Open Source Creative

So this episode turned out to be a really long one. The bulk of it is a topic that comes courtesy of @3pointedit on Twitter (thanks for listening!). That is, the costs of choosing to use free and open source software tools to produce your creative works. We often hear (or read) the benefits, but those of us on this side of the fence are less vociferous when it comes to the costs and consequences of this choice of ours. I run through those costs… at least in as much as how I see it.

Also, I devote a good chunk of time to discussing my hunt for a version control system for my writing work, as also detailed in my last blog post. Short version: it should work without a central server and it needs to have a full-featured Android client. Suggestions welcome.

The format for the show got shuffled around a bit, too. I’ve started doing the news bits as part of the intro and I have a little closing bit at the end. Let me know how you like it.

Speaking of news… this is what I cover:

And that should about do it. Lemme know what you think!

The first episode of 2015! Hi folks. This week (yes… this is still supposed to be a weekly podcast) I talk about ways to get started and get inspired on creative projects. It’s the start of the year and folks tend to think about what they want to do over the course of the coming year… but sometimes get stuck right out of the starting gate. Maybe, just maybe I give some suggestions that can help thaw out that paralysis and get you moving on your projects.

And… since it’s been so long since the last episode, there’s quite a bit of news. Here’s the quick rundown:

Whew… that was a lot. See you next week!

This episode is a week late… or I just skipped last week. I suppose it depends on your perspective. In any case, I cover a lot of news in this episode since two weeks of it happened since the last one:

I also have a pretty serious question for you about the kind of content you’d like to see in the next edition of Blender For Dummies. I’m working on the 3rd edition of the book and have come to a point where I need to decide on whether I cover more of Blender’s features or if I include some basic tutorial material. Let me know what you think in the comments.

And in the meat of the episode, I spend a fair amount of time discussing where I think open source creative tools best fit… what kind of artists and environments they’re best suited for. I think I came up with some answers, but feel free to let me know if you think otherwise.

Have fun listening!

Bassam, May 13, 2015

looks like twine is wx and pthon, and can be run from linux https://github.com/tweecode/twine , just they don’t distribute a linux binary (YMMV of course)

Jason, May 15, 2015

Ooooh! Good catch. Now I can try it out. :P

Thanks!

Though it’s a bit scatterbrained, this is a fun episode talking about knowing your audience. When you produce creative work, it’s a good idea to have a notion of the people for whom you’re producing it. And amazingly, this is something that a lot of creatives sometimes overlook or forget about. I know I do on occasion. So I talk about it here as it pertains to writing and commercial TV (and yes, also how it relates to Free Software and the UI episode from last week). I also have a bit of a mini-rant about small business owners and their friggin’ dogs. I still don’t get it.

News bits:

Short and sweet on the news this week. Enjoy the show!

Mauricio, Nov 23, 2014

If you can, show us your hand draw animation using the grease pencil. I’m curious to see the result.

Great episode!

Jason, Nov 24, 2014

Thanks for listening! I’ll absolutely be linking to that animation and sharing some background on it.

In this episode I talk user interfaces. Specifically, I try to crack the nut on why it seems that the user interfaces for open source tools appear to get higher scrutiny and more anger thrown at them than their proprietary contemporaries… and if that’s really a problem at all. Sadly, I’m not sure that I have any real solutions, but maybe we can use this as a means of launching a discussion that’s actually meaningful and productive. Maybe.

News stuff:

And that’s that. Enjoy the show.

Paweł Łyczkowski, Nov 15, 2014

As a person who wrote a lot about the Blender interface I feel I need to defend my work a bit against statements like “If you don’t like the interface, go use a different program”.

“Interfaces are somewhat like art and if you like an interface is a subjective matter.”

Unlike art, an interface is functional, and as every functional thing, it can perform it’s function better or worse. Example: placing vital shortcuts on the keyboard with hard to execute key combinations makes the interface worse than if it would use easy to execute key combinations.

It’s also not subjective like art. You can make the interface easier to use by exploiting how our memory, perceiving of the world, and learning works. For instance by respecting the already learned reflexes, providing discoverability, and exploiting our intuitive perceiving of objects and their relations (for instance making buttons seem related to each other by placing them next to each other). These principles are objective because they result from mind systems that are objective – they are too complicated to have variations in functionality – they either work as intended, and as in every other person, or they are broken. And so they are always worth pursuing and respecting when designing an interface.

“The problem with FOSS is that the users feel entitled, and demand that the interface would be tailored to their particular needs.”

Well, you already diagnosed this one. FOSS feels more intimate, because you have more direct access to the developers, and you can contribute, so more people feel like their feedback has a chance of getting in there. So the users of FOSS do not have bigger difficulties learning a UI or feel more entitled – they are just more vocal about it’s problems.

And, since Blender is a bit of a 3d gateway program (used often by people who touch 3d for the first time), and a side-program (used alongside some other packages), the accessibility of it’s interface is crucial.

Please do talk about it more next week.

Jason, Nov 15, 2014

First of all, thanks a ton for listening. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to my rambling and provide such a thoughtful response.

I mentioned this on Twitter… generally speaking, we don’t disagree. We just have a bit of a miscommunication. I was using art as a metaphor, but I was talking primarily about design. As I mentioned in the episode, in design (all design, not just interface design), there are objective principles. However, there are many different ways in which those principles can be successfully and effectively applied. The resulting design can still be effective and functional but not necessarily suitable for everyone. That’s the subjective bit.

Paweł Łyczkowski, Nov 15, 2014

Good to know we don’t disagree.

I actually quite like interface discussions, so I couldn’t miss this episode : )

Light, Nov 15, 2014

It is OK to think about UI and complain about it. Android is one. See what come out from it. You just have to be pro enough in the respond. See the problem and solve it.

Nuke Studio has timeline like AE too. It has widgets on the video, like in AE.

Natron uses the same OpenFX open-source framework as nuke. Thus they will converge at the same UI. “The OpenFX specification is really driven to a node graph model such as the Nuke’s one (in fact, its very own inventor is co-founder at The Foundry), so no wonder why this specification seems very close to how Nuke works. When you have the same features of an application and follow the same specifications you end up with very little room for user interface differences.”

There are too many low hanging fruits in fixing UI in FOSS. The problem, most of the time is communication (no or hidden channel) and coding resource (limitation not mentioned or no roadmap). Most coders (more than 50% that I know) do do very bad UI. :D

reference:

Jason, Nov 16, 2014

I think you’re splitting hairs on Nuke and AE. Their workflows are very different. Yes, Nuke has a timeline, but the primary way you do compositing in Nuke is with nodes whereas in in AE it’s done with layers. They’re fundamentally different ways of approaching the same task. That’s the point I was getting at. Similarly with Natron, it isn’t the specification that makes the interface similar to Nuke’s (unless you have an overly broad definition of “specification”). I simply disagree with Natron’s developer on that point.

Light, Nov 16, 2014

Nuke Studio has both node and layer timeline editing. Most AE users want to use the new Nuke workflow. That was the hype earlier this year.

Q: How would you make Natron better? UI wise.

Jason, Nov 16, 2014

You’re still missing the point of the example (that is, there are often multiple solutions, equally viable, to a given design problem). I tried to be clear at the start of the episode (though perhaps I wasn’t). It was never about making any specific program better or passing any kind of judgment on the creators of a tool for trying something different or for being the same.

Guss, Nov 16, 2014

Haven’t listened the podcast yet, but judging from the comments I’m sure it will be tremendously interesting. thanks!

personally I find interfaces quite a subjective type of thing. but if I have an app that I absolutely NEED even if the UI is bad (imo), I simply see it as a challenge to be conquered. its not that hard to ge -used-to/work-around the quirky or even downright bad stuff. its just a mindset. and its subjective to a lot of things

caetano, Dec 28, 2016

I’d say the reason why open source program UIs are more expected to please everyone has more to do with the fact that in proprietary software, you have a wider choice for powerful programs. For 3D animation, you have Maya, 3DSMax, C4D, Houdini, Modo and the list goes on. In free software, you have 1 choice : Blender, which has a UI that works almost the same in every environment (modeling, animating, video editing, etc) although 2.8’s workflow release is going to improve environment adaptability (if I can call it that way). The same “choice problem” goes for other creative jobs (2D painting, 2D animation), although not as much as for Blender which is really lonely as a free 3D animation program.

About the “freedom of open source developers to innovate and experiment compared to proprietary software developers who are beholden to the market”, are you sure of that ? Seeing how many people begged for the Alembic support while Sergey said Alembic’s code is quite messy and outdated but still worked on it because everyone wanted it, or how the complaints of Bl. Internal users against setting Cycles as the default have made the change hold until this day (at least I think that’s what happened), I feel like the Blender foundation has to comply with a huge community and can’t evolve too quick in each new release. More generally, at the beginning of any software project (open source or not), you can explore and experiment as much as you want, as you have nobody to comply with yet. But as your audience grows, wether it’s the big market or the freelance artists and hobbyists community, your allowance to go in a more unconventional path decreases. Houdini was super innovative at its start, I bet its evolution will slow down over time as more of its users will get used to it and complain about strange new things that mess with their workflow.

This week’s episode talks about tutorials… well, specifically how we tend to treat tutorials. There seems to be an overarching trend toward replicating the process in a tutorial verbatim without actually learning how to apply those techniques elsewhere. People learn how to push a specific series of buttons in a specific way to produce a known result… and it’s lame. I take a bit of time during this episode to try to sort out whether the responsibility for fixing this lies with the tutorial maker or the person following the tutorial.

News things covered in the episode:

And my little bit of personal news:

Alright… enough with the shameless self-promotion.

caetano, Dec 25, 2016

I don’t really agree. Tutorials fall down in different categories and aim at different audiences and different situations in which the viewer is while looking for one. Here are the 3 situations I would think of :

– in the middle of a project, feeling stuck because I don’t know how something works (like a modifier). In that case, please explain me what each button means (Bartek Scorupa is a very good teacher for this)

– Not in the middle of a project, learning in some new area of the program for me (i.e. rigging). In that case, please explain the features deeply and do an overview at the beginning, so that I have a clear Idea of what I’m about to learn.

My classification is certainly not extensive, but I don’t think tutorials should always explain everything, it can be a waste of time for the viewer.

You may have noticed that I skipped a week in airing the podcast. That’s because I was at Blender Conference 2014 in Amsterdam. I mentioned this in the last episode with a question asking how I should cover the conference. I should’ve realized that you, the wonderful audience, would ask me to interview everyone there. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to everyone… partially because there were over 250 people there and partially because, well, I’m a bit shy.

In any case, I did get some people to allow me to record them. One of the most striking things about the Blender Conference is how many fantastically unconventional ways that Blender is used… and I notice every time I’m there. I hope that these 16 people who were willing to be recorded show a fairly accurate cross-section of that experience:

And a huge, huge thank you to everyone who agreed to be recorded. I can’t express how much I appreciate it.

frobenius, Nov 2, 2014

Inspired depressions, that’s a very good way to put it. I think many can relate. I’m not done with listening to the interviews yet, but so far they’re great. Thanks for sharing.

frobenius, Nov 2, 2014

as a followup, looking up some of these people while they’re interviewing…you talked with some talented people. great stuff. Instead of inspired depression….I think hesitant inspiration is more appropriate. It’s good to see you’re sticking with this podcast. Looking forward to more.

Jason, Nov 2, 2014

I definitely agree that these are incredibly talented people. With any luck, I’ll be able to see them again at next year’s Blender Conference and get an update. Any other Blenderhead should try to make it out, too. It’s always been well worth my time.

This episode of the Open Source Creative Podcast covers a topic that we see all over the place in the creative world, but it seems to be especially prevalent in the web communities of open source creative projects. I’m specifically referring to the topic of collaborative projects or community projects. Most people seem to go about the “recruiting help” process all wrong. My aim with this episode of the podcast is to provide a bit of direction about more effective means of successfully pulling someone onto your project. Spoiler alert: it’s these 6 things:

I also have a question about how you, the audience would most prefer that I cover the Blender Conference. I could really either make a podcast like I always do and just talk about it… or I could try to conduct a few interviews while I’m at the conference and share those with you. What would you prefer?

Links related to this podcast:

Also, I did start a newsletter. It’s a plain text, ow traffic thing where you can get about a day’s heads up on any events that I’m going to or any books or animations I’m releasing. You can subscribe by using the little form on the sidebar (it’s on the right if you’re using the desktop layout for this site).

And that’s that. See you next week!

Guss, Oct 19, 2014

Great podcast as always. Thanks! I personally would really love a few “mini-interviews” while you’re at the BC… I’m thinking that’s a really cool idea. :)

Jason, Oct 20, 2014

Thanks! Yeah, I’m thinking that the mini-interview thing is a pretty good way to go. Of course, that means I’ll need to make it a point to talk to people, but I can get over that. ;)

Of course, the conference starts after this week’s episode is supposed to drop, so I think I’ll still need to record a short one for this week’s release and then put the interviews together for next week’s episode.

d., Oct 29, 2014

Interesting, but please lower your intro music. It’s way louder than your talk, giving me a heart attack every time.

Jason, Oct 29, 2014

Thanks for this. I wasn’t sure if the intro music was still too hot after adjusting it. Will tweak on the next episode.

Dread Knight, Nov 3, 2014

This is the first episode I’ve listened to and I really enjoyed it, gonna check out the rest given time. You sure have quite a bit of driving to do to get to work xD

Dread Knight, Nov 3, 2014

Oh yeah, I really agree that individual messages are way way more effective when trying to find people to work with on your projects, no doubt about it. Also, it’s nice to catch up with updates in awesome projects that I get to use almost on daily basis :)

In this episode, I respond to a topic that was brought up here in the comments of an earlier episode, as well as on Twitter. Namely, the notion of selling extensions, add-ons, assets, and so on for open source tools. Specifically, this was brought up as it pertains to the Blender Market, a site by the folks at CG Cookie with the purpose of letting Blender users sell these kinds of things to other Blender users. It turns out that this is a pretty interesting topic to talk about (I should know… I did it 3 times).

In personal news:

And of course, I give a rundown of some the latest news as it pertains to open source and creative tools:

Whew… I wrote a lot. On toward next week!

Matt, Oct 14, 2014

Thank you very much for the podcast!

As for the commercialization of open source tools, I do understand why some people fear this trend.

If avid, skilled programmers keep on creating such great tools like the ANIMAT add on, or the Contours add on for the market only, will they ever be integrated into the trunk, or are we going to have some sort of parallel development in the near future?

Many sellers on the market point out that the main advantage compared to openly published add ons is the fact that they keep on updating their products, in order to ensure future compatibility etc…While this is definitely an advantage per se, it probably means that most their add ons will stay on the market for the time being and I find it unlikely that the internal blender development is going to invent/implement features that have already been realized with the help of such commercial plugins.

Of course everyone is free to sell anything under the GPL, but in my opinion it would be sad, if we are going to end up with a “light version” of Blender you can download for free,

Jason, Oct 14, 2014

I understand that concern. But look at it like this: The tools hooks that allow for ANIMAT were put in place by Aligorith (Blender’s primary developer for the animation system). He even mentioned that he’d plan on adding such a feature himself. However, there are a lot of other [arguably more pressing] development concerns in the animation system that he’s had to focus on.

So as users, our choices are either to not have the tools until Aligorith gets more off of his plate, or benefit from some other developer (Matt Heimlich, in this case) adding them. Even if those tools come at a cost, at least they’re available… and Aligorith is free (for the time being) to focus on bigger issues. If he gets time to come back and code his own version of tools like the ones ANIMAT provides and include them in master, there’s still the chance for that. Yes, there may be a bit of toe-stepping should that happen, but I’m confident that it’s something that the community can handle gracefully.

l, Oct 26, 2014

wouldn´t it be nice if there was more structure

like chapters within the stream of the podcast like here:

practical example

http://freakshow.fm/

its a podcast software which allows this kind of feature

http://podlove.org/

it would make it easier to quote / refer to your stuff

like youre stuff

kind regards

l

Jason, Oct 28, 2014

Setting up chapters (and having a web frontend that recognizes them) would certainly be useful. I’d not come across podlove before; it looks interesting. It may be a bit heavy-handed for my uses, but maybe it really is the right fit. I’ll look into it.

Thanks for the heads-up.

This episode is a bit more of an update (well… it’s the first one, so I suppose “announcement” makes more sense than update) on the personal projects I’m working on through at least the end of the year… a lot of writing going on in there. I also touch a bit on the new sleep schedule I’ve been testing out for a couple months now. And I ponder an overall structure for this podcast itself.

Oh… and thanks everyone on Facebook and Google+ who answered my question about email lists. I got a lot of insight out of that and I think I may have made a decision on that… maybe.

And of course, I covered some of the latest news related to things going on in the open source creative world… such as:

And that should about cover it. This podcast is great fun. Thanks everyone for the feedback. Feel free to give me more (here and elsewhere on the interwebbernets)!