf.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Game Developer’s Conference (GDC)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.siggraph.org/attend/annual-conferences" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SIGGRAPH</a>★</li> <li><a href="https://allthingsopen.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">All Things Open</a>★</li> <li><a href="http://ctnanimationexpo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CTN animation eXpo</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.sxsw.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">South by Southwest (SXSW)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.southeastlinuxfest.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.socallinuxexpo.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE)</a></li> <li><a href="https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-tx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinuxFest Northwest</a></li> <li><a href="https://ohiolinux.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ohio LinuxFest (OLF)</a></li> <li><a href="https://penguicon.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Penguicon</a></li> </ul> Also… I didn’t mention it in the show, but I actually really enjoy giving talks and workshops at conferences. In fact, if you’re reading this and you happen to be involved with organizing a conference, please give me a shout. I’d love to attend and speak at it. But what about you? What events do you like to attend? Why do you attend them? What do you do when you’re there? Let me know in the comments section. I definitely want to know.

Conferences Are a Good Thing™

As creatives, we do have some nice open formats to work with. SVG, ODT, PNG, OpenRaster, EPUB, and Alembic (to name a few). And there are some gray area formats that, while they’re not open, they’re ubiquitous and they’ve been around long enough that folks have made open source tools for reading and writing these formats. I’m looking at you, DOC, PDF, and OBJ. But there are some file formats that can only be opened by one particular program and there’s no viable interchange format. These are pain points. Interestingly enough, most of these tools are right smack in the middle of your creative toolchain. Sure, as a sound designer, your input is often raw PCM audio in WAV format and your output can be anything from WAV (again) to AAC or FLAC or even MP3. But on your active edit, what have you got? Friggin' ProTools… and a daisy-chained nest of dongles to go with it. And it’s not limited to audio. We see the same thing in print design, animation (2D and 3D), visual effects, and video editing. This is a problem, and not just for open source creatives. Anyone who wants to migrate their workflow from one tool to another is faced with this problem. And worse, there’s not always a clear and viable solution or alternative. Folks get stuck to a tool not just from familiarity with its quirks, but by the fact that it doesn’t play nice with others. So what do we do about it? To be honest… I’m a little concerned that there’s not much that we can do, outside of using open source tools and evangelizing open formats where ever they exist. Is there something I’m missing? Some other solution that’s just sitting out there, waiting to be noticed? I’m open to suggestions.

As creatives, we do have some nice open formats to work with. SVG, ODT, PNG, OpenRaster, EPUB, and Alembic (to name a few). And there are some gray area formats that, while they’re not open, they’re ubiquitous and they’ve been around long enough that folks have made open source tools for reading and writing these formats. I’m looking at you, DOC, PDF, and OBJ. But there are some file formats that can only be opened by one particular program and there’s no viable interchange format. These are pain points. Interestingly enough, most of these tools are right smack in the middle of your creative toolchain. Sure, as a sound designer, your input is often raw PCM audio in WAV format and your output can be anything from WAV (again) to AAC or FLAC or even MP3. But on your active edit, what have you got? Friggin' ProTools… and a daisy-chained nest of dongles to go with it. And it’s not limited to audio. We see the same thing in print design, animation (2D and 3D), visual effects, and video editing. This is a problem, and not just for open source creatives. Anyone who wants to migrate their workflow from one tool to another is faced with this problem. And worse, there’s not always a clear and viable solution or alternative. Folks get stuck to a tool not just from familiarity with its quirks, but by the fact that it doesn’t play nice with others. So what do we do about it? To be honest… I’m a little concerned that there’s not much that we can do, outside of using open source tools and evangelizing open formats where ever they exist. Is there something I’m missing? Some other solution that’s just sitting out there, waiting to be noticed? I’m open to suggestions.

File Formats and Vendor Lock-In

I detail a lot of different options in this show (after a bit of a venting about forum spambots… grrr). Here’s the basic rundown of what I looked into and what I ultimately decided upon:  Freemind - This is what I’ve been using for years and it’s my baseline for features and performance. Whatever tool I choose needs to have roughly the same feature set, the ability to import Freemind’s .mm file format, and be better. In particular, performance in interface are where I’m looking at the most for improvements. Freeplane - Freeplane is a fork of Freemind and a natural first choice when looking for a replacement. It ticks all the marks in terms of feature parity with Freemind… however, it has basically the same UI and it’s still got the slow launch behavior that Freemind has. So… no go for me. Labyrinth - This one was recommended to me by Farid Abdelnour (@frd@mastodon.social) and it was actually the first alternative mind mapping tool I looked at in my search. It has some really cool features and a really interesting approach to mind maps. Unfortunately, it’s “TomBoy” saving method really doesn’t jive with my project-based workflow. Also, it’s not seeing much in the way of active development, so that was also kind of discouraging. For those reasons, I had to shuffle forth and keep looking. XMind - Billing itself as “the most popular mind mapping software on the planet”, XMind has a pretty robust feature set and looks to be a strong contender. Unfortunately, I’m not overly fond of the open core model of open source development and XMind definitely uses that. Plus there are a handful of network/cloud related features that I would actually rather not have at all. WiseMapping - Wisemapping is a pretty cool choice as it’s all web-based. I actually really this concept a lot as an idea. Unfortunately that means to use it myself, I would either need to use their web service (by now most of you should know how I feel about trusting my data on other people’s computers) or set up my own server. That’s a bit more overhead and maintenance than I’d like to give myself. Otherwise, I’d probably be all on-board with WiseMapping. Vym - I very nearly wrote this program off completely when I visited its website. The site design tries to cleverly use a mind map for navigation. Clever, but not particularly appealing. Also the site doesn’t appear to have been updated all that recently. And furthermore, they’re managing development on SourceForge. All three of these, on their own, would dissuade most people from investigating further. But I think I was getting desperate. So I dug in. And you know what, I’m kind of happy that I did. It turns out that Vym is seeing continued development on their SourceForge page. There’s nice video there that show some of Vym’s basic features. More importantly, when I installed it (it’s in the Arch repos), it appeared to do everything I needed it to. It’s on parity with most of Freemind’s features, it’s got a few nice additions of its own, and it’s nice and snappy in terms of performance (thanks, in part, to being written with the Qt toolkit, I think).  So Vym seems to be the winner for me. At least it does so far. I’ve migrated quite a few of my project mind maps to it and aside from cleaning up HTML tags (I don’t think it imported 100% cleanly from the .mm format), it’s been a pleasant and hassle-free experience. I’ll let you all know more if I stumble across anything interesting as I continue to use Vym. Now… if I could just figure out the proper way to pronounce it. What about you? Are you using mind maps? Which one is your favorite?

I detail a lot of different options in this show (after a bit of a venting about forum spambots… grrr). Here’s the basic rundown of what I looked into and what I ultimately decided upon: <ul> <li><a href="http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freemind</a> - This is what I’ve been using for years and it’s my baseline for features and performance. Whatever tool I choose needs to have roughly the same feature set, the ability to import Freemind’s .mm file format, and be better. In particular, performance in interface are where I’m looking at the most for improvements.</li> <li><a href="http://freeplane.sourceforge.net" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freeplane</a> - Freeplane is a fork of Freemind and a natural first choice when looking for a replacement. It ticks all the marks in terms of feature parity with Freemind… however, it has basically the same UI and it’s still got the slow launch behavior that Freemind has. So… no go for me.</li> <li><a href="https://people.gnome.org/~dscorgie/labyrinth.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Labyrinth</a> - This one was recommended to me by Farid Abdelnour (<a href="https://mastodon.social/@frda" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@frd@mastodon.social</a>) and it was actually the first alternative mind mapping tool I looked at in my search. It has some really cool features and a really interesting approach to mind maps. Unfortunately, it’s “TomBoy” saving method really doesn’t jive with my project-based workflow. Also, it’s not seeing much in the way of active development, so that was also kind of discouraging. For those reasons, I had to shuffle forth and keep looking.</li> <li><a href="http://www.xmind.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">XMind</a> - Billing itself as “the most popular mind mapping software on the planet”, XMind has a pretty robust feature set and looks to be a strong contender. Unfortunately, I’m not overly fond of the open core model of open source development and XMind definitely uses that. Plus there are a handful of network/cloud related features that I would actually rather not have at all.</li> <li><a href="http://www.wisemapping.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WiseMapping</a> - Wisemapping is a pretty cool choice as it’s all web-based. I actually really this concept a lot as an idea. Unfortunately that means to use it myself, I would either need to use their web service (by now most of you should know how I feel about trusting my data on other people’s computers) or set up my own server. That’s a bit more overhead and maintenance than I’d like to give myself. Otherwise, I’d probably be all on-board with WiseMapping.</li> <li><a href="http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vym</a> - I very nearly wrote this program off completely when I visited its website. The site design tries to cleverly use a mind map for navigation. Clever, but not particularly appealing. Also the site doesn’t appear to have been updated all that recently. And furthermore, they’re managing development on <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/vym/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SourceForge</a>. All three of these, on their own, would dissuade most people from investigating further. But I think I was getting desperate. So I dug in. And you know what, I’m kind of happy that I did. It turns out that Vym is seeing continued development on their SourceForge page. There’s nice video there that show some of Vym’s basic features. More importantly, when I installed it (it’s in the Arch repos), it appeared to do everything I needed it to. It’s on parity with most of Freemind’s features, it’s got a few nice additions of its own, and it’s nice and snappy in terms of performance (thanks, in part, to being written with the Qt toolkit, I think).</li> </ul> So Vym seems to be the winner for me. At least it does so far. I’ve migrated quite a few of my project mind maps to it and aside from cleaning up HTML tags (I don’t think it imported 100% cleanly from the .mm format), it’s been a pleasant and hassle-free experience. I’ll let you all know more if I stumble across anything interesting as I continue to use Vym. Now… if I could just figure out the proper way to pronounce it. What about you? Are you using mind maps? Which one is your favorite?

The Hunt for a Mind Mapper

There are, of course, a few rough spots in my workflow that I’d love to have ironed out a bit more. I step through those in more detail and describe a bit more what I’d like to see. But all in all, I’m pretty happy with the process and workflow that I’ve put together. Here’s a quick rundown, list style:  Freemind - Cross-platform tool for mindmapping. I use this not just for gathering my thoughts and organizing my work, I actually also use the mindmap as a project dashboard for large writing projects. The built-in hyperlinking capabilities of Freemind are fantastic for drilling directly to the work file I want to work on. Of course, the UI is a bit dated and startup performance is a bit sluggish, so I’d love to see someone bring some modernization to this fantastic tool. And yes, I’ve tried the Freeplane fork, but it doesn’t really solve any of the issues I personally have. Vim - These days, this is pretty much where I do all of my writing, whether I’m on a desktop, a laptop, or on my phone. I write using Markdown syntax. Of course, if you don’t want to use Vim, there are plent of powerful plaintext editors out there that have more native support for Markdown (e.g. Atom, Remarkable, Haroopad, and yes, Emacs). I didn’t mention it in the show, but there are a handful of plugins that I use for Vim to help make my writing experience a bit more pleasant. He’s a short list (you can actually see my full Vim configuration on my Github page): vim-airline - A lightweight and handy status bar/footer vim-markdown - For nice syntax highlighting in Markdown and a few other conveniences vim-pencil - A plugin for much nicer handling of soft-wrapped and hard-wrapped lines (I prefer to work with soft-wrapped lines, but still let my up/down arrow keys move up and down visible lines rather than along line numbers.   Mercurial - Of course I version control my writing. My versioning system of choice is Mercurial. You’re welcome to use Git, but I’ve gotten pretty partial to Mercurial’s way of handling things. wdiff - A handy little diff tool for comparing individual word changes in lines of text. I use this as an external diff tool for Mercurial when reviewing edits that I’ve made. Termux - When I write remote, I most frequently write on my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard in Termux. Termux is basically a very powerful shell for Android that allows you to install many full Linux applications like Vim and Mercurial without rooting your device. I’m a huge fan. Pandoc - A totally badass conversion tool. This is what I use to get my Markdown files converted to just about anything else I need to. One day, I’d love to automate the creation of EPUB deliverables using make. One day. LibreOffice - If you’re working with other people (especially editors) who aren’t as dialed-in on the open source ecosystem, you’re likely to need to send them DOC files of some sort. While Pandoc does a great job at the initial conversion, I still tend to open files in LibreOffice to put a little spit-shine on them… and to read notes that people give me on my work when I send them these files. Sigil - When I convert to EPUB, I often like to do refinements and customizations (and cross-device testing). Sigil gives low-level control for modifying the presentation of your ebook. Calibre - Originally developed as an ebook management tool/library, Calibre has become so much more. It can do format conversions and give reasonably accurate previews of your ebook. When doing ebook layout, I tend to bounce back and forth between Calibre and Sigil. Scribus - If you’re doing a print book, you’re going to need a good quality print layout tool. Scribus is absolutely up to the task.  Of course, if you’re more aligned to the single-application workflow (like Scrivener in the closed source world) there are some open source writing tools that may be more your speed. Have a look at Bibisco and Plume Creator. Although I’ve never seriously used either of these, I know of some folks that really like them. There’s a nice article about the Bibisco over on Opensource.com. Whew. That was a lot of writing. It’s almost like I enjoy doing that! What do you use for your writing? Got any suggestions? Got any questions on what I use? Let me hear it down in the comments.

There are, of course, a few rough spots in my workflow that I’d love to have ironed out a bit more. I step through those in more detail and describe a bit more what I’d like to see. But all in all, I’m pretty happy with the process and workflow that I’ve put together. Here’s a quick rundown, list style: <ul> <li><a href="http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freemind</a> - Cross-platform tool for mindmapping. I use this not just for gathering my thoughts and organizing my work, I actually also use the mindmap as a project dashboard for large writing projects. The built-in hyperlinking capabilities of Freemind are fantastic for drilling directly to the work file I want to work on. Of course, the UI is a bit dated and startup performance is a bit sluggish, so I’d love to see someone bring some modernization to this fantastic tool. And yes, I’ve tried the <a href="http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freeplane</a> fork, but it doesn’t really solve any of the issues I personally have.</li> <li><a href="http://www.vim.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vim</a> - These days, this is pretty much where I do all of my writing, whether I’m on a desktop, a laptop, or on my phone. I write using <a href="https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Markdown</a> syntax. Of course, if you don’t want to use Vim, there are plent of powerful plaintext editors out there that have more native support for Markdown (e.g. <a href="https://atom.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Atom</a>, <a href="https://remarkableapp.github.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Remarkable</a>, <a href="http://pad.haroopress.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Haroopad</a>, and yes, <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Emacs</a>). I didn’t mention it in the show, but there are a handful of plugins that I use for Vim to help make my writing experience a bit more pleasant. He’s a short list (you can actually see <a href="https://github.com/Fweeb/.vim" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my full Vim configuration</a> on my Github page): <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/bling/vim-airline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vim-airline</a> - A lightweight and handy status bar/footer</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vim-markdown</a> - For nice syntax highlighting in Markdown and a few other conveniences</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/reedes/vim-pencil" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vim-pencil</a> - A plugin for much nicer handling of soft-wrapped and hard-wrapped lines (I prefer to work with soft-wrapped lines, but still let my up/down arrow keys move up and down visible lines rather than along line numbers.</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://www.mercurial-scm.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mercurial</a> - Of course I version control my writing. My versioning system of choice is Mercurial. You’re welcome to use <a href="https://git-scm.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Git</a>, but I’ve gotten pretty partial to Mercurial’s way of handling things.</li> <li><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/wdiff/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wdiff</a> - A handy little diff tool for comparing individual word changes in lines of text. I use this as an external diff tool for Mercurial when reviewing edits that I’ve made.</li> <li><a href="https://termux.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Termux</a> - When I write remote, I most frequently write on my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard in Termux. Termux is basically a very powerful shell for Android that allows you to install many full Linux applications like Vim and Mercurial without rooting your device. I’m a huge fan.</li> <li><a href="http://pandoc.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pandoc</a> - A totally badass conversion tool. This is what I use to get my Markdown files converted to just about anything else I need to. One day, I’d love to automate the creation of EPUB deliverables using <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/make/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">make</a>. One day.</li> <li><a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LibreOffice</a> - If you’re working with other people (especially editors) who aren’t as dialed-in on the open source ecosystem, you’re likely to need to send them DOC files of some sort. While Pandoc does a great job at the initial conversion, I still tend to open files in LibreOffice to put a little spit-shine on them… and to read notes that people give me on my work when I send them these files.</li> <li><a href="https://sigil-ebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sigil</a> - When I convert to EPUB, I often like to do refinements and customizations (and cross-device testing). Sigil gives low-level control for modifying the presentation of your ebook.</li> <li><a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Calibre</a> - Originally developed as an ebook management tool/library, Calibre has become so much more. It can do format conversions and give reasonably accurate previews of your ebook. When doing ebook layout, I tend to bounce back and forth between Calibre and Sigil.</li> <li><a href="https://www.scribus.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scribus</a> - If you’re doing a print book, you’re going to need a good quality print layout tool. Scribus is absolutely up to the task.</li> </ul> Of course, if you’re more aligned to the single-application workflow (like Scrivener in the closed source world) there are some open source writing tools that may be more your speed. Have a look at <a href="http://www.bibisco.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bibisco</a> and <a href="http://plume-creator.eu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Plume Creator</a>. Although I’ve never seriously used either of these, I know of some folks that really like them. There’s a <a href="https://opensource.com/life/16/9/bibisco-tool-novelists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">nice article about the Bibisco</a> over on <a href="http://Opensource.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Opensource.com</a>. Whew. That was a lot of writing. It’s almost like I enjoy doing that! What do you use for your writing? Got any suggestions? Got any questions on what I use? Let me hear it down in the comments.

How I Write With Open Source Tools

And, yes, I’m a week late with this episode. I know. And I’m sorry. I do, however, hopefully have good reasons (or acceptable ones). For one, I co-authored an Opensource.com article with venerable Ben Cotton on dealing with hater culture online… particularly when it comes to getting feedback. The article is called Hater’s Gonna Hate: 7 ways to deal with criticism and it got some pretty choice feedback, I’d say. Also related to Opensource.com, I had the honor of recording last weeks Top 5 video. Just a little thing that highlights the 5 most popular stories of the previous week. It was definitely a lot of fun to produce. I’ll probably do it again. Speaking of doing things again, I also participated in a 72-hour horror film race over the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve done a weekend film challenge like that. I was doing some simple visual effects (rotoscoping and paint-over) for this piece and I’ve gotta say that I kind of miss doing these things. Mayhaps I’ll step into doing them again more regularly. But, this episode is about none of that! This episode is about software naming. We have programs like Blender, Krita, Kdenlive, Natron, and (of course) GIMP. I’ve even seen Mastodon get heat for its naming. The thing is… does naming really matter all that much? After talking [to myself] through this episode… I’m inclined to think that it doesn’t. And, if you listen to the episode, I may or may not have suggested that I would be OK with using a program called “Kitten Puncher.” Because, really, if it matters at all, the name of a piece of software only matters at the beginning… that time before people start using it. After that, it’s all about the program’s functionality, how it actually works, and how suitable it is for doing the job at hand. That’s what I think at least. What about you?

And, yes, I’m a week late with this episode. I know. And I’m sorry. I do, however, hopefully have good reasons (or acceptable ones). For one, I co-authored an <a href="http://Opensource.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Opensource.com</a> article with venerable Ben Cotton on dealing with hater culture online… particularly when it comes to getting feedback. The article is called <a href="https://opensource.com/article/17/4/haters-gonna-hate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hater’s Gonna Hate: 7 ways to deal with criticism</a> and it got some pretty choice feedback, I’d say. Also related to <a href="http://Opensource.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Opensource.com</a>, I had the honor of recording last weeks <a href="https://opensource.com/article/17/4/top-5-april-28" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Top 5 video</a>. Just a little thing that highlights the 5 most popular stories of the previous week. It was definitely a lot of fun to produce. I’ll probably do it again. Speaking of doing things again, I also participated in a <a href="http://www.filmracing.com/72-hour-horror-film-race" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">72-hour horror film race</a> over the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve done a weekend film challenge like that. I was doing some simple visual effects (rotoscoping and paint-over) for this piece and I’ve gotta say that I kind of miss doing these things. Mayhaps I’ll step into doing them again more regularly. But, this episode is about none of that! This episode is about software naming. We have programs like Blender, Krita, Kdenlive, Natron, and (of course) GIMP. I’ve even seen Mastodon get heat for its naming. The thing is… does naming really matter all that much? After talking [to myself] through this episode… I’m inclined to think that it doesn’t. And, if you listen to the episode, I may or may not have suggested that I would be OK with using a program called “Kitten Puncher.” Because, really, if it matters at all, the name of a piece of software only matters at the beginning… that time before people start using it. After that, it’s all about the program’s functionality, how it actually works, and how suitable it is for doing the job at hand. That’s what I think at least. What about you?

What's in a Name?

Oh, the umbrage! This whole thing got kicked off by a tweet from Johnathan Williamson about CG Cookie’s updated Intro to Blender course. There was an immediate response stating that “literally no one in the industry uses Blender.” That’s wrong on so many different levels. But I don’t really want to single out the person who made that reply… he’s not the only person out with that completely misguided perspective. I prefer to think of him as an evidential data point that indicates that we haven’t been doing a good enough job of explaining exactly why thinking like that is wrong and, quite frankly, ignorant. It’s a perspective born from being locked in the bubble of one’s own experience and then making the mistake of extrapolating too far with that anecdotal experience to (something open source folks get accused of all the time). It’s a very human thing to do. But it’s infuriating that some humans continue to stay steadfast in misguided opinions like these despite being presented with evidence to the contrary. So I rant. When people refer to “the industry” as it pertains to computer graphics (and specifically 3D computer graphics), they’re generally referring to one of the entertainment sectors (video games, movies, television). But there are so many other exciting and interesting places where computer graphics is used every day… at least as big as the entertainment industries. All of them have different requirements, workflows, and toolchains. More importantly, they don’t have the same track record of taking artists for granted that we’ve seen in entertainment. But I hope it’s not just a rant. I hope that this week’s show is also a means of sharing and actively helping unseat this mistaken belief that quite a few people still have. With any luck, you can help do it with less profanity than I do.

Oh, the umbrage! This whole thing got kicked off by a <a href="https://twitter.com/carter2422/status/846725096769294336" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tweet from Johnathan Williamson</a> about CG Cookie’s updated Intro to Blender course. There was an immediate response stating that “literally no one in the industry uses Blender.” That’s wrong on so many different levels. But I don’t really want to single out the person who made that reply… he’s not the only person out with that completely misguided perspective. I prefer to think of him as an evidential data point that indicates that we haven’t been doing a good enough job of explaining exactly why thinking like that is wrong and, quite frankly, ignorant. It’s a perspective born from being locked in the bubble of one’s own experience and then making the mistake of extrapolating too far with that anecdotal experience to (something open source folks get accused of all the time). It’s a very human thing to do. But it’s infuriating that some humans continue to stay steadfast in misguided opinions like these despite being presented with evidence to the contrary. So I rant. When people refer to “the industry” as it pertains to computer graphics (and specifically 3D computer graphics), they’re generally referring to one of the entertainment sectors (video games, movies, television). But there are so many other exciting and interesting places where computer graphics is used every day… at least as big as the entertainment industries. All of them have different requirements, workflows, and toolchains. More importantly, they don’t have the same track record of taking artists for granted that we’ve seen in entertainment. But I hope it’s not just a rant. I hope that this week’s show is also a means of sharing and actively helping unseat this mistaken belief that quite a few people still have. With any luck, you can help do it with less profanity than I do.

"The Industry" Doesn't Exist

For a long, long time we’ve heard pretty regularly that one of the appealing things about open source software development is that it’s a “meritocracy”. That is, solutions are evaluated on their own merits and the best solution always wins. However, I’m not sure that I think that’s really an accurate description of what really goes on in open source development. In fact, I think it’s a lot more like many successful creative collaborations out there. An idea tends to win because there’s a person there… and not just as an advocate, but as someone willing to do something. To write code. To create documentation. To design an interface. In most cases, authority is ceded to whomever has the most passion for a given idea. And in scenarios where passion is roughly equivalent between parties, that’s where forks happen. At least, that’s how I see it. I go into a bit more detail in the episode, but I’m really curious what you think about this notion. Do I have it right? Am I just stating the obvious? Am I way off-base? Also, if we assume that this is the current state of things, is that the most desirable state? Should we be pushing for something else? I kind of like the idea of a passionocracy. Historically, I’d say it’s tended to yield pretty positive results. What do you think? Also, at the end of the show I mention that I’ve started trying out Mastodon, a social network that’s a bit like Twitter, except it’s free, open source, and decentralized. I’m still feeling my way around there, but if you want to connect with me, I’m @monsterjavaguns@mastodon.cloud (of course).

For a long, long time we’ve heard pretty regularly that one of the appealing things about open source software development is that it’s a “meritocracy”. That is, solutions are evaluated on their own merits and the best solution always wins. However, I’m not sure that I think that’s really an accurate description of what really goes on in open source development. In fact, I think it’s a lot more like many successful creative collaborations out there. An idea tends to win because there’s a person there… and not just as an advocate, but as someone willing to do something. To write code. To create documentation. To design an interface. In most cases, authority is ceded to whomever has the most passion for a given idea. And in scenarios where passion is roughly equivalent between parties, that’s where forks happen. At least, that’s how I see it. I go into a bit more detail in the episode, but I’m really curious what you think about this notion. Do I have it right? Am I just stating the obvious? Am I way off-base? Also, if we assume that this is the current state of things, is that the most desirable state? Should we be pushing for something else? I kind of like the idea of a passionocracy. Historically, I’d say it’s tended to yield pretty positive results. What do you think? Also, at the end of the show I mention that I’ve started trying out <a href="https://mastodon.social" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mastodon</a>, a social network that’s a bit like Twitter, except it’s free, open source, and decentralized. I’m still feeling my way around there, but if you want to connect with me, I’m <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/@monsterjavaguns" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@monsterjavaguns@mastodon.cloud</a> (of course).

Passionocracy?

Basically, I’d like to question the—generally agreed-upon—impression that open source tools are in competition with their closed source counterparts. I’m not entirely convinced that they are… that we are. I mean, there’s no doubt that some of the people who make closed source tools consider similar open source applications as competitors, but I think those people are largely in the minority, at least by population. By influence, perhaps that’s a different story. If the decision makers in a company (or a community, for that matter) think that competition is taking place, then the rest of the organization tends to follow suit. That said, I don’t think it’s beneficial to either party to consider open source tools as competition. To borrow a term I’ve heard bandied about in indie writer and self-publishing communities, it’s more of a “coop-etition” thing… or at least, it ought to be. So many open source tools fit a specific need within a larger pipeline… even a “Swiss Army chainsaw” like Blender. Interoperability is of critical importance. Sadly, due to some of the licensing decisions made by closed source companies, that interoperability and collaboration is made much more difficult. My little April Fools' joke points to one way of trying to solve the issue. What kind of solutions—regardless of how outlandish—do you think could work?

Basically, I’d like to question the—generally agreed-upon—impression that open source tools are in competition with their closed source counterparts. I’m not entirely convinced that they are… that we are. I mean, there’s no doubt that some of the people who make closed source tools consider similar open source applications as competitors, but I think those people are largely in the minority, at least by population. By influence, perhaps that’s a different story. If the decision makers in a company (or a community, for that matter) think that competition is taking place, then the rest of the organization tends to follow suit. That said, I don’t think it’s beneficial to either party to consider open source tools as competition. To borrow a term I’ve heard bandied about in indie writer and self-publishing communities, it’s more of a “coop-etition” thing… or at least, it ought to be. So many open source tools fit a specific need within a larger pipeline… even a “Swiss Army chainsaw” like Blender. Interoperability is of critical importance. Sadly, due to some of the licensing decisions made by closed source companies, that interoperability and collaboration is made much more difficult. My little April Fools' joke points to one way of trying to solve the issue. What kind of solutions—regardless of how outlandish—do you think could work?

No, but Seriously

Bonus Episode! All will be explained upon watching this video: For years and years, it’s been a common refrain that it’s entirely impossible for an individual to influence the development of closed source software like we can in the open source world. It turns out that isn’t entirely true. It is possible to drive the development of proprietary tools. All it takes is money. Every year around this time we see alarming stories about companies like Autodesk or Adobe “buying” Blender and doing unpleasant things like changing licenses or only offering BaaS (Blender as a Service) by way of their cloud subscription services. Fortunately, that’s not possible. However, why have we never stopped to consider the reverse scenario? Autodesk is a publicly traded company. With enough shares of Autodesk stock, anyone can be an influential driver of the decisions that Autodesk makes. It doesn’t take much. Case in point: for the past two years, Autodesk has been struggling—ahem, negotiating—with “activist investors” with just a 5% stake in the company. So, based on that, I’m launching a 1-day campaign to purchase an influential share of Autodesk stock on behalf of the Blender community! I don’t think we’d need a full 5%. By all accounts, even a 1% stake in the company would be enough to make things interesting. Think of it! We could get a Blender interaction mode in Maya and 3DSMax. Right-click select everywhere! FBX could be relicensed to be GPL-friendly. Hell, maybe we could even get the source code to Softimage (may it rest in peace). Autodesk’s market capitalization is about USD $18.7 billion. So for our 1% share, all it will take is just $200,000,000. For just two hundred million dollars, Autodesk users can almost have the same kind of benefits that we get for free with Blender. Let’s do this! Find more details at avoidtheinternet.today. (Of course, we could also just keep using and developing Blender and enjoy the benefits of open source software like we’ve already been doing for over ten years. I guess that’s also something we could do.)

Bonus Episode! All will be explained upon watching this video: For years and years, it’s been a common refrain that it’s entirely impossible for an individual to influence the development of closed source software like we can in the open source world. It turns out that isn’t entirely true. It is possible to drive the development of proprietary tools. All it takes is money. Every year around this time we see alarming stories about companies like Autodesk or Adobe “buying” Blender and doing unpleasant things like changing licenses or only offering BaaS (Blender as a Service) by way of their cloud subscription services. Fortunately, that’s not possible. However, why have we never stopped to consider the reverse scenario? Autodesk is a publicly traded company. With enough shares of Autodesk stock, anyone can be an influential driver of the decisions that Autodesk makes. It doesn’t take much. Case in point: for the past two years, Autodesk has been struggling—ahem, negotiating—with “activist investors” with just a 5% stake in the company. So, based on that, I’m launching a 1-day campaign to purchase an influential share of Autodesk stock on behalf of the Blender community! I don’t think we’d need a full 5%. By all accounts, even a 1% stake in the company would be enough to make things interesting. Think of it! We could get a Blender interaction mode in Maya and 3DSMax. Right-click select everywhere! FBX could be relicensed to be GPL-friendly. Hell, maybe we could even get the source code to Softimage (may it rest in peace). Autodesk’s market capitalization is about USD $18.7 billion. So for our 1% share, all it will take is just $200,000,000. For just two hundred million dollars, Autodesk users can almost have the same kind of benefits that we get for free with Blender. Let’s do this! Find more details at <a href="http://avoidtheinternet.today" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">avoidtheinternet.today</a>. (Of course, we could also just keep using and developing Blender and enjoy the benefits of open source software like we’ve already been doing for over ten years. I guess that’s also something we could do.)

Blender Buys Autodesk

Open Source Creative

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