The programs listed below are the foundation of this blog. It’s Free & Open-Source software that does all the stuff the expensive commercial programs do. I’ll keep the links here updated, so you always know where to get them.
Also, with this basic list, I’m focusing on well-developed programs that work on the major operating systems. There’s a lot of very experimental, bug-filled open-source software out there. This isn’t it.
Blender – (above) 3D suite, including modeling, sculpting, texturing, rendering, matchmoving, planar tracking, video editing, and compositing.
Daily Blender Build – All the latest and greatest fixes and features, not guaranteed to be stable. Use at your own risk.
Compositing in Natron
Natron – (above) 2D node-based compositing, very similar to Nuke.
Blackmagic Fusion
Fusion – (above) Production proven 2D node-based compositing, packaged inside of the free Davinci Resolve download.
HitFilm Express
HitFilm Express – (above) Layer-based compositing and editing.
Krita – (above left) 2D painting and image editing, works with EXR and PSD files.
GIMP – (above right) 2D painting and image editing, very similar to Photoshop.
VLC – Media player, great general purpose player.
JefeCheck – (above left) Image sequence viewer.
DJV Viewer – (above right) Image sequence viewer.
mrViewer – Image sequence viewer.
DaVinci Resolve – (above) Video editing.
Kdenlive – (above) Video editing.
Shotcut – (above) Video editing.
Lightworks – Video editing, free version is limited.
Ardour – (above) Audio workstation.
Audacity – (above) Audio workstation.
Storyboarder – (above) Storyboarding & shot layout.
slowmoVideo – (above) Optical flow retiming.
Inkscape – (above) Vector graphics, very much like Adobe Illustrator.
Rename 1-4a – Batch file renaming. Older program, and Windows only, I believe, but I really love this one.
7-zip – Spectacular file zipping.
Free & Open Source Graphics Software List – If you really want to get into what’s available in the world of free software, I keep a Google Doc list of every single free piece of creative software I come across (that is somewhat related to visual effects and/or digital art). Linux has an abundance of some types of programs, like video editing and audio editing, so I’ve left some of those out. But feel free to peruse this list if you like. It may be unorganized or outdated in some places.