James CD INCLUDED Crafting Digital Media Companion eBook Available Ubuntu CD inside! trim: 7.5 x 9.25 spine = 0.84375 448 page count THE EXPERT’S VOICE ® IN OPEN SOURCE Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and other Open Source Tools Daniel James A manual for creative media on a modest budget Accompanying CD includes Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Desktop Edition, including Audacity, Blender, GIMP, and other applications this print for content only—size & color not accurate CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK PANTONE 123 C BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS ® US $39.99 Shelve in: Multimedia User level: Beginner–Intermediate Daniel James www.freesoftwarecreative.com www.apress.com SOURCE CODE ONLINE Companion eBook See last page for details on $10 eBook version ISBN 978-1-4302-1887-6 9 781430 218876 5 39 9 9 FPO RELATED TITLES Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and other Open Source Tools Dear Reader, Free creative software tool chains went from dream to reality in recent years. They are mature, world-class and competitive. There have been more than 61 million downloads of the Audacity audio editor, and more than 60 million downloads of the GIMP for Windows image manipulation tool from SourceForge.net alone. 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 delivery. Every technique described in the book can be achieved on GNU/Linux, but many of the applications covered run on Windows and Mac OS X as well. New to GNU/Linux, and feeling a little daunted? Don't worry; there is a step- by-step tutorial on Ubuntu, for either temporary use or permanent installation. You’ll learn how to: • 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. • Chain these applications together and make them serve your creative vision. • Find and install the applications cross–platform, if you want to reach out beyond GNU/Linux. • Share your creative works with the world using the Drupal content management system, Web 2.0 technology and Icecast media streaming. • Locate and engage with software and project hosting communities to connect with other creators. And you’ll find out why being part of the Free Software community also means being part of a creative community. Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS i Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and Other Open Source Tools Daniel James Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS ii 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 orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit http://www.springeronline.com. For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2855 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94705. Phone 510-549-5930, fax 510-549-5939, e-mail info@apress.com, or visit http://www.apress.com. Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales—eBook Licensing web page at http://www.apress.com/info/bulksales. The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work. The source code for this book is available to readers at www.freesoftwarecreative.com. Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS iii For Martha. Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS iv 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 Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS v 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 Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS vi 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 Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS vii 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 Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS viii 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 Download at WoweBook.Com [...]... type of music and the freedom of a system that allows (and encourages) you to change that software In addition, we hope that musicians and video people who like computers, and computer programmers who like music and video, will help to make these programs even better than they are today Most of all, we hope you enjoy this book as an introduction to the wonderful world of Free and Open Source Software... adoption of GNU/Linux and related programs, and not just because of the potential for confusion with freeware This is how the phrase open source came into being: as a way of emphasizing the technical benefits of source code availability while downplaying the four freedoms of the GPL It remains a controversial rebranding, with old-school hackers like Stallman refusing to use the term open source (except to... One of the original hosting sites, and probably the largest to date, is SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net) Anyone can sign up for a SourceForge account, start a project, and begin recruiting developers The site now claims 180,000 projects and more than 1.9 million registered users, although not all of these users are active developers Some of the user accounts and projects are dormant; but even so,... Enabling Drupal Modules 366 Selecting a Drupal Theme 369 Streaming Audio 372 Further Reading 380 Other Useful Programs 380 PART 3 ■ ■ ■ Appendixes 381 ■Appendix A: GNU/Linux Commands 383 Mounting Filesystems 383 Finding Files and Text within Files 384 Move, Copy, Delete, and. .. accounts and projects are dormant; but even so, you can find a lot of software on SourceForge The best projects on this and other, similar hosting sites are taken up and maintained within at least one of the GNU/Linux distributions The Year of the Linux Desktop While GNU/Linux was becoming firmly entrenched on web and mail servers and gaining a foothold in high-performance computing, the new generation of... Blender for 3D modeling, Scribus for desktop publishing, Audacity for editing audio, and more Internet communities of developers and users grew up around these Free Software programs, improving them with new features, fixing bugs, and providing support to new users As people from outside the GNU/Linux world got involved with these community projects, alternative versions for Windows and the Mac began to... trap of other freely available programs that had been written for UNIX Just imagine if you’d spent years writing a program that was your pride and joy, and you’d given it freely as your gift to the world, only to find out that it had been ripped off by a proprietary software vendor and turned into SuperDeLuxeProgram 2.0 When this happened, the original authors couldn’t even get access to the source. .. rather outlandish claim neglected the point that both UNIX and GNU were founded in the USA by Americans MIT, UC Berkeley, and the other universities where Free Software flourished, along with the early Internet, were predominantly based in the USA I’ve described the GNU GPL as a Bill of Rights; not only does it grant specific freedoms to computer users, but it also attempts to limit the power of others... GNU/Linux could be deployed on PCs much more costeffectively Pretty soon, fledging ISPs, search engines, and all kinds of crazy dot-com start-ups had hundreds or even thousands of GNU/Linux machines serving web pages and churning out e-mails Free Software was entering the mainstream Hello Open Source Over at the big UNIX vendors, management began to take more notice of Free Software Engineers were...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 . community. Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS i Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and Other Open Source Tools Daniel James . Download at WoweBook.Com CONTENTS ii Crafting Digital Media: Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and Other Open Source Tools Copyright © 2009 by Daniel James All rights. 218876 5 39 9 9 FPO RELATED TITLES Crafting Digital Media Audacity, Blender, Drupal, GIMP, Scribus, and other Open Source Tools Dear Reader, Free creative software tool chains went from