Miro: The Best Way To Watch Puppetry on the Web

The open source Miro video player (I last wrote about it back in June when it was still called The Democracy Player) is out of beta testing and it's a fantastic application. Miro can automatically download, manage and play videos from RSS-based "channels" and popular video sharing sites like YouTube. It's a great way to watch videos online and best of all it's completely free! If you love to watch video on the web download it today and give Miro a try.

Democracy Player: A Great Way To Watch Video

I recently started using the open-source Democracy Player (it will soon be renamed the Miro Player) and I really, really like it. Not only can Democracy play just about every kind of video imaginable - Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, etc. - it helps you find some of the internet's best video podcasts via its built-in Channel Guide. You can also use it to download, save and watch BitTorrent files as well as videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. It even supports high-definition video too!

For those of you who already produce a puppet podcast or are thinking of starting one, Democracy offers video creators a number of helpful tools, including one click video subscription buttons, Broadcast Machine (for publishing videos on your web site) and Make Internet TV (a guide to shooting and editing video for the web). Even if you don't want to use the Democracy software yourself, you can submit your show's RSS Feed to create your own Democracy Channel to help you attract new viewers.

You can download the latest version of the Democracy Player via www.getdemocracy.com.

Monday Morning Inspiration: iClone

iClone is an easy-to-learn 3D program that can be used to create animation and design 3D characters like this one by puppeteer Paul Louis.

iClone is an increasingly popular software package that lets you easily build and animate 3D characters. It's a very handy program if you're new to 3D animation or looking to quickly produce animatics and do pre-viz work for a film project. While iClone isn't really a full-fledged professional animation package yet, its authors at RealAllusion seem very dedicated to turning it in to a powerful, easy-to-use Machinima production studio. They gave a presentation about iClone at the 2006 Machinima Festival that provides a good overview of iClone and what it can do.

Because it's easy to learn and fairly powerful, a lot of people are using iClone to get their feet wet in animation, including several puppeteers who are doing interesting things with the software. One of iClone's early adopters and biggest boosters is Paul Louis (see previous post) who is a content developer for Real Allusion and writes the excellent daily MyClones for iClone blog where he shares iClone tips, tricks and tons of free character models. Paul recently put together a series of video tutorials explaining how to create characters in iClone.

Want to explore iClone and see what it can do? Get the free trial version or the new 2.0 iClone beta and see what you think.

Monday Morning Inspiration: Blender 2.43

A screen shot from the latest version of Blender, the powerful open source 3D modelling and animation program.

Blender 2.43 - the latest version of the world's leading open source 3D program - was released over the weekend.

In case you're not already familiar with Blender, it's a software program used to model, render and animate three-dimensional computer graphics. It has tons of powerful features, including rigid body dynamics, fluid dynamics, softbody dynamics, modifier based modeling tools, and powerful character animation. It also includes a video editor, a video compositor and game engine for making 3D video games. It's comparable to high-end 3D software like 3D Studio Max and Maya (which usually cost thousands of dollars) in many ways except price...Blender is completely free!

Blender could be a great tool for designing puppet characters in 3D. You can even use it's game engine to create digital puppetry or Machinima. If you want to get a good sense of what it can do take a look at this gallery of Blender-made imagery, watch the short film Elephant's Dream, or visit the web site of Plumiferos, a forthcoming feature film being made with Blender.

You can download the latest version of Blender here. If you want to explore how to use it check out the free online book Blender: From Noob to Pro or read the tutorials written last year for the Blender Summer of Documentation.

Celtx - A Great Tool For Fillmmakers

The latest version of Celtx, the open source pre-production software for independent filmmakers has been released. Here's what developer Greyfirst Corp's co-founder Mark Kennedy has to say about it:

“This is the whole shebang under one roof. The entire Pre-Production process is supported in one open standard software application. Celtx includes features for developing a story, writing an industry standard screenplay, or stage play, completing a breakdown, making a storyboard and scheduling the shoot - all with one tool.”

I tried one of the earliest beta versions of Celtx a couple years ago and wasn't terribly impressed with it. At the time it seemed like a low-end script editing program with a few project management features tacked on. Well, Celtx has improved a lot since then and is quickly becoming a powerful open source pre-production tool for independent filmmakers. It's features include integrated project management, script writing/editing, storyboarding and scheduling software. It's web based too, which makes it ideal for collaborating over the internet. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?

If you make films and videos (with or without puppets) you're going to want to download the latest version of Celtx and take a look for yourself.

Via Machinima.com.