CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK PANTONE 123 C BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS® THE EXPERT’S VOICE® IN OPEN SOURCE Companion eBook Available Cra ftin g Dig ital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, C and other Open Source Tools r a Daniel James Dear Reader, f t Free creative software tool chains went from dream to reality in recent years. They Crafting i are mature, world-class and competitive. There have been more than 61 million n downloads of the Audacity audio editor, and more than 60 million downloads of the GIMP for Windows image manipulation tool from SourceForge.net alone. g Crafting Digital Media is your foundation course in image manipulation, illustration, animation, 3D modeling, publishing, recording audio and making music, DJ'ing, mixing and mastering audio CDs, video editing and web content D delivery. Every technique described in the book can be achieved on GNU/Linux, Digital Media but many of the applications covered run on Windows and Mac OS X as well. i New to GNU/Linux, and feeling a little daunted? Don't worry; there is a step- g by-step tutorial on Ubuntu, for either temporary use or permanent installation. i t You’ll learn how to: a • Install and configure Ubuntu GNU/Linux for creative applications. • Get productive with Ardour, Audacity, Avidemux, Blender, FontForge, the GIMP, Hydrogen, Inkscape, Mixxx, Scribus, Synfig and other tools. l Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, • Chain these applications together and make them serve your creative vision. M • Find and install the applications cross–platform, if you want to reach out beyond and other Open Source Tools GNU/Linux. • Share your creative works with the world using the Drupal content management e system, Web 2.0 technology and Icecast media streaming. • Locate and engage with software and project hosting communities to connect d with other creators. i Companion eBook FPO a And you’ll find out why being part of the Free Software community also means A manual for creative media on a modest budget being part of a creative community. See last page for details S E on $10 eBook version L T CD INCLUDED TI D TE Ubuntu CD A L E inside! R SOURCE CODE ONLINE Daniel James www.freesoftwarecreative.com J ISBN 978-1-4302-1887-6 a www.apress.com m 53999 e s US $39.99 Accompanying CD includes Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Desktop Edition, Shelve in: including Audacity, Blender, GIMP, and other applications Multimedia User level: 9 781430 218876 Beginner–Intermediate this print for content only—size & color not accurate trim: 7.5 x 9.25 spine = 0.84375 448 page count (cid:132) CONTENTS Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and Other Open Source Tools (cid:132) (cid:132) (cid:132) Daniel James i (cid:132) CONTENTS Crafting Digital Media: Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and Other Open Source Tools Copyright © 2009 by Daniel James All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher, except Appendix 1 and any photograph made available under the GNU Free Documentation License (see Appendix 2). ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-1887-6 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-1888-3 Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Frank Pohlmann Development Editors: Michelle Lowman and Matt Wade Technical Reviewer: Trevor Parsons Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Tony Campbell, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Coordinationg Editor: Jim Markham Copy Editor: Tiffany Taylor Compositor: Nancy Wright Indexer: John Collin Artist: April Milne Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax 201-348-4505, e-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.springeronline.com. For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2855 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94705. 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The source code for this book is available to readers at www.freesoftwarecreative.com. ii (cid:132) CONTENTS For Martha. iii (cid:132) CONTENTS Contents at a Glance ■ Foreword ......................................................................................................................... xii ■ About the Author ............................................................................................................ xiii ■ About the Technical Reviewer ........................................................................................ xiv ■ Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... xv ■ Introduction .................................................................................................................... xvi PART 1 ■ ■ ■ Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 ■ Chapter 1: Working with Free Software ............................................................................ 3 ■ Chapter 2: Getting Started ............................................................................................... 17 PART 2 ■ ■ ■ Tools .......................................................................................................... 49 ■ Chapter 3: Photography .................................................................................................. 51 ■ Chapter 4: Illustration and Font Design ........................................................................... 91 ■ Chapter 5: Animation .................................................................................................... 123 ■ Chapter 6: 3D Modeling ................................................................................................. 147 ■ Chapter 7: Publishing .................................................................................................... 177 ■ Chapter 8: Making Music .............................................................................................. 211 ■ Chapter 9: Recording Audio .......................................................................................... 247 ■ Chapter 10: Mixing and Mastering ................................................................................ 285 ■ Chapter 11: Video Editing .............................................................................................. 317 ■ Chapter 12: Web Content ............................................................................................... 343 PART 3 ■ ■ ■ Appendixes .............................................................................................. 381 ■ Appendix A: GNU/Linux Commands ............................................................................... 383 ■ Appendix B: GNU Free Documentation License .............................................................. 393 ■ Index ............................................................................................................................. 401 iv (cid:132) CONTENTS Contents ■ Foreword .......................................................................................................................... xii ■ About the Author .............................................................................................................. xii ■ About the Technical Reviewer ........................................................................................... ix ■ Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ x ■ Introduction ....................................................................................................................... xi PART 1 ■ ■ ■ Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 ■ Chapter 1: Working with Free Software ............................................................................. 3 The Two Meanings of Free ............................................................................................................................ 3 GNU GPL: a Bill of Rights for Computer Users ............................................................................................... 5 Is Free Software Un-American? .................................................................................................................... 6 Linux: the Last Piece of the GNU Puzzle ........................................................................................................ 7 Hello Open Source ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Distribution Explosion .................................................................................................................................... 9 The Year of the Linux Desktop ....................................................................................................................... 9 My Story ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 What Free Software Is Good At, and Where There Are Gaps ....................................................................... 12 Being a Good Free Software Citizen ............................................................................................................ 13 Beta Testing and Bug Reporting .................................................................................................................. 14 Jargon-Busting Guide .................................................................................................................................. 14 Mouse Conventions Used in This Book ........................................................................................................ 15 Freesoftwarecreative.com ........................................................................................................................... 15 Further reading ............................................................................................................................................ 16 ■ Chapter 2: Getting Started ................................................................................................ 17 Distro or No?................................................................................................................................................ 17 Ubuntu Compatibility ................................................................................................................................... 17 Booting from the Optical Drive .................................................................................................................... 18 The Ubuntu Live CD ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Ubuntu Desktop installation ........................................................................................................................ 20 Partitioning .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Completing the Installation .......................................................................................................................... 25 Installation from the Internet with Wubi ...................................................................................................... 29 v (cid:132) CONTENTS Running Wubi from CD ................................................................................................................................ 33 A Tour of GNOME ......................................................................................................................................... 35 Network Configuration ................................................................................................................................ 40 Additional Software Installation .................................................................................................................. 44 Setting Up a Printer ..................................................................................................................................... 47 Further Reading ........................................................................................................................................... 48 PART 2 ■ ■ ■ Tools ........................................................................................................... 49 ■ Chapter 3: Photography ................................................................................................... 51 Getting Photos into the Computer ............................................................................................................... 51 Using F-Spot to Import Photos .................................................................................................................... 53 GThumb: An Alternative to F-Spot ............................................................................................................... 56 Card Readers and Bluetooth ........................................................................................................................ 57 Scanning Prints, Slides, and Negatives ....................................................................................................... 57 A Word or Two About Resolution ............................................................................................................ 59 Making the Scan ..................................................................................................................................... 60 Scanning within the GIMP....................................................................................................................... 60 Other Useful Programs ................................................................................................................................ 89 Further Reading ........................................................................................................................................... 89 ■ Chapter 4: Illustration and Font Design ............................................................................ 91 Bitmaps vs. Vectors ..................................................................................................................................... 91 Vector Graphic Formats ............................................................................................................................... 93 Inkscape: An SVG Drawing Tool .................................................................................................................. 93 Inkscape’s Transformation Tools ............................................................................................................ 94 Shape Tools ............................................................................................................................................ 97 Line-Drawing Tools ............................................................................................................................... 102 The Fill Tool .......................................................................................................................................... 103 The Text Tool ........................................................................................................................................ 104 Diagram Connectors ............................................................................................................................. 106 Creating Gradients ................................................................................................................................ 108 Selecting Colors from an Image ........................................................................................................... 108 Managing Colors ................................................................................................................................... 109 Pixmap-to-Vector Conversion ............................................................................................................... 110 Exporting Pixmaps ................................................................................................................................ 112 Forging Fonts............................................................................................................................................. 113 Typefaces, Fonts, and Glyphs ............................................................................................................... 113 Font File Formats .................................................................................................................................. 113 Sketching a Font ................................................................................................................................... 114 Forging Ahead ........................................................................................................................................... 114 Editing the Font Images ........................................................................................................................ 116 Importing Glyphs from Inkscape ........................................................................................................... 118 Spacing and Kerning ............................................................................................................................ 119 Installing Your New Font ........................................................................................................................... 120 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 122 vi (cid:132) CONTENTS Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 122 ■ Chapter 5: Animation ..................................................................................................... 123 Free Software for Movie Production .......................................................................................................... 123 The Importance of Storyboarding .............................................................................................................. 125 KToon: a Tool for Cartoonists .................................................................................................................... 126 KToon’s Drawing Tools ......................................................................................................................... 129 Exporting from KToon ........................................................................................................................... 132 Hand-Drawing vs. Tweening ..................................................................................................................... 133 Synfig: a Tweening Animation Tool ........................................................................................................... 134 Broken Ubuntu Packages in Jaunty ...................................................................................................... 135 Getting Started with Tweening ............................................................................................................. 137 Creating the Animation ......................................................................................................................... 139 Layers and Colors ................................................................................................................................. 142 Rendering and Exporting ...................................................................................................................... 145 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 146 ■ Chapter 6: 3D Modeling .................................................................................................. 147 The Three Ages of Blender ........................................................................................................................ 147 Starting Blender ........................................................................................................................................ 148 Changing Views ......................................................................................................................................... 150 Changing the Selection ............................................................................................................................. 151 Moving, Rotating, and Scaling objects ...................................................................................................... 153 Free Object Manipulation .......................................................................................................................... 155 Panning and Zooming ................................................................................................................................ 156 Creating Mesh Objects .............................................................................................................................. 157 Saving Your Work ...................................................................................................................................... 159 Adding Color and Texture to an Object ...................................................................................................... 160 Using Edit Mode......................................................................................................................................... 163 Copying and Grouping Objects .................................................................................................................. 164 Putting Text on the Model ......................................................................................................................... 170 Adding a Plane and a World ...................................................................................................................... 172 Using Lighting Effects ................................................................................................................................ 173 Final Render and Output ............................................................................................................................ 173 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 174 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 174 ■ Chapter 7: Publishing ..................................................................................................... 177 The DTP Revolution ................................................................................................................................... 177 Free Software Alternatives ........................................................................................................................ 178 Working with Scribus ................................................................................................................................ 179 The Concept of Frames ......................................................................................................................... 181 Working with Properties ....................................................................................................................... 182 Importing Text and Images ................................................................................................................... 191 Frame Shapes and Colors ..................................................................................................................... 195 Managing Fonts .................................................................................................................................... 197 vii (cid:132) CONTENTS Spot and Process Colors ....................................................................................................................... 198 Managing Document Layout ................................................................................................................. 201 Linking and Unlinking Frames .............................................................................................................. 203 Generating PDFs ................................................................................................................................... 204 Output and the Litho Process ............................................................................................................... 208 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 208 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 209 ■ Chapter 8: Making Music ............................................................................................... 211 The Beat Goes On ...................................................................................................................................... 211 A Question of Control ................................................................................................................................. 212 Mixxxing It Up ............................................................................................................................................ 213 Running Mixxx for the First Time .......................................................................................................... 214 Troubleshooting Mixxx .......................................................................................................................... 214 Hit the Top, My Selector ....................................................................................................................... 218 Beat Matching ...................................................................................................................................... 220 Making a Custom Skin .......................................................................................................................... 220 Beats from Scratch .................................................................................................................................... 221 Laying Down the Groove ....................................................................................................................... 224 Chaining the Song Together ................................................................................................................. 226 Selecting the Right Sounds .................................................................................................................. 227 Exporting from Hydrogen ...................................................................................................................... 231 Sequencing with MIDI ............................................................................................................................... 231 MIDI on GNU/Linux ................................................................................................................................ 233 Getting Seq24 and AlsaModularSynth .................................................................................................. 234 Running AlsaModularSynth .................................................................................................................. 237 Beginning the Sequence ....................................................................................................................... 239 The Seq24 Song Editor ......................................................................................................................... 242 The Seq24 Configuration File................................................................................................................ 243 Triggering Hydrogen Drums with Seq24 .............................................................................................. 245 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 246 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 246 ■ Chapter 9: Recording Audio ........................................................................................... 247 From Disc to Tape to Disk ......................................................................................................................... 247 The Input Side ........................................................................................................................................... 248 Making a Podcast ...................................................................................................................................... 250 The First Recording .............................................................................................................................. 252 Splitting, Cutting, and Pasting ................................................................................................................... 256 Exporting the Podcast ........................................................................................................................... 259 Ardour: Rock Harder! ................................................................................................................................. 262 The Real-Time Linux Kernel .................................................................................................................. 263 Configuring JACK .................................................................................................................................. 263 Starting Ardour ..................................................................................................................................... 266 Recording Drums .................................................................................................................................. 269 No Drums or Microphones? .................................................................................................................. 272 viii (cid:132) CONTENTS Hey Mr. Bassie ...................................................................................................................................... 274 Guitars and Keyboards.......................................................................................................................... 276 Editing in Ardour ................................................................................................................................... 278 Exporting the Session ........................................................................................................................... 281 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 283 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 283 ■ Chapter 10: Mixing and Mastering ................................................................................. 285 Optimizing Your Sound .............................................................................................................................. 285 Digital Audio and the Full Scale ................................................................................................................. 285 Finding the Balance ................................................................................................................................... 289 The Pan Control ......................................................................................................................................... 291 Mixer Automation ...................................................................................................................................... 292 Compression, Limiting, and Equalization .................................................................................................. 292 Mastering Principles .................................................................................................................................. 295 Hope You Like JAMin Too .......................................................................................................................... 297 The Equalizer ........................................................................................................................................ 299 Heavy Dub Pressure ............................................................................................................................. 300 Reaching the Limit ................................................................................................................................ 301 Making a Scene .................................................................................................................................... 302 Testing Your Results ............................................................................................................................. 304 Audio CD Production .................................................................................................................................. 305 The CD Still Rules ................................................................................................................................. 306 Burn, Baby, Burn ................................................................................................................................... 306 Making It Pretty .................................................................................................................................... 310 Ardour Integration ................................................................................................................................. 315 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 315 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 316 ■ Chapter 11: Video Editing ............................................................................................... 317 Converting Video with Avidemux ............................................................................................................... 317 Importing from DVD .............................................................................................................................. 320 Format and Codec Choice ......................................................................................................................... 321 Cropping and Resizing .......................................................................................................................... 322 Cutting to Fit ......................................................................................................................................... 326 Getting Video from a Camera Tape ............................................................................................................ 328 Command-Line DV Capture ....................................................................................................................... 331 Open Movie Editor ..................................................................................................................................... 331 Making the Interface Fit........................................................................................................................ 332 Adding Opening Titles ........................................................................................................................... 333 Working with Video Clips ...................................................................................................................... 335 Importing Audio .................................................................................................................................... 339 Exporting the Finished Movie ............................................................................................................... 339 Compiling Open Movie Editor from Source ........................................................................................... 341 Further Reading ......................................................................................................................................... 342 Other Useful Programs .............................................................................................................................. 342 ix