Colorful Open Source Programs

You may have heard the term Open Source Software bandied about recently, especially in discussions about Linux. Although Linux is opened source, it's not the only application to carry this description. If you are a person who is interested in getting started in 3D animation or graphics artistry work as you would do in Photoshop, there are some solutions for you in the Open Source realm. The first program I would like to talk about is The Gimp. “The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.” That is the description from the official Gimp site, http://www.gimp.org. The gimp is unique in the fact in that it is free and very good. Is it as good as PhotoShop, the crowned king of image editing? I will have to leave that up to you, but when you compare price and function of the two products, I think The Gimp is the winner. I use it to create images at home and for my website (Check out the Official Site for images and tutorials). The image associated with this article was made in The Gimp.

Another great Opened Source application is Blender http://www.blender.org. Blender is a full feature 3D graphics and animation package. It's available for just about every platform out there today. Blender allows you to create great 3D objects, animate them or edit in special effects for your movies. Blender has come a long way since its creation as an in-house 3D graphics program for a company called NAN (Not A Number). Since then it has been opened sourced through a community purchase of the code. This is significant since this meant that users around the world had to donate funds to purchase the code from the the originating company. I am one such user. If you are interested in checking out some of the great work that can be done with Blender, please check out Elysiun, http://www.elysiun.com. There you can find forums with many examples of the power of Blender. If you have any questions or need more information, feel free to E-mail me at http://steve@goetc.net I would be very happy to answer any of your questions. After all, I'm a Gimp and Blender user.

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Color Meanings

Colors can do many things for your site and there are some general meanings to them, however each individual interprets color in their own way. For example, I'm drawn toward the color red. Red has positive and negative connotations in that it can mean love and energy and actually increases your metabolism (please consult your doctor before you stare at a red card all day in attempts to lose weight), but also can cause anxiety, and is associated with blood/war. Look around you and notice things that are red (like stop signs!) and you'll probably start to see a pattern. This newsletter, for example, is full of blue hues (calming) and then there's a big red ad in the middle (to get your attention of course!) Or how about the angry man to your right with the "red" face. That guy's sure to get your attention. I think overall you'll see that each color has "good" and "bad" connotations. such as yin-yang. Now let's light some incense and read on...

Red is an intense color that draws attention. It's warm and passionate, but can also make one anxious. Either way, it creates energy. It's great to use in advertising as it creates an urgency to "act now!"

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. I like to call it an assertive color as it's not as aggressive as red. A lot of cafeterias use the color orange to stimulate your hunger button. Mmmmm, anyone in the mood for some shriveled pepper steak with instant mashed potatoes and a side of jell-o?

Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Again, it's an attention getting color (taxi cabs, caution signs). Intellectuals love this color because you have to use more chemicals in your brain to see it. But beware of painting your baby's room yellow - they tend to cry more. Anybody have a brain freeze from looking at this square? No, the yellow one....oh, never mind.

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. We also use green to describe someone who's new at something, or when somebody's sick - Sir, his face is turning green! I don't have a green thumb to save my life...or my plants. Darker green reminds people of money, and luxury. Do we have a green light on this?

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, and truth. Darker blue is more of a corporate color and denotes stability and expertise while lighter shades of it create a calming, soothing effect. Your mood ring goal (think way, way back) was to be blue. It also can be depressing if you sit around it too long - hence the phrase, "I got the blues, baby." But really, what looks more tranquil than the ocean?

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. It's an ambitious color, and again, not as aggressive as red. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. Lighter purples have more of a feminine feel, and is more soothing than the darker shades.

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, safety, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. Angels wear white. Brides are STILL wearing it these days. The Dairy Association seems to like it. White picket fences (safety). The white glove test (cleanliness). I could go on for days!

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. I love the use of black! It's very slimming, you know. Black tie events, little black dress, little black book. It has great depth to it (black hole) and makes colors appear even brighter. It's very dramatic when used in advertising.

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