Portable Multimedia Suite III - GIMP

What is GIMP?

Okay, I'm going to get straight to it. GIMP is an open source image manipulation program (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It's a free alternative to Photoshop. I have recently been working on a project using nothing but free softwares, and naturally, GIMP is one of the first tools that I fired up. It's really good!

Who is it for?

• Artists who can't afford Photoshop
• Artists who have Photoshop, but can't access it
• Amateurs interested in getting into image editing

Why use GIMP:

• Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux)
• Easy to adapt to/from Photoshop
• Supports Layers, Layer Masks, custom patterns and many other useful features
• Supports reading PSD files
• Supports scripting in C, C++, C#, Python, Perl, and Ruby! Ironically, no JS, VBS, or AppleScript - the 3 languages that Photoshop supports :P 
• Does pretty much everything you'd expect from a professional image editing program
• Offers plenty of documentation, and there are loads of 3rd party learning resources
• It's free!

The Issues:

• Personally, I find the shortcuts to be crazy
• Cannot select multiple layers at a time. So, if you're grouping layers, you have to create a folder, and put one layer in at a time.
• When moving layers with your keyboard arrow keys, you need to select a layer, and click on the canvas before moving. Otherwise, the arrow keys are used to select different layers.
• Creating a layer mask opens up a menu asking you to select what to fill it with (full white, full black, use selection, use layer's alpha channel, etc). It would've been nice if they just applied a default, and provided a menu driven window to access those options. 

Closing Thoughts:

There are quite a few irritating quirks about GIMP that take a while to get used to (like the ones listed above). Personally, I feel that that's to be expected of any open source software. After all, these tools are not professionally built; they're created by a community. Keeping that in mind, I would have to say that GIMP is without a doubt the best open source multimedia application I have seen! (I haven't used blender, so don't throw that in my face). This is officially the first software I'd add to any portable multimedia suite that I make in future.

Bonus 1: It comes pre-installed in Ubuntu Studio!

Bonus 2: Click here for a free ebook on using GIMP. It covers everything from navigation to scripting!

God Bless Ubuntu

The Backstory:

After postponing for a while, I finally met up with a client and collected my work for their next project. I did what I always do: copied all the needed files in a pen drive. Usually, I'd format it before taking it with me, but somehow it just slipped. The only thing I had in that pen drive was Ubuntu Studio, along with some other random files. I knew there weren't any viruses, so there's really no point in formatting my drive (other than to look neat).

The Plot:

I met my client, came home, had lunch, and plugged in my pen drive, only to find this:

The files I need are inside that folder....the selected one.....which has now become "DATA.exe"....

GREAT!!

Apparently, I picked up a virus.

Now, I can't fix this on my mac without installing some random software, which I really don't want to do. Judging from the damage, this seems to be a rather simple virus, something even Windows Defender could handle. On the other hand, the virus would become active the moment I plug it into Windows. It's probably not going to do much, but I can't risk losing those files. (I don't want to end up asking my client for another copy; that's just unprofessional)

Eventually, I decided to fire up Ubuntu (not the one on my pen drive), and see how that flies. So, I booted up, mounted my pen drive, and guess what?

Lo and behold, I can access my folder again! I love how you can see both the original folder, and the virus! Ha ha. 

So, I backed up what I needed, formatted the drive, and went back to catching up on this years Oscar Nominations. (My money is on Eddie Redmayne. Better luck next time DiCaprio!)

The Conclusion:

And that, my friends, is the story of how Linux, an open source operating system, was more helpful to me than either Mac or Windows! You don't need to be a geek to use Linux! (I'm not saying that I'm not one, but hey, that's just me). You don't even have to use it, just have a copy lying around for times like this! What harm could it possibly do you?

Download your copy of Ubuntu now!

Portable Multimedia Suite II: To Studio, or Not to Studio

I previously blogged about carrying around a studio in your pocket. For those who'd like to get started with that, you can download the latest version of Ubuntu Studio here. To get it to run off of a pen drive,read my old article here. However, I'm now beginning to wonder whether Ubuntu Studio is appropriate for this task. Am I contradicting myself? Well, allow me to explain.

The Ironic Predicament

Ubuntu Studio comes packaged with a lot of wonderful multimedia tools. That's what makes it such a handy OS. Unfortunately, it comes with so many, that one might consider it bordering bloatware! Basically, it's a collection of all major multimedia software available for the OS, neatly bundled and ready to use, but honestly, no one is going to use every single one software. We all have our own tastes and preferences. Ordinarily, this shouldn't be such a big deal, but we need this solution to be portable, every bit counts! Anything that can be cut, should be cut. Now, we have 2 options:

• Install Ubuntu Studio and remove all software that you're not going to use, then add any additional apps you need (like VLC!)

• Install plain old Ubuntu and simply install the tools that you will use.

Weighing the Options

The latter seems to be an ideal choice, only it's more work than meets the eye. You see, you can't just install your apps and expect them to work; you also have to install whatever packages are needed to support your app. For example, if you need to edit a video, you have to install an editor, and the codec required to make the editor support your video. Ubuntu Studio offers all of that functionality right out of the box. Not to mention, the interface of Ubuntu Studio was designed for artists. It's just so much better! Fortunately, you can install a theme that provides that same interface for Ubuntu.

Unfortunately, the problem with the former is that we are running a live cd version, so uninstalling apps is a problem. Removing software from a cd image seems counterintuitive. I've tried, and, well, it seems to have been removed, but I didn't see a decrease in file size, so I guess it's entry was just deleted......

The Not-So-Elegant Solution

There exists an app called the Ubuntu Customization Kit which claims to let you create a customized version of Ubuntu, and create an installation disk for it. Basically, you can make whatever changes you want, install or uninstall whatever software you want, and make a live cd version of the OS at that state, providing you with your own custom flavor of Ubuntu. Unfortunately, it involves coding, and I don't know the first thing about Unix. Honestly, it would be a lot easier to just get a pen drive with a couple gigs of extra space, but.......well, what's the fun in that?

Portable Multimedia Suite - I: Introduction

Are you an artist? If so, you know the hardships of having to ready your computer by installing a plethora of software before you can use it properly. Well, at least that's your computer, so it's just a one time process. On the flip side, when you're on someone else's computer, and your creativity strikes, what do you do? Obviously, since they don't have the required software, there's really not much that you can do! Have you ever felt this handicap before? Don't you ever wish you could do something about it? If so, you're not alone.

For many years now, it has been my dream to establish a portable multimedia solution. Essentially, something that would let me work on any computer, without having to depend on them installing any software. The obvious solution that came to mind was to do something with a pen drive....but what? Initially, I tried using portable versions of various software, but, if you've tried this, you know exactly how irritating it is. Most of the time, it doesn't even work! Now what?

Along this journey, I have tried out using several different distributions of Linux to find an ideal version to store on a bootable pen drive, for emergency situations (for instance, accessing data from a PC that won't boot). Eventually, I decided to use Puppy Linux for that particular cause (you can read further in my older blog). That's fine for basic tasks, but you can't exactly use it for creating media. So, a few months ago, I ended up installing Ubuntu Studio to get a hang of using it. At the time, my basic goal was to avoid using Microsoft as much as possible :P

After using Ubuntu for the past 6 months, I finally have the urge to see how far I can push this OS; not in terms of software, or portability, but both! I want to create a pen drive containing a bootable version of Ubuntu Studio, that has all the apps you need to create and edit media. This particular distro of Ubuntu comes with many such apps preinstalled, but there are still a lot you need to add manually. For example, it lacks a decent video editing software. I heard Cinelerra was a good one...haven't tried it out though.

Anyways, think about how great it would be to just carry around a pen drive, that lets you use ANY COMPUTER to complete your work! Editing? Photography? Composing? Writing? You name it! And the beauty of it is, if you don't have the right app for something, you can always install it!

The only down side is, you have to learn a whole new set of tools, and more often than not, they won't be as sophisticated as your professional software packages. On the bright side, it's always better than nothing. After all, you don't really need Avid Media Composer for editing you home videos, now do you?

In the long run, I want this to be part of a larger set of tools used to trouble shoot a computer. Clearly, all that'll have to wait. Over the next few weeks, I'll delve in to my experience of creating this Portable Solution. One step at a time!

-Niranjan