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This is a guide for acquiring recommended open source & well priced software for artists for Industry ready productivity, cost efficiency, Data privacy, hardware performance and freedom.
CURRENT WIKI STATUS: ITS RAW. (GIVE IT TIME AND I WILL UPDATE IT)
I'll be using shekhargulati's template. https://github.com/shekhargulati/project-wiki-template
Some artists sucked into the notion that only the proprietary best is worth using. This is an illogical extreme. They tend to blow their budget on a workflow headache with too many shortcuts and UI differences before they can even practice their craft. Some artists go the opposite way and seem cult-like in their love of all things free and open source. The two fight each other like mindless orcs in the comment section... Can you blame them? they are upset that their way isn't working out... maybe so upset they cannot team up properly.
Is it then the SANE and LOGICAL thing to exist strategically between those extremes? I believe so. I believe in having free opensource software as a financial and productivity back-up, and bolstering the lesser attempts at industry standard practice; with paid software and extensions. There's a big list of things to tick that Foss cannot always handle.
Say that you struggle with the complexity of things and you're always losing track of your thought process. I give you an example: despite how I learned to sculpt anything in Blender; I tried and failed to find myself interested let alone motivated to learn all of Zbrush and Mudbox, I was actually motivated more to learn these things in Modo at the time since Modo was the closest proprietary thing I had to Blender at the time. But with Blender it was a joy and I didn't hit a lot of ceilings like I did with Modo's tools. Without the creative flow you might think you're too hopeless to get your mind around all these proprietary software, but I'm telling you there's a smarter way for less to thread the entire creative pipeline.
MOST of the software is opensource and free. Regardless, some money will need to be spent to ensure some equal footing with industry standard products.
The document for the following goals in the following order: Industry standard productivity, Cost efficiency, Data privacy, hardware performance optimisation, more freedom in software licensing. I make not claims that this is THE way to achieve all of that, but I can tell you I successfully rely on the workflow. I've been a pro since 2012, working in studios, freelancing and even as a high earning slot machine artist when I started introducing opensource software into my pipeline.
This new workflow is a strategically shifting guide that reflects that experience.
To somehow achieve all workflow production goals and stay competitive with other studios; I discuss the following free opensource solutions.
- I have the right to modify my OS to suit my specific studio needs.
- I prefer to spend money on the the best hardware and Linux is less picky about the hardware specs. Hardware bargains are more common.
- Why give CoPilot-like AI free reign of my intellectual property and data.
- My professional VFX work demands smarter, more cost effective use of my system resources. Scan software, and the vast amount of other background processes eat up way too much CPU and RAM. This is why Linux is preferred for about 90% of servers in VFX studios.
- Resetting critical privacy settings to protect myself against data harvesting wastes my time.
- So does Managing third party virus detection software.
- And Dealing with the general chaos that comes from automatic updates.
- I need to be present online which means I need my web services running well, and it so happens I'm not a meta user.
- Why should I pay the MS and Mac empire for something that countless more developers are working on?
- Because I OS tech like a lot of tech is used to abuse the masses when used by the few while the masses seek to improve lives.
If I could summarise: It's about freedom, data privacy, dignity and a professional level of autonomy.
https://nobaraproject.org/download-nobara/
Why Nobara over other Linux distributions?
- Ready to game, and thus to develop. Steam, Lutris, Wine and Proton pre-installed with enhanced performance out of the box.
- Works well with free stuff like Blender and paid stuff like Davinci Resolve.
- Nvidia integration: Nvidia sound cards work, hybrid graphic setups work out of the box. Proprietary drivers used to best effect. This part is way easier than most Linux distros that I've tried. The best of JACK and pipewire settings also ensure a good audio editing experience.
- In general, very simple to operate. Wacom tablets, PC games - without relying heavily on Linux wisdom. FFMPEG dependencies are also sorted, which means you won't be too limited by what video codecs you need to edit with.
- Comes with KDE which officially which for people like myself coming from windows provides customisation and operating flexibility. KDE has in my opinion the very best third party essential tools like the Dolphin file manager and Kate code and text editor.
- Has a gnome version for fans of Mac OS aesthetic and simplicity which I will not be covering officially.
- Optimised for high performance and low latency to provide more overhead and productivity to create.
I'm a game artist, a content creator, someone with an NVIDIA who needs it to just plug and play. And yet I require a secure link with corporate friendly ecosystems which requires a red-hat like fedora setup which Nobara is based on.
So Nobara it is a nice choice for people like me who work independently.
| Tool | Uses | This with addons vs paid | Extensions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blender | Non destructive 3D, Animation, Post-Comp, Baking, Story-boarding, Simulation, | 10 | 10 free, 10 paid |
| Blender Launcher | Blender version manager and downloader | 9 | |
| Krita | Concept, Mock-up, Photo-manipulation, texturing | 6 | 2 free |
| ComfyUI | Image process Automation with AI integration | 6 | 10 free |
| Inkscape | Vector art | 4 | 1 Free |
| Meshroom | 3D scanning | 4 | 1 Free |
| FontForge | Vector art | 4 | |
| Material Maker | Real-time Shader authoring | 4 | |
| Godot | Game projects | 9 |
Davinity Resolve
Affinity Suite