It’s an animated short that pokes fun at a world consumed with branding. Complete. And total. Corporate. Satire. All packed in a hilarious 16-minute short film! Yeah, there’s somewhere around 2500 logos in there… Here’s the trailer:

Logorama is one of the top-runners for the Academy Awards’ animated short films category this Sunday. It also played at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. What’s this got to do with software and tech? Might be stretching it a little, but I’ll just quote the LA Times with this quick blurb from their interview with Ludovic Houplain, one of the filmmakers:

What software did you use to create the movie?

Working with Mikros Image, the post-production company that made the film, we worked on the software called “Maya,” combined with rotoscoping. For that, we filmed ourselves, as well as my son Anatole who play the roles of Big Boy and Haribo.

Maya 2010 (3D Animation/Designing - Complete Product - Standard - 1 User - Retail - PC, Mac, Intel-based Mac)

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If Andrew starts to bug the crap out of you, click on the image above to get him to stop waving and bobbing. Don’t worry, I got annoyed too — so I made sure he built in that click to bring things to a halt. Just kidding, Andrew… you rock, for making this tutorial….

First, Andrew reviews how to remove the background from an image using the magic wand and eraser tools in Adobe Fireworks. After the image has been cleaned up, Andrew describes how to copy it to your Flash library. He also touches on useful functions such as tracing a bitmap, creating symbols and working with the timeline in Adobe Flash.

For more software tutorials, click the SoftwareMedia TV tag or follow us on YouTube. Are there other Flash or Fireworks applications/functions/features you would like Andrew to capture a tutorial for? Let us know by leaving us comments!

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Congratulations Brian! Your design won over the SoftwareMedia.com office today. Check out Brian’s winning design and the three following runner-ups. Careful not to stare at it all too long — there’s a whole lot of animation going on all at once below here.

Brian

Daniel

Dave

What’s your verdict? Do you agree with the SoftwareMedia.com office? Hit “Comment” and tell us your thoughts!

Thanks to everyone who entered! We look forward to utilizing the above favorite designs to promote SoftwareNewsDaily.com and gain more readers. Keep tuned via RSS Feed, Twitter or Facebook to learn about upcoming contests. Perhaps we’ll be upping the ante even more!

We’re in need of a few banners to help promote SoftwareNewsDaily. Think something similar to: http://www.softwaremedia.com/link-to-us.html, but animated to give it more pop! There are just a few guidelines:

1. Image must be 180 pixels in width and 60 pixels in height.
2. Promotes SoftwareNewsDaily.com.
3. GIF file size may not exceed 1MB (original PSD file may exceed 1MB).
4. Animated GIF file must be viewable in Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.
5. Original work only.

All entries must be received by January 10, 2010, a bit after the New Year (so not to cram your holiday partying, of course). Keep these things in mind when you enter:

1. Include your name in the email with your entry.
2. Also, please tell us how you found out about the contest along with your entry.
3. Submission of artwork automatically grants SoftwareNewsDaily permission for use. Author may retain rights to artwork, but SoftwareNewsDaily has any and all permissions to use the image for promotion.

Submit all entries to SND@softwaremedia.com.

Here are a couple of examples to get those creative juices flowing:

Feel free to reference the animated GIF video tutorial that Ryan created: How to Create Animated GIFs in Photoshop CS4. Good luck! We look forward to receiving your designs.

In the video below, I walk you through the whole process, from importing the images, to saving it as web content. I show you how to create a timeline, edit slides, and watch your animation before exporting
.

If you like this tutorial, be sure to check some of our other tutorials here on our blog. Just click on the Tips and User Guides category in the side bar, or do a search for “tutorial.” Thanks.

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Thank god for freeware. There is some pretty damn impressive software out there of no charge, that can handle most of our domestic computer needs competently, if not sometimes a little awkwardly. Here’s a list of some of my favorites, plus some popular ones I’ve heard good things about. Check into when your 30-day Adobe Whatever CS4 trial is up.

1. GIMP [freeware graphics editor.] It is amazing this is free. If don’t have PhotoShop or an Adobe equivalent, and have been screwing around in Microsoft Paint (futile, isn’t it?) for 4 hours, then go Gimp. Gimp was originally developed by two students in 1995 at Berkeley as a semester-long project. Since then, it has steadily improved and expanded, spawning numerous variations, sister programs, derivatives, and is now, by far, the most powerful freeware graphics editing program around.

2. Audacity [free audio recorder and editor]. Audacity is a digital audio editor and recorder; the best freeware substitute I’ve found for recording and editing audio.  It was developed by a grad student at Carnegie Mellon University, and released in 2006. It supports multiple tracks, each individually editable, and imports and exports most kinds of sound formats.  It also includes noise removal tools, loads of effects, an unlimited undo, and the capacity to change speed without changing pitch.

3. Paint.net [freeware graphics editor]. If you’re looking for something a little simpler, this is a totally decent graphic-editing program,  I used to use all the time. Originally developed in 2004 at Washington State University as an alternative to Microsoft Paint, it has evolved to support many graphic design tools including layers, blending, transparency, and plugins.

4. Blender [free 3D graphics application]. Blender is a powerful 3D graphics application, and does loads of stuff; here’s the list. It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications. This one I’ve only heard very highly spoken of, having never used it. It was developed by an animation studio that went bankrupt, and released the code for $100,670.00US.

5. OpenOffice [free word process0r, spreadsheet application, presentation program, and others]. OpenOffice is a popular application suite that basically does all the same stuff as Microsoft Office, as well as a few other things. It supports all Microsoft Office formats, and as of March 2009, over 80 languages.  The source code was released in July 2000 in hopes of weakening Mircrosoft’s grip on the office application market. To Microsoft’s Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access, OpenOffice offers Writer, Calc, Impress, and Base, respectively. It also includes a vector graphics diagramming tool, and an equation/formula creator/editor.

7. CamStudio [free screen capture program]. CamStudio is a screencasting program. This program is about as simple as they come. It has no editing capabilities though, so don’t mess up. If all you need to do is capture screen activity and audio in AVI and AWF format, then go with this.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now, but I am sure more will come to me; I’ll try to remember to come back and post them.

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Add your own freeware recommendations in a comment. Thanks.

Videos featured instruct on topics ranging from beginning tutorials, such as creating simple animations in Flash CS4, to in depth explorations of Adobe product features, such as  Photoshop CS4’s powerful tone-mapping capabilities, to advice on the best ways to integrate CS4 Creative Suite programs.

The new version of Adobe TV was designed in response to feedback from users, and offers a resizable pop-out window that will allow viewers to watch while working within the Adobe programs they are learning about. A free Adobe Media Player associated with Adobe TV is also available, allowing fans to save and watch content offline.  The free media player also allows users to stream podcasts and internet shows, collect flash videos, and  personalize via filters and playlists.