Writers are always seeking inspiration, and sometimes it’s hard to come by. Software tools can help, disturbing deeply entrenched thought patterns and spinning you off into interesting new territory. PyProse is a semi-random text generator which makes sentences using rules and word lists to create almost human sentence constructions.

The results from the program are oddly poetic, like for example: “These lips were telling her vending machines. What has underbrush cooked? To decline was uncorking us. Any vanishing meal shouted. We have vilified you, and to talk grips the history of steel”. (more…)

Of all the graphics software used in movies and TV the most impressive is the kind that generates natural looking landscapes in the computer that can be composited (that is to say seamlessly blended) with live action elements. Terragen is a free, at the moment at least, program for PC and Mac which does just that, and to an amazingly realistic degree.

You start off by making your basic landscape as grayscale bitmap, either in the program or in an external editor like PaintShop or PhotoShop. In this case the white areas are high and the dark areas are low. The software then makes this bitmap into a mesh, a 3D shape which can be rendered using lighting states set up in the program. The mesh can then be dressed with a variety of colors and moss and snow to your taste. You assign settings to the sky and water height and off you go for a render.

The program operates over a number of windows which are driven from a toolbar which generally sits on the left of your screen and you and open and close the windows at will. You don’t have to have them all open at once, but I found that during the development process it’s common that you have at least two open at a time, usually the rendering control and one other so you can preview the results of your tinkering. The program also handles animation so you can generate a sequence of images and move the camera to make “fly-throughs”. (more…)

If sound editing software could be considered expensive, then video editing is off the scale. You can spend anywhere between $500-1000 buying the industry standard suites for editing and special effects. The Jahkasha project is hoping to change all that. The suite is once again open source, but this is I would say a less well developed piece of software. Sometimes open source can be a good thing, other times it’s like throwing a sausage sandwich amongst a pack of wild dogs and saying divide the work equally and play nice. (more…)

Most sound editing software is quite expensive, which for podcasters or video people just starting out can stand in the way of getting any experience with sound design. Sound is important for video production as sound is 80% of the effect you get when you watch a film or video. Try watching an action movie with the sound off and you’ll see what I mean. (more…)